Flying the Smug Flag

This is what I do. I make dirt. Bow down before me and tremble. No, no, I was kidding. No need to grovel. And to tell the truth, I don't actually do it. Nope. The right balance of bacteria and what they like to eat, say, kitchen scraps and yard waste, is what's doing the work. Proper mixing and moisture and aeration and time equals dirt. To amend my flower beds and fill holes in the yard. After a hiatus of three seasons while my compost bins were buried under a heap of tree branches, I got it cleared off this spring and going again. So I'm feeling just a bit smug over not sending my compostables to the landfill. Where these items do not, I repeat, do not decompose. Which I know flies in the face of popular belief, but there it is. I heard recently about a twenty year old avocado found in a landfill that, once the grayish outermost layer was scraped off, almost looked good enough for guacamole. Let's make dirt instead. Your veggie scraps, coffee grounds and egg shells want to be dirt. Let's make them happy.