My Cost-Saving Plan for Earth Day

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past month, you know that today is Earth Day, the day all of the world pauses a bit to reflect on what's happening to the earth and commit to take actions to make it better. We're doing this in our home and I thought I'd share it with you since what we're committing to will also help us save money.

Here's what we're doing:

We're starting to compost (food leftovers, grass, sticks, paper, etc.)

The background:

• We have a rose garden that regularly needs nourishment. I'd prefer to use more natural amendments rather than Miracle Gro (which works well), so we thought about composting. In addition, we may want to start a small garden.

• As such, we started collecting food scraps, leaves, etc. in a garbage pail last fall. While it wasn't a great start (hard to turn the compost), the bin does have holes to let a bit of air in, so it's not terrible.

• That said, we live in Michigan, so as you can imagine, not much composting has happened between then and now (too cold.)

• Upon inspection this spring, we found that the container is not going to work. It's making it impossible to turn the compost, so we needed a better solution.

• We thought about putting it in the yard in a bin on the ground, but there were several reasons why that wouldn't work (neighborhood animal attraction/problems, the look wouldn't be the greatest for a neighborhood setting, etc.).

• As such, we decided to buy a composter from Costco. It looks like it's just what we need (watch the demo on the site if you like -- very cool): it was on sale (save $50), shipping is included, and they're going to deliver it right to our home. We should have it any day now.

So sometime in the next couple months, I should have some good, rich compost to use in my garden, spread around my trees, and offer to friends who have gardens (maybe they'll give me some veggies as a thank you). Even better, we'll be reducing the garbage we send to the landfill and we'll be cutting down on chemicals being put into the earth (and saving by not buying them as well.) Pretty cool, huh?

How about you? What are your Earth Day plans to make the world a bit better?

Comments

[SUSAN FROM LI]

I've been thinking of composting - let us know how you like this. It looks like a great product. Appears to be very easy to use too.

[Al Howard]

Up here in New Hampshire we stopped composting for the winter. We have two bins (cheap plastic storage tubs) with MANY holes drilled in the bottom and top. When the first is filled with new garbage, we dump it into the second. The next time, the second's compost is ready to be put into the garden. And so the beat goes on.

[ss]

When can you get that $199 investment back? 10 years?

[Christy]

We use a 3 ft high mesh wire fence(the kind you get on a roll for maybe $5, secures with metal stakes, a couple bucks each) formed into a square. We set it up behind the garage so it's out of view. To "turn" it, I have a two prong garden hoe, and move the stuff from the left to the right. For example, all the new yard and veggie waste is piled to the left; all the composted matter is moved to the right. Rotate through every 3-6 months when the pile reaches to the top of the fence. Works quite well, of course i'm in Houston and it doesn't take long for stuff to decompose. I love my compost, and my gardens do too!

[Vexorg the Unruly]

I'm going to drive very fast and crank all my utilities to 11. Earth Day is for smelly hippies and other socialists. It was lame in 1970 and it is lame in 2009.

[rwh]

I'm planting 3 trees in my yard. Our neighborhood is full of Ash trees and the Emerald Ash Borer has been confirmed in NE Iowa, about 100 miles from where I live in Iowa City. I'm planting 3 native trees, a white oak, a buckeye and a white pine.

We inherited a wire mesh composter similar to Christy. So far all I've done is dump leaves in it, and I need to turn it.

It looks like the Costco ecomposter could also double as an exercise ball.

V the U should probably smoke some compost, it would mellow him out some. Chill Vexorg........

[Norma]

We just purchased the WIBO 160 gal from Costco online. The thing that impressed me was not having to pay shipping and if I didn't like the product I could return it to our local Costco.

[Carrie]

Do you need two of these? If you are constantly adding "new" things to the container won't the compost have pieces in it that haven't fully decomposed. Fill me in, please.

[Corporate Barbarian]

My company gave away small evergreens for Earth Day. A nice gesture, but I hope they didn't use too much diesel transporting them from the grower to our building.