by Bill Dawson, UNH Cooperative Extension Master Gardener

Most of us throw away a lot of material that could be recycled and put to a new use around the house and grounds.

For instance, I no longer take newspapers to be recycled at the transfer station. About five years ago, I found a unique shredder at the local office-supply store. It looks a bit like a big harmonica, about 14 inches long and four inches wide. It has a sort of smiley mouth that you can feed paper into and watch as it chews its way through the newsprint. Out the underside come quarter-inch strips.

I have the shredder mounted on a tall box that I designed expressly for it. I place a kitchen trash bag inside the box that just fits the chamber with a little bag left over to drape it over the top of the box before I mount the shredder over the top. Once I have a bag full of quarter-inch strips, I begin the mixing part of my recycling process.

During the warm seasons I go directly to my compost set-up with the paper. I lay down a good layer of the strips mixed with shredded leaves from my yard. In goes a layer of grass clippings from the lawn, maybe some weed tops (I don't add the roots), and whatever green prunings I have that day. From under the sink I retrieve a large coffee can of kitchen scraps and add them to the mix. The coffee can usually contains a mixture of kitchen scraps and, of course, coffee grounds.

To make all this material "cook" properly I usually add a generous amount of horse manure that I get from a neighbor at no cost. The manure has been mixed with sawdust and some grass clippings and allowed to age for a year or so. The final ingredient is water.

I go through this layering process once a week during the growing season.

There's a bit of labor involved. I have to turn the product until it's done, as the cooks say. There are commercial products with crank handles available that would lighten the work.

None of that for me! I do the required labor the traditional way. It keeps me in shape and gets me out outside into the sun.

I've constructed a two-chamber composting system. There is a rather large stump of in the corner of my lot. The loggers cut it off about three feet above the ground. With salvaged lumber, I built two chambers; one on either side of the stump and slightly taller than the stump.

To facilitate the turning process, I installed some drop-down doors on hinges. When it's time, I drop one door and flip the product over the top of the stump and into the other chamber.

Just before the leaves begin to fall in September, I do what I call the sifting process. I have a small trailer that I pull behind my lawn tractor. I built a screening frame that fits snugly against the sides and is hooked to the front of the trailer end. I scoop well-rotted but still-coarse compost material onto the screen with quarter-inch mesh and separate the fine material from the coarser stuff.

Thus separated, the fine material goes into covered trash cans next to the bins. I use it in the spring at planting and potting time, usually mixing it in equal parts with some screened loam. Great stuff for raised beds and for side-dressing flower beds.

In the winter I use a different process. In my unheated garage, I have a couple of regular trash cans situated so I don't hit them with the cars or the snow blower. These receive the shredded paper and the material from the coffee can under the sink. To make sure there isn't too much of a mess or stench on warm days, I line the cans with large trash bags.

Sometime in April, I wheel my garbage cans to the compost bin with my hand truck, drop the door and dump the bag into the bin. Once the bag is in the bin, I slit it open and mix the contents with materials already in the bin.

As it warms up in the spring, the neighbors who subscribe to another lawn-care philosophy have mounds of grass clippings they want removed as soon as possible. Enter Bill with his trailer to accommodate them.

I also use the shredder attachment on my leaf blower to reduce my piles of raked leaves to provide a good balance of materials for my compost operation. I usually sprinkle on a gallon or so of lime and some wood ash if available, add water, and go off to plant some flowers while nature takes its course.

Photo credit: paperfacets, Some rights reserved.