You know I recently bought a truckload of compost. There’s still a big pile, but not quite as big. Well, we also made our own, about 12 cubic feet of the black gold.

We have a super huge raised bed that needed a ridiculous amount of organic matter to get it up and running so we deployed the homemade compost as part of the effort. It was amazing. It’s been cooking in the side yard for the last two years with very little work on our part. Basically, we open the lid and dump in the food scraps, leaves or grass clippings. That’s it.

There is a lot of composting advice out there and even Master Composters. (Yes, that’s a thing, I kinda want to be one.) Composting can be done with a small plastic bin, a trash can, or a composting bin, large or small. We have four bins of different kinds. Some day, we’ll go on a tour together. But I am a lazy composter. I throw it in and wait. No turning the pile. No activator. No careful accounting of the proportion of greens and browns. Just time, that’s it. And like magic, compost happens.

If you love the magic of compost, check out this recent New York Times article by Cara Buckley: The Unlikely Ascent of New York’s Compost Champion.

Composting is for everyone, everywhere, and it’s truly a magical substance.

Compost and then wood chips

After the huge compost pile is distributed throughout the yard, it will be time to add wood chips. No ChipDrop yet, so we bought some wood mulch on super sale from Home Depot which worked out cheaper per square foot than the delivery options available to us. We are saving the bags to try a local bag-your-own wood chips option from a local tree company.

Then we got lucky. 

Someone posted 18 bags of the same wood mulch on Freecycle. Freecycle is a community-based exchange that lets you offer, take and ask for things. It was our lucky day! And all this schlepping counts as a workout! If you are looking for me, I’ll be outside, spreading compost and mulch.