Composting!

Grace, Chloe and I have been extremely successful with our compost pile, due to the support of our school. We made two large posters and placed one in the hall, and one in the cafeteria above two compost buckets to show what may be put into the buckets, which we would carry out to the compost pile at the end of the day. We also placed a bucket in the teacher's lounge, so that the teachers may participate in composting as well. One thing we had to do every day was empty these into the pile, wash them out, and dry them, to prevent fruit flies from invading the cafeteria. It started out as a small pile of organic matter, and grew and grew...we even had to remove the barrier around it because it was breaking the net around it. Once we did this, we went on Easter break for a week, but when we returned, we immediately saw amazing results. The pile had finally started decomposing to form amazing, nutrient rich soil. In this picture though, you can see the newly added organic matter from the lunches of many grammar school and upper school students who were very eager to contribute. Thank you so much to all who contributed!!! To the people continuing the compost pile, make sure you smash all the fruit with a shovel...that is a lot of fun to do. We actually found ourselves enjoying this! Also, the CiCi's pizza boxes and lunchable box cardboard does not decompose very well, so I suggest not using those in the compost pile. We acquired grass clippings from a handy pile near the river on the side of the soccer field in the woods, and the leaves from the same area. This greatly improved our compost. One thing we should have done, was to start the pile more out in the open because when we started it in the Fall, we started it in a seemingly sunny area, but once Spring came, the area was shaded by overhanging branches of trees.