What to Do With Compost if You Don't Garden

If you're an urban apartment dweller who tends to kill house plants and doesn't participate in a community garden, should you compost? Perhaps you should. Composting using simple plastic compost bins or a small compost tumbler doesn't just provide great, organic material that enriches soil and make gardens happy, it keeps lots of food scraps out of your household waste, meaning fewer trips to the garbage can. But what do you do with the compost once it's made? Here are some ideas.

Consider Indoor Gardening

Maybe you think you can't grow houseplants because you've been trying to grow the wrong ones. Devil's ivy (Epipremnum aureum), snake plants (Sansevieria trifasciata), and heart leaf philodendron are all easy to grow and very attractive too. A sprinkling of compost every few weeks will help nourish them, as long as you don't pack the compost in or make it too thick. Small households don't produce a lot of compost, so this may be a great way of using it up.

Donate to School Horticulture / Science Departments

If there is a local high school or community college with a horticulture department or science department nearby, they may be able to use the compost in their projects or experiments.

Give to Local Community Gardening Projects

Community gardens are starting to be popular again, so find out when local gardening groups in your area are meeting and see if one or more of the participants would be interested in using your compost.

Give it to Neighbor / Family Member / Friend who Gardens

This is perhaps the easiest way to find a home for your compost. You can also offer up your compost on free trading websites like Freecycle or even sell it on Craigslist (and it would be far from the strangest thing sold there).

Take it to a Municipal Compost Facility

Even small towns sometimes have municipal composting facilities. You can check your local city or county government's website to find the phone number of the Waste Management or Public Works Department. Alternatively, you can call your local USDA agricultural extension agent to locate other projects or groups that could use free compost.

With all the designs of compost bins for sale, it's easy to find a small composter for use in small homes and apartments. For small amounts of composting, rotating compost bins aren't necessary (though they can still be very convenient to use). Small plastic compost bins are perfect for use in small apartments because they are designed to do the job without a mess, and without creating unpleasant smells. Some of them even have charcoal filters built in to eliminate odors altogether.

All you have to do is toss in your non-meat, non-dairy kitchen scraps. Just about everything is fair game: vegetable peelings, non-meat leftovers, peach pits, apple cores, and even non-food items like dryer lint and the contents of your vacuum cleaner (once you remove things like paper clips and small plastic or non-biodegradable objects).

Composting has so many great benefits that it's worth trying even if you live in an apartment in the middle of the city. Lots of people are learning the great benefits of using compost, and would love to have a little extra.

About Jason Bacot

Jason Bacot - Are you looking to save some money when it comes to your home gardening? Then I suggest you check out our Compost Bins and Compost Tumblers for a natural fertilizer at http://compostbins.nixtie.com.

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