At Living Light Inn we like to think we’re doing our best to reduce waste and this involves re-using as much as possible. We use our old towels as rags and our old sheets as drop-cloths and window cleaning rags. It seems most things have a second chance life span if you put some thought into it.
Our trash is separated into three categories; trash, recycle and organic compost. Our town also has a green waste program that will take food waste and yard waste.
Because we rarely have any food waste other than fruit and vegetable scraps, most of ours goes into one of two onsite compost bins.
There we layer the food scraps with dead leaves and grass clippings to form a large pile of soon to be what we the super soil.
Once I get one bin full, I cap it off with dead yard waste and leave it for 4 – 6 months. The timing is only based upon how long it takes us to fill the next bin.
After I have one bin ready, I dig all the half-finished compost out of the other bin and pile it up to the side, mixing it well and breaking up any large clumps. This pile will keep decomposing as long as we keep it moist.
Within two to three months, we have a light nutrient rich soil-like organic substance called humus.
A few of the things that help this process along are worms, bugs, moisture, and heat. Unfortunately in Northern California, we don’t have much heat. I’d say it sucks, but we deal with what we’ve got and with a little patience and planning we can actually have compost cooking all year.
Also with the absence of heat, there are many seeds that don’t break down so we’re careful about putting any weeds in there or we end up pulling extras from garden beds. Often we have tomato, pepper, avocado, and peach plants volunteering throughout the grounds. And sometimes we let them stay around.
Composting is an easy process that requires little effort. It’s also very rewarding when your first batch is done and you hold it in your hand and say “I made the Super Soil.”
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