Cracking Good | Composting

Cultivating a trash pile aka composting

As a newbie gardener, I recently started my very own compost.

I took a free class, got a tumbler and began saving scraps. Things to remember: 50% green items, like fruit and veggie scraps, and 50% brown ratio, like cut grass and egg cartons. Keep it moist. It's not rocket science, but there's always some exceptions -- don't add too many onions, the grubs don't like onions. The acid in  citrus affects the balance of the compost. 

I can't deny there's a bit of apprehension tossing trash into a bin outside with the understanding it's going to remain  there for a long, long time. What if it smells? What ifit attracts cockroaches? What if I do it wrong?! After a few weeks my tumbler contents were slimier and grubs were rolling around munching on the contents. Still, I'm often nagged about whether or not I'm adding the right things.

So I created a fairly attractive,  downloadable list of items that are generally compostable, with most notated whether they are "green" items or "brown" items.