[...] my husband put in a built-in bin for uncooked kitchen waste under the sink. The next breakthrough was the appearance of an old tin jug in the bathroom to catch the early morning wee.
I've recently been working my way through 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People', a self-help book by Stephen Covey, and was immensely impressed that it has something to teach us gardeners.
In the book, Covey describes how he got his son to look after the "front yard".
Effective gardeners, it seems, don't have hissy fits or spend their time whinging. Oh no. Effective gardeners delegate. They don't micromanage, they simply hand over the 'stewardship' and as long as the results are the desired ones, they don't bother too much about how the 'delegated to' get the job done.
So, last week in the same spirit, I devolved responsibility for the compost heap to my husband. I explained the basics of how to build a heap (twiggy sticks at the bottom then green, nitrogen-rich ingredients sandwiched between brown, carbon-based ingredients with a very light sprinkling of water now and then). I also mentioned some optional extras that will help turbo-charge a pile like shop-bought compost accelerator, nettles, comfrey, pelleted chicken manure or, best of all, urine.
Men have the natural advantage when it comes to making compost - they can wee standing up.
So, two things have happened since the change of "stewardship". The first is that we have done away with collecting compostable kitchen waste in carrier bags that always seemed to be leaking coffee grounds on to the floor (most compost caddies are too small for a big family). Instead my husband put in a built-in bin for uncooked kitchen waste under the sink. The next breakthrough was the appearance of an old tin jug in the bathroom to catch the early morning wee. Our teenager, totally disgusted by the idea, refuses to contribute, and has no doubt roundly condemned his father on Facebook. But the seven-year-old is an early adopter, keen to do his part to accelerate the compost. He now understands that urine is full of nitrogen and that the ammonia produced when it ages helps to break down the matter in a pile, heating the whole thing up. A hot heap is a happy heap.
The next challenge for the compost 'steward' will be to sort out the compost bins at the allotment (we have 3 at home and plan for another 3 on the plot). We use one to store brown materials which we have gathered up like bags of leaves and some paper, the other two are used to build piles. When the 'brown' storage area becomes empty, we turn one of the piles into it, which exposes the pile to oxygen and helps to accelerate the cooking. Should I feel the need to accelerate matters further, a bucket in the shed will do nicely.
See more comments...
