Boastin' Bout Compostin'

I'll admit it -- I am a food waster. My eyes are generally bigger than my stomach and by the time I'm full, there's always more left on my plate. And it is so discouraging that I have to throw it into the garbage (there are starving kids in China!)

I recently moved into a rental home with a huge yard and I thought it would be fun to start composting. That way, I could throw away the fruits, veggies and other food items that I didn't eat or went bad in my fridge.

I delegated Boyfriend to the task of building my compost bin. What Boyfriend did was cut up slats of wood into equal pieces and drilled holes in the corners. Then, he set some heavy wire upright on the ground and stacked the wood pieces on top of each other, kind of like Lincoln Logs.

Boom. Finished.

We moved the bottomless box to the backyard and put it over a patch of broken concrete behind a shed far, far away from my back door. (You don't want it near the house, because it's stinky!) Now, I just keep food scraps in an old coffee tin and throw them outside every day. (Key phrase: every day. I waited longer once and almost threw up when I opened the tin again).

I won't be able to use the compost soil in my garden for about a year, but in the meantime it's fun to watch the pile of smelly mess grow while worms dig their way through it. Every once and a while I throw some water or soil on it to keep it fresh.

I can't use meat scraps in the compost, or Gizmo poop. (Gizmo is my cat, aka, best friend). Boyfriend was surprised I wanted to throw Gizmo poop in the compost, but hey! It could be fertilizer, right? I guess cat poop has a lot of toxins in it that are harmful to plants. So, I just fill it with coffee grounds and non-meat food scraps, with the occasional plain cardboard box.

I'm still learning about composting and there are a lot of helpful websites out there, but I'm curious to hear from you, fellow gardeners. What compost tricks do you suggest I try out? Anything I should watch out for or pay attention to?