Some research shows that exposure to dirt actually increases happiness. Consider that just one more reason to begin composting: it’s an excuse to play in the dirt.

Why else should you consider composting? By throwing food scraps and paper waste (which can be up to 30% of a household’s waste stream) in a compost bin or pile instead of the trash or recycle bin, you can create the single greatest plant food on the planet with which to keep your or a friend’s garden growing. It’s reciprocal-you scratch the dirt’s back, it scratches yours.

Compost is what you get when your green waste (that’s tea bags, banana peels, carrot tops, eggshells and the like) and brown waste (wood chips and paper) decompose. In a few weeks or months, the result is super nutrient-rich stuff, full of the carbon, nitrogen and microscopic organisms that make for excellent flower and plant bedfellows.

I especially like vermicomposting (yes, that’s worms!) as it’s tremendously easy and can fit into an apartment dweller’s limited space on a patio or under the sink. (The Nature Mill composter is a another compact option that breezily fits into your home and routine.) Earthworms eat their body weight every day and are hermaphroditically abundant breeders. The result: they can eat up all your foodscraps (except for meat, dairy or oil) like nobody’s business.

By composting you become a zero-waste eater and get the best natural fertilizer know to humankind: worm tea (a mighty polite term). For free workshops that share how to get happy composting, check out two L.A. resources, one county, one city.

Smart Gardening, a program of the County of L.A.’s Department of Public Works, has free beginner and advanced workshops all around our fair County on composting and other green, water-saving gardening practices that will make you grin. L.A. City’s Bureau of Sanitation also holds free classes and bin sales on certain Fridays and Saturdays in Griffith Park and elsewhere. Check out that schedule here.

Here’s to playing the dirt.

Categories:  Tuesday--Green Living