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My grandpa called my compost bin a garbage can, and now I can't stop thinking about why he's sort of right
Last Sunday my grandpa came by my place in Portland and poked at my compost bin on the porch, then asked why I'm keeping a trash can full of old food next to my lettuce. He grew up on a farm in the 50s and said they never had a "compost pile" with a lid and a chart, they just had a spot out back where everything went, and it worked fine for 30 some years. I tried to explain my greens to browns ratio and he just laughed and said I'm doing math to do what dirt already knows how to do. It bugged me all week. Now I'm wondering if half my setup is just stuff the internet sold me, like my 2 gallon countertop bin and the $28 thermometer I check once a month. Has anyone here dropped the fancy routine and just thrown scraps in a pile? Did it actually work or was it a mess?
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kim_west2d ago
Watched my neighbor do the lazy pile thing for two years and his yard smelled like a dead body every August, but he also grew tomatoes the size of softballs so who's really winning here. My dad still swears by burying fish heads under his peppers and that man has never owned a thermometer in his life. Maybe the chart is just us needing to feel like we're in charge of rot.
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