After reading all the posts on this site I was encouraged about starting my very first garden. I thought a good first step would be to get a compost pile going. After all, why should I add all those discarded limbs and such to the landfill when I could use them to make my yard more beautiful???

I researched the different styles of compost bins and decided to go with a simple wire cylinder made of hardware cloth. I didn't have the hardware cloth yet, but I always had food scraps, so I started storing them in an old plastic cat litter bucket along with shredded newspaper, ripped up paper towels and cardboard and any weeds that I had been pulling from the yard. I plan to have a hot compost pile, so the weeds should not be an issue.

Then I got a cold, then I had a few unexpected days of heavy rain, then I had other business to attend to. I faithfully collected my kitchen waste until the bucket was full. But I didn't have the rest of the stuff to make my compost pile. So I just left the bucket outside near where I was going to compost.

Last week I finally got the hardware cloth. It had been a month since I started the kitchen waste bucket and it was full and smelling foul. Good thing there was no more room in the bucket so I could just keep the lid on it. I knew I had to get that compost pile going.

This weekend, I cut the hardware cloth and stapled the ends to garden stakes. I intend to use the stakes to open/close the cylinder. I figure I'll open it, move it to a new spot nearby and turn the pile by piling it back into the new cylinder location.

I thought I'd just layer yard waste and kitchen waste repeatedly until I was out of kitchen waste. I started with a layer of yard waste. When I popped open the plastic kitchen waste container, the lid nearly flew off from all the gases built up inside. The most noxious, putrid stench spewed from the container and I could barely keep from adding my own vomit to the compost pile. I meant to only put in a layer of kitchen waste but couldn't hold my breath that long and dumped the whole bucket in. I squelched my gag reflex and quickly covered the stench with more yard waste, which wasn't nearly enough to stop the fumes.

I had to get out of there. The entire neighborhood (a homeowners association neighborhood) reeked from my putrid kitchen waste. There was no escaping it. I could barely breathe, but I knew I had to cover it. I scrounged up every last bit of yard waste I could find to cover the stench, but it still wasn't enough. I didn't dare stir it or add any water. I ripped some palm fronds from the front yard and layered them over it like a thatch roof and promptly went inside for the night.

I'm hoping no one complains. I'm hoping the smell subsides after it cooks in the heat today. I'm hoping we don't get any rain today. I'm hoping the neighbors think it's just someone's stinking trash can (today was trash day). I'm hoping I can get into the garage tonight without the fumes wafting in after me!!!!

Not quite as I had envisioned it, but I started my first compost pile! :)