A Post about Composting

It's Earth Month! So we're doubling down on the effort to get you all useful information for living more sustainably - starting today (and ignoring April Fool's altogether). The following blog post was written by Ashevillian, Ware customer, and wicked-talented designer, Katie Gillikin. It was originally an Instagram post, but it was such great info, we're sharing it with you all here!

This is not a pretty post, but I’m very passionate about composting (is that weird?) and I wanted to share my process! I’ve been composting for years with the sole purpose of minimizing waste, but now that I have a proper garden, I wanted to make sure it was usable. We try to only have a small bag of trash each week and everything else goes in the recycling or compost. We compost paper, veggie and fruit scraps, cardboard, coffee grounds, tea bags, leftovers, to-go boxes, plant cuttings and much more. The only things we don’t compost are meat and dairy.

In the picture you can see my process from right to left:

1. We keep a small pail on our kitchen counter to collect compostable items and I try to take this out daily

2. I have a large bin that I dump everything into. It’s bottomless but covered around the sides so the dogs can’t get to it (compost is bad for pups!)

3. I then move as much as I can fit into the tumbler, spin regularly and add dry materials like dry leaves if it’s too wet

4. Once everything is broken down in the tumbler, I put it in a bin and mix in old potting soil that I’ve collected from repotting my indoor plants

5. Refill the tumbler so you can start the whole process over and keep going

6. I’ll then add the final compost mix into my raised beds before I start planting 👏🏼

Now I have free fertilizer from our waste. It’s basically magic if you ask me. Even if you don’t garden, this is such a wonderful way to reduce waste and there are a million ways to do it. I know this has ZERO to do with my business, but I hope by sharing, this will inspire some people that aren’t already doing it to give it a shot.