Monday, March 1, 2010

Home Composting - New Project

Ok, here we go! The Hooge house is going to start composting. Granted, this is entirely my project, but I am excited to share it with the kids, and who knows, maybe I will be able to get Jon on board too!

I was online looking through our town's web-page when I came upon their composting program. Believe it or not, they offer composting machines, free (!!!), to residents to encourage local composting. They also have an awesome recycling program, hazardous material recycling program, and bulk trash pick up program. All I did was fill out a form requesting two composting machines and, poof, they were placed on our lawn this morning during our regular trash pick up. Talk about efficient! They even include a little handbook that comes with the machines, and these are brand spanking new, too!

So, why do I want to compost? There's lots of reasons, really. The first, of course, is that any little thing I can do to help the environment is a good thing. I mean, I don't think I'll be one of those that can go without my electricity or cars, but I can at least compost my kitchen waste. Frankly, I'm a little appalled by how much trash our family generates, so hopefully, this will make a little dent in that. Also, last year we did our own little victory garden in the backyard, and being in Arizona, anything you can do to help the soil you are growing in is definitely a step in the right direction. I've started planning our spring garden that we'll plant here soon, and so I was inspired to start composting while doing a bit of research for that. Speaking of which...anyone have any ideas how to keep the birds off of my tomatoes? Last year we lost a lot of them to the birds.

So, if you live in Gilbert, please check out their composting program, it's well worth the 10 minutes a week you will invest in it. Or, if you don't live near me, keep an eye on your town's website. Who knows, you may be surprised what all your town is doing to make this a greener planet.

I'll keep you updated on our progress!

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