As I ambled down the road that led from Clueless Consumer to Totally Eco Savvy I was inspired to try organic cooking, energy efficient light bulbs, locally grown groceries and (of course) recycling. These are pretty standard “Green” enterprises that can be practiced without your friends thinking you’ve gone crazy. My last project, not so much. My friends are giving me funny looks because my new pursuit sounds like something totally out of place in the city, but I don’t care. I’ve seen it work magic in my life, and I’ll never go back.

On the tiny balcony of my one bedroom apartment, I’ve begun to compost. I started about four weeks ago, and the broken down contents of my improvised bin are already smelling earthy and rich. Whenever I step outside to churn it up I am impressed by how quickly kitchen rubbish is becoming lush, black, fertile dirt. When the compost starts looking consistent enough, I’ll begin mixing it into the soil of some of my balcony plants, and they will thank me with fragrant blossoms and irresistible fruits. What is left will be given to a farmer friend of mine, in exchange for a bag of okra or a few sun-soaked tomatoes at a later date.

What I love about this little exercise in hobby gardening is what it’s done to my trash can. The poor thing has been rendered useless, as I am now producing only handfuls of trash every week. In fact, I decided it was taking up too much space in my kitchen and got rid of it all together. No more overflowing can of empty boxes, wrappers, and reeking spoiled food. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

In all honesty, it’s incredibly easy to do. If you have a single plant growing in a pot, or a friend who could use some help with their vegetable patch, you have no excuse not to compost.

To help convince you that it’s ludicrously simple, and encourage you to try it for yourself, here is a little composting how-to guide for beginners:

Find a Bin: It needs to be breathable, and it needs to hold compost. Other than that, there are no limits to the possibilities here. I used a five gallon bucket with punched-out air holes. You can try a laundry basket, a ventilated planter box, a milk crate, chicken wire or, if you must, a store-bought composting bin.

Add Compostable Ingredients: Vegetables, fruits, herbivore feces, coffee grounds, tea leaves, filters, cardboard, paper, lawn clippings, leaves and twigs are all very good. Don’t add things like meat, omnivore or carnivore feces, paper products with too much ink or print, or anything that has been chemically treated. You want a good balance of carbon and nitrogen, usually 30 parts of the former to 1 part of the latter. This isn’t something to worry about though, as most of the ingredients listed above are already sitting at the 30:1 ratio.

Turn the Compost: Shaken or stirred? Once a week, give your rubbish salad some air. You can do this by pulling everything out and putting it back in again, by stirring it with a stick or rake, or by picking your bin up and tossing the contents around. Ultimately, it’s up to you how to prepare your compost cocktail.

Bake a Slice of Steamy Compost Pie: Pasteurizing your potting soil is a smart precaution you can take to prevent the spread of disease. To do this, just use an old aluminum pan you won’t mind sacrificing, and bake the compost at 160°F for 30 minutes in your oven. This easy step will keep all of last years’ cooties away from this years’ bounty.

Add it to the Garden: There is some debate as to how you should balance out your final potting soil. Some say a quarter compost, three quarters dirt. Others say half and half. I think that you should determine how starved and pathetic your plants are looking, and decide for yourself how much compost they need.

Enjoy the Fruits of your Fruits: It could have been scratched off into your trash can, where it would sit in your kitchen for a week stinking up the house only to be put out by the curb and hauled off to a landfill. But thanks to you that apple core is now rich, nutritious soil helping your now bountiful, beautiful garden flourish.

The bottom line is this: If you had a pile of garbage that could magically turn into a handful of gold, wouldn’t you want to know the spell that would make it happen? And now that you know it, aren’t you ready to cash in?

Related posts:

1. [think] Easy Ways to Change the World
2. [go] Garden City, Kansas
3. [nest] Container Gardening
4. [do] Neighborhood Guide: College Hill
5. [do] Guide to the South Side