Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Something stinks in my yard

Chuck and I have been composting for about a year now. We just throw all our raw veggie and fruit scraps and eggshells into a plastic bin with a lid.

Now that it's been consistently hot for several months, our compost stinks.

We can't use worms because it's too hot. I threw a "compostable" diaper insert in there a few months ago and I wonder if that is the cause of our smell, or maybe it's the new paper plates that you can supposedly compost. (Someone brought them over with food already on them, I NEVER buy paper plates) It could be that we don't know what we are doing and plastic bins are a bad choice.

Whatever the cause, I now have compost soup and it stinks.

Chuck and the kids planted last month. Chuck is not one to waste anything, so he took our compost soup and added it to the soil and planted herbs, tomatoes and peppers. Our yard smelled like a sewage plant for days.

Imagine my surprise today when I looked at these poor plants planted in soupy slime and they are not only thriving, they are overcrowded and need to be thinned out.

I really don't know how or why, but for some reason, our backyard plants love compost soup.

There has got to be a less smelly way to grow plants.

1 comment:

Earth Lovin Diaper Mama said...

Do you turn your compost? Have breathing holes at the bottom? (You can collect the liquid that drips out and use it...) :)