WTF!?! (What the FUZZ!?!)

After using my summer compost to plant some new seeds, I decided to start a second bucket of compost (I have a little of the old compost left so I can plant a second batch of spinach a few weeks after the first batch). I drilled holes into another paint bucket lid (though I didn't drill holes in the side of this bucket - it gets a little messy when you role the bucket, though it's not too bad).

I started much like I started the last compost - a little bit of old dirt, corn cobs, and some other veggie peelings.

Looks like a good start, right? That's what I thought. I covered it and put it out on patio to keep adding stuff to it for a few weeks. I added some more veggie peels the next night, under the cover of darkness. I didn't get a good look in the bucket but I did notice a smell...

The next day I opened up the bucket and:

There was a giant white fuzz attacking my compost! As a modern girl, I googled 'white fuzzy mold'. One website suggested that heat might kill this white fuzzy mold... so I left the compost alone out on the patio in the August desert heat.... and well, it's still there. I called my dad today (better than google) and he suggested that I just continue to rotate my compost and the heat should kill the mold. So I rotated the compost today and now we shall see I suppose. I also ordered a used copy of The Rodale Book of Composting in the hopes that I will be able to read up on this mold and understand it better (and thus, never see it again).

Growing Veggies with my Compost!

I came back from my summer internship to this beautiful humus so I decided to start my fall planting. I decided to plant spinach, zucchini, and carrots. Since I'm a researcher in my day job - I decided to test my compost.

I planted two pots of the zucchini and carrots. For each I made a base mix of old potting soil and fresh potting soil. Then I put down either a layer of compost or a layer of fresh potting soil. I planted one pot of spinach and I used the compost for that. I also counter-balanced position, so that there is one compost and one no-compost plant on each side of the porch (with the spinach in the middle).

Carrots (Red pot: w/compost)

And the zuchini

Top picture: w/ compost

And the Spinach

I started gardening about a year ago and I haven't had much luck growing from seed - so we'll see how this goes! The seeds were all planted on Aug. 22nd.

Apartment Composting

I like to think of myself as someone who cares about the environment and growing up we always composted. Once I moved into an apartment of my own I found myself throwing out a lot of compostables and it's driving me crazy. I was raised not to waste - and I feel like throwing out compostables is wasteful! So for the past few years I've been feeling bad - but I live in an apartment - what can I do?

Last spring, I finally got fed up and I called my dad. He suggested that I make my own apartment-sized tumbling composter. The formula was pretty simple.


First, I got a 5-gallon paint bucket and two lids from Home Depot - one lid was leak-proof and the other lid was not leak-proof. Using my biggest drill bit I drilled 3 holes in the side of the bucket a few inches apart (you might not want to do this step) then I drilled several holes in the black (not leak-proof) lid.

Then I put some compostables into the bucket. I used some potting soil that had be leached of its nutrients, I cut up several spinach plants that had gone to seed and I clean out my fridge (I was about to leave for a summer internship). During the week, the bucket sat out on the patio with the back lid on (so air could get in). Once a week, my lovely roommate switched to the leak-proof lid and rolled the bucket 3 times back and forth across our patio (which is probably about 10 feet in length) and she added water (about a cup a week) to keep the compost moist - I'm currently living in the desert so it's pretty dry.

I left a bucket full of dried out dirt and plant stuff on my patio in May and came back to this:

in August!