Turkey carcass: Do not compost

Sweet Potatoes: Compost

Green Beans: Compost

Corn: Compost

Stuffing: Do not compost (unless it has no meat/broth)

Gravy: Do not compost

Old Rolls/Bread: Compost (or feed to the birds)

Cranberry Sauce: Compost

Mashed Potatoes: Compost

Also, think twice before you put your Thanksgiving grease down the drain.

ceramic compost pail, originally uploaded by rich_awn.

Here’s a nice little ceramic compost pail. Who would buy this? I would be too afraid that it would get knocked over and break.

in sink compost bucket, originally uploaded by Amber Ginsburg.

Here’s a nice little compost pail before your compost gets to your real bin. Some people use old coffee cans, and some folks will use $40 stainless steel pails. I just use a pot with a paper plate on top and simply empty it every couple days. Anyone know where to get one of these little buckets in the US? I think this pail is in Korea.

My wife and I took a walk in the neighboorhood last night.  We have MANY houses in our subdivision – about 220.  I thought it would be neat to count how many of the houses had vegetable gardens or compost bins.  Some houses had tall fences that were hard to peek though, but we tried out best. The final tally?  Including us, I counted 1 compost bin (mine) and three quasi-vegetable gardens (including my non-quasi vegetable garden).  I have three 4×12 raised beds (Thanks Mel Bartholmew). The other two vegetable gardens consisted of a spattering of ragged looking tomato plants.

Why do people not grow their own vegetables anymore?  Are they strapped for time?  They lack the “know how”?  Surely people would want to stop filling up the landfills with their waste, right?  

Ed Bruske, a Master Gardener and president of D.C. Urban Gardeners created this video series on how to compost and care for your garden. Ed covers the basics and emphasises the importance of the role compost plays in the garden.

compost, originally uploaded by bitmask.

Saw this over on Flickr… Looks like the folks over in Prince Edward Island know the benefits of composting. Apparently, it’s very common to see separate bins for compost and other waste in restaurants. This picture appears to be of one waste station at a Tim Hortons in PEI. They are expanding this composting program to other provinces as well.  PEI sells this compost to the public year round at reasonable rates.