How we compost at home

Our composting system is pretty conventional. We collect stuff in an old pot in the kitchen and bring it out to the composter in the yard, which also incorporates yard debris -- we also have a big pile for the overflow. We are not very diligent about doing the hard work of turning the compost, so it takes a long time to capture the finished compost. We usually have lots of completed compost in early spring when we dig it into the new vegetable beds, and then throughout summer we get more that gets added on top of the garden. We usually don't see the worms, they are happily underground!

What we collect in the kitchen: spent tea leaves, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable peels, any other vegetable matter, cut flowers after we are finished enjoying them indoors

What we collect in the yard: weeds if they don't have seeds, fallen leaves, pruned undiseased plant matter, removed sod

Mowed grass stays on the lawn -- we used to collect them to add to compost but stopped doing that this spring

We collected several large bags of raked leaves from our trees last fall and are in the process of adding them to the compost pile; some of the leaves are partially decomposed already (linden, oak, maple, beech)

It is mid-May, and our local garden club had its sale.  I love this activity!  I dug and divided several types of perennials and walked 3 wagon-loads of potted plants to my neighbor's home for the sale.  My plants were priced from 2 to 3 dollars each.  I offered lily of the valley, cranesbill geranium, Chinese lantern plant, periwinkle (Vinca minor and variegated Vinca major), Siberian iris, Sedum (2 kinds), hosta (2 kinds), raspberry, Ostrich fern, feverfew, marjoram.

In return I bought a wagon-load of plants from other members' gardens and homes.  I got a pot each of pink and white forget-me-not, red bee-balm, and several woodland plants.