Turn 7 - The First Mow

Before the mow.

After the mow, still haven't turned it yet.

Turn 6 - Spring Cleaning Composting

I added some more kitchen scraps and did a full turn of the compost pile.  It is a lot bigger because of all of the air added to the pile.  The bottom part of the pile was just leaf mold. Some of it is good to use, while the other hasn't yet to begin to decompose.  I see bins in our future.  I'll try to garner up some pallets and make something out of them.

Turn 5 - Week of Rain Composting

Added some egg shells, banana peels, orange peels, and potato peels then covered them with the outside leaves and grass.

Turn 4 - Nighttime Composting

Garbage is on Friday, so we take out the trash and spruce up.  On garbage night, I took out the scrap bucket.  It is mostly filled with banana and potato peels.

Turn 3 - February Composting - Adding Kitchen Scraps

So, in order to add more greens, we are using an ice cream container as an indoor scrap bin.  It will mostly catch banana peels, we eat a lot of those.  This has egg shells, celery, banana peels and other scrap.

Turn 2 - Winter Compost Pile, Dusting of Snow

This last week, I haven't done much to it.  Just added some strawberry and pineapple scraps.  There has been a couple skiffs of snow as seen in the pictures.

Turn 1 - Compost Pile in the Winter

Today, I am taking a journey of composting for the year of 2014 and sharing it in this blog.  The blog will have many changes and hopefully improvements throughout the year.

This is my compost pile.  It is January 29, 2014 and I haven't done anything to it since raking leaves on it last fall.  I read online that during the winter it is best to leave your compost pile alone, so you don't turn in the cold outside to the inside and in turn move the hopefully warm center to the outside.  I like to turn my compost pile quite regularly, I feel.  Here are 2 pictures of my compost pile.  The leaves were piled high last fall - above the middle part of the fence.  It has reduced in size almost by half.

I got out the shovel and turned the pile.  It wasn't really warm inside.  It is dryer than I thought it would be after having many inches of snow on it for winter.  Turning it introduced some air into it and that it is Carbon heavy, the leaves, and will need to have some Nitrogen (grass clippings, vegetable and fruit scraps, etc.) and Water added for a better C:N ratio.