Thursday, June 14, 2007

How to Compost Interlude: The Napkin Change

Moisture Matters. I think one of the reasons it's taking so long for our compost is that it's been too dry. Remember when I wrote about how it's supposed to be as wet as a wrung out sponge, and I believe my exact words were:
Now, I highly doubt I will be reaching into the tumbler full of rotting garbage and squeezing it to test the water level.
Well, guess what I did yesterday? You bet. And even with all the rain we've had, our rotting garbage was not nearly as wet as a wrung out sponge. Dry dry dry. So I put some water in (hopefully not too much) and I'm hoping that will help.

The napkin change. So for the newest waste-reducing change in our house, we are finally putting some use to all the pretty cloth napkins that people gave us for our wedding, years ago.

We've been using (and throwing away) paper towels as napkins for years & years, and now we're going to switch to cloth. Toss them in the wash with the rest of the laundry and reuse them. Again, seems so simple that I'm a little embarrassed I haven't been doing it all along, but hey. I come around eventually.

Weed out the Weeds. Here's an interesting post over at Green Options about non-chemical ways to get rid of weeds. Warning: she does say that the best way is still to pull them by hand. But there are other helpful tips and suggestions as well.

Here is the complete How to Compost series in case you'd like to catch up or review:

Step 1: Make it a Priority
Step 2: Choose a System
Interlude: Nature Tried to Kill My Composter
Step 3: Collect Organic Material
Step 4: Mix the Materials
Step 5: Moisten the Mixture
Step 6: Wait
Interlude: The Lightbulb Change
Interlude: The Yogurt Change
Interlude: The Sponge Change
Interlude: The Leftover Change
Interlude: The Napkin Change
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part One
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part Two
Sun-Mar 200 Compost Update
Sun-Mar 200: Starting All Over Again

Step 7: Use Your Compost
Step 8: Sun Mar 200 Garden Composter Review

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