I noticed that everyone I talked to about composting said "huh?" They have no clue what it is, much less what it does. I realize not everyone shares my zeal for compost, but I hope, if nothing else, to spread the word about it's importance.

I live in a small town and am a writer for a newspaper. I'm thinking about submitting an article on composting for both my town newsletter and the newspaper I work for. I, too, am realizing what I eat, and just how much uncompostable garbage I am making. I want other people to realize that too.

And if nothing else, I have a fascination with it. I like to see the transformation that takes place, my own little way of improving the world around me. I've never been outside during the winter this much. And I'm learning to respect nature. It's a lot more complex than I had once thought.

This is a very good question, I thought about it in length.
I think for most of us we grew up in a eat at a fast food place throw away the styro container and go about out lives, we really didn`t think ahead, what are we putting in our bodies and all the waste going to the landfills. As our health declined from fake food and our messy habits became a ever increasing problem we have to make changes, when it comes to our health it impacts all of us. So in my very small way I am helping other people with not wasting food, not throwing as much in the landfills and helping myself and family eat real food, its a win win deal. I mean for goodness sake our grandparents did these things without even thinking about it. It was a way of life. So as for your question composting brought me back to the basics of a healthy lifestyle. Ok now I will step down from my soap box, Now lets go feed the pile LOL :o) Deanna

I look at a pile of leaves and a filter of used coffee grounds in a completely different light. Instead of trash to be discarded. It's now something to seek out and collect so I have more tomatoes and other tasty fresh veggies in the summer.

It's made a huge impact for me.

What started out as a pallet bin and gathering a few OPBLs has blossomed into a 400 metric tonne yard trimmings diversion program. Composting and building equipment for composting provides hours of exercise and entertainment. Searching the internet for other methods, techniques and equipment provides more hours of entertainment in the winter months.

The improvement to my land is just now being realized with increased yields in the wheat and straw. Using some of my compost for charities and other organizations helps them to raise funds for their causes and increases public awareness of composting in general. I am finding more and more people are stopping by to chat about compost, soil and gardening.

It's been a wild ride and I suspect it will get even better once I retire! :-)

Lloyd

composting all occurs in our gardens and feed the medium which in turn feeds the plants and so on. what else could you add why not hair? there are gardeners who collect it from their local hairdresser, i may be slightly off track but it contains nitrogen as well as many other trace elements, my question would be could it be a suitable alternative for those who can't access spent coffee grounds?

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

I now do all those things that embarrassed me when my mother did them & that I *swore* I'd *never* do!

It makes me aware when I prepare any meals just how much I used to throw away and now can turn into food for next year while improving my garden soil and spend some calories hauling/turning/shoveling in the process. A win/win for everyone, I believe.

Blood pressure has dropped to 110/80, glucose levels to 110-90, dropped 40 lbs, hair all grew back, and I'm the walking definition of 'Chick Magnet', fighting off super models with a stick.

Composting has changed my life in both negative, and positive ways.

Negative - Due to the manual labor involved for maintaining my 6 pallet bins, I now have severe back spasms that are quite crippling at times. However, that will be improved when my vertical compost turning system is completed.

Positive - the benefits for my garden are tremendous, and I really enjoy managing the piles of ingredients to be turned into black gold. It's quite easy, and gives me a reason to be outside during the winter months.

EG

I used to have serious back issues, but composting has nearly brought them to an end. Since I enjoyed doing it so much, my Dr. simply advised me to continue but be completely aware of how my body was moving by 'listening' to it and to gain some strength in my legs by actually letting them do most of the lifting. Slowly and steadily I began to win the battle.

Mentally it has been great too. Nothing like looking at a garden and feeling personally satisfied that what is there is - at least in part - your making. :O)

..
Between composting and recycling we've reduced our curbside-landfill-bound trash by three quarters. The curbside yard waste bin is no longer used for that. It's come with a change in values.

I started out to make free dirt. My wife thinks I have a green thumb. Now with no time to garden, I just digest all that I can.

to sense
..

DITTO ALL OF THE ABOVE !

*"I have a fascination with it. I like to see the transformation that takes place, my own little way of improving the world around me.*" OH YES!

*"composting brought me back to the basics of a healthy lifestyle."* TRUE !

*"I now do all those things that embarrassed me when my mother did them & that I *swore* I'd *never* do!"* IT WAS MY DAD WHO EMBARRASSED ME ... NOW I EMBARRASS MY KIDS ...[SMILE]

*"It makes me aware when I prepare any meals just how much I used to throw away"* KITCHEN 'FAILURES' ARE NO LONGER A BIG DEAL .... JUST MORE GOODIES FOR THE COMPOST PILE.

*"I started out to make free dirt"* AND I HAVE!

YEAH COMPOSTING! I could get mushy about the peace of mind found in being in sync with the natural plan [creator], but enough said.

Sixty plus years ago I watched my parents compost so it seemed a "normal" thing to do and we have tried various ways depending on where we lived over 40+ years. It was never a source of amusement tho before I found this forum. ;-)
~Compost wackos - I had no idea!
~Entertaining fellow compost aficionados around the compost bins - never considered it before - and not much even now!
~Asking my DH to "water the compost" with liquid gold - I'd have been appalled to think of that!
~Competing for other people's leaves - never occurred to me!
~Collecting veggie trimmings at the grocery store - would never have imagined myself doing so but I have.
~Collecting bins full of UCG - ditto

Composting has not changed my life as it was a usual part of it, but this forum has changed my perspective and the way I compost.

All the things david 52 said except my hair all growing back...Oh well, the hair on my head hasn't grown back but I have more hair growing on my back. Funny how life goes isn't it. seriously though, I don't doubt the health benefits from composting(I use worms) and gardening. I also notice each and every little scrap of food that comes out of the kitchen as waste. Funny, I just never really noticed before how much of the food we buy gets thrown away. But the worms like it all anyway, plus I get to scrounge coffee grounds from my local starbucks, its like getting valuables for free to me. have fun with your compost. steve

stevesd - let me pass along a little grooming tip, here. You know those guys who are bald on top, and still have some left around the sides? And then they let the hair on one side grow really, really, long? And then do a 'comb over' the bald spot, fooling everyone that they still have hair on top?

Well, this is where that luxuriant back hair can come in handy. Do a 'comb over' up the neck and over the 'follicularly challenged' spots.

They'll never know.

Hahahahaha! David, too funny.

Come on fellas, comb-overs are pathetic - just shave the head and put the hair in the compost where it belongs! Maybe the back hair as well! ;-)

It's been mostly positive. However, I sometimes get a little stressed when something that could have easily gone into the compost pile ends up someplace else. On seveal occasions, I gently reminded my wife that something she put into the trash should have been put into the container destined for my compost. Occasionally, I forget to bring home the coffee grounds from our Sunday church service. It bothers me becasue I want to go back to get them but an eight mile roundtrip in the car would do more damage to the environment than they are worth.

Composting is great for all the reasons listed by the posters above. However, for me, it really does begin to border on obsessive behavior.

I used to be a 90 lb weakling that got sand kicked in his face. But now I am a overweight aging boomer that gets compost kicked in his face.

Hurray for weaklings! :) I'm a girl, and a tiny one at that. I have no upper body strength and can't even read a ruler. But getting out there and giving it all I got, turning the compost, tilling, planting, yanking hoses around... well, I can do that. And it kind of makes me feel like Rosie the riveter. ;)

My parents (in my childhood years) always had one or two pigs to feed our family. So I got used to never put in garbage anything edible. I had to fight with myself when i lived in appartment later and had to put kitchen leftover in garbage. Finally, i am able not to fight with myself. Well, it's getting worse though. Now i can't see other people throwing food leftover in garbage... I like fact that our garbage can always half empty.

I come from a family who could not keep a flower alive, much less a garden. Over the years keeping flowers alive, a tree, a tomato plant,etc. all became a challenge. When I discovered with shock that I could DO this I went from one step to another, composting being just one. I also grow plants to attract bees, birds, & butterflies, all of which led to projects on their own. I wanted to be a bee keeper but don't have enough area to do this. However I do collect caterpillars for different types of butterflies which is great fun. One thing leads to another and life is SO interesting. But so is reading some of these blogs...

Like David52, compost has made me a chick magnet that turns supermodels' heads. Now if there there are any real women out there into a compost wacko...

davidbooth65, you need to work on your paragraph for those internet dating sites and personal ads. Something like this:

"Devoted compostier seeks fellow rotting organic fanatic for LTR. If your idea of fun is to spend the day collecting putricibles, a bag of leaves sends shivers up your spine, and you long for candle-lit romantic evenings around a steaming compost heap, phone 123 456 7890 and let me turn your pile. "

I'm having second thoughts

There IS such a thing as making too much compost!

ahahaha! rofl. Davids, too funny!

This sounds crazy, but I think composting taught me about the difference between our built environment and the natural environment, and it also made me realize how plastic infests so much of our society.

I feel like everything should be biodegradable, in one time span or another, and when stuff persists I now think twice about why that is, for better or worse. What is quality, what is trash? If something is going to exist for a long, long time, it better be something worthwhile.

And then there's just the plastic/styrofoam grossness. I think my first lesson with this was from shredding paper and composting it and having hundreds of little pieces of plastic envelope windows remain in what is otherwise gorgeous black soil. It just really made me realize what biodegradable means, and why plastic can be such an environmental pest.

Long story short, because of composting, I am a great deal more conscious about our household waste stream--recycling is second-most-fun after composting--and I have made a concerted effort to change my purchasing habits. I'd rather spend a lot of money once and purchase a high quality, long-lasting, sustainably produced whatever than to continue buying easily breakable disposable junk and eventually replacing it with more of the same. ("buy cheap, buy twice")

Thank you compost!

I wanted to compost for the longest time but was always challenged by the snake thing and then the "I don't have any way to chop leaves" thing, but 2 accidental purchases made me try: an inexpensive garden cart that was really too big to haul around & a $5 hand push lawn mower from a garage sale. I made my pile in the cart to avoid the snakes and chopped the leaves with the hand mower and Here's where it gets life changing. Did you know raking leaves can use up 306 calories per hour & mowing grass (or said leaves) by hand can use up to 408 calories per hour? Not to mention snagging OPBLs & running off with them. I lost 30 pounds last year!! Some due to calorie counting & eating more sensibly but mainly due to the exercise & fun I had working to get that bin full. Of course with winter, Thanksgiving to Christmas break, I'm stalled for now, but come spring I intend to add weight to the pile & remove weight from my rear once again.

Before I started to compost, the closest relationship to a pitchfork that I had was watching the Beverly Hillbillies intro. Now I use one regularly, and turning the pile and chipping at ice is quite a workout. I feel better when I move and work, and I like watching that sock I put in there slowly melt away...
Kim

My first year at composting, admitting to being a lazy one when things get too busy or annoying, but I did see some good results, none so far in the winter, but I don't have a professional setup, just some plastic totes. I guess they don't hold enough to heat for winter weather.

My family thinks I've gone crazy, collecting coffee grounds, peelings and all. I really want to compost professional results, but read you have to turn your pile everyday. I'm looking to build a nice one with side walls to keep the varmits out before I trash the yard and feed roaches instead of the ground.

The family is already worrying about that one! No varmits or bugs, so far so good.

scarletdaisies, if you really want "pretty" professional compost, build yourself a compost sifter. The resulting product is just gorgeous, and you'll feel less guilt about maintaining the pile perfectly.