MULCHSATIONAL!

 My trusty mulch bin has been working away quietly since Fall (along with the red worms) to produce garden gold for use this spring. Here you can see the kitchen scraps (banana peels, green waste, egg shells and coffee grounds) combined with layers of maple leaves and grass clippings at the top of the bin. 

A few months later and I open the lower door on the bin to reveal dark, rich stuff at the bottom of the bin.  

 I dig it out and screen it to get out the twigs, peach pits and those stupid sticky fruit labels...don't get me started on those things...
The screen also helps to break up the egg shells into small pieces.

 I avoid putting in rose prunings and tomato vines (too many pathogens or viruses with those plants) along with meat scraps or bones (they might attract vermin). I also make sure to layer dry mulch with the wet or green kitchen scraps and I add a quart of "worm tea" that I buy at the grower's market. The tea has red worm eggs that hatch and fill the bin with garbage eating wonders! So I get worm "castings" (poop) mixed in with all the good stuff.    

So here is the finished result...fantastic, sweet smelling (yes!) and crumbly garden gold to recharge my raised beds and pot up new plants (I add in some high quality potting soil for potting). If I were a plant, I'd be saying "yum!"