I've got a compose heap at the back of my garden, but it's really far from my home so I don't mind the stuff rotting there. It's just garden waste though, like leaves, weeds, apples and plums from the trees, and unneeded plants.
Ooooh tell me more Maddy. Is it open or covered and how long do you have to leave the rubbish to become more rubbishy?
It's open. We just dump the stuff on top and then forget about it for a few weeks. it rots. it forms a pile. Like I said though, it's all plant matter, never any meat stuff which is normally what would stink the most.
Somehow the pile disperses, I think wind erosion does it, or it gets washed away when it rains.
To be honest, I've hardly ever gone back there since my dad hired a gardener to handle all that stuff.
The usual pattern when we used to do it ourselves was that suring summer, our apples and plum trees would dump a load of fruit on the ground. Summer was about three months, and once a month we would gather up all the fruit and dump it on the pile. it would rot (with a strong, pungent sweet smell) during summer, and smell a bit. You'd see shrivelled up remains of apples and stuff by the end of months 3, below the fresh apples.
By the next summer, it would all be gone, and you'd be left with a pile of brown dirt. Like I said, we never re-used the compost. It would just grow up to a certain size, and then erosion seemed to keep it from growing too big.
If you remind me on the weekend, I'll try and go and take a photo of it for you.
That's exactly the kind of information I was after. And a picture would be even better if possible.
The city of Mississauga will give you a free composter if you call them up. It looks like an upside down garbage bin that you put in your garden and you just dump stuff in it. Well, at least all biodegradable stuff, I think. It has vents on the side to allow air to flow through and a lid on top.
I know we got one a long time ago in my brother's home but I don't think anyone ever got around to putting it to use.
From what I understand Canada is very into the whole 'Being Green' ethic. It does seem like the UK are finally catching up with regards to promoting the importance of recycling though, and every little step helps.
It's catching up with us... the way we live we are going to leave a pretty lousy world for our children - piles of garbage, no fossil fuels, increasing temperatures. Why not try to do what we can to reduce it?