Let's Talk About Dirt

{alternate title of "let's talk dirty" may have landed the wrong people on this blog...}

I bought a couple raised garden beds yesterday. As I was researching how to plant in them for next spring, I came across information on composting.

Let me first start by saying that when I had a certain fourteen friends come visit back in June that many of them were proving they were more hippie than me. I was getting a lot of flack for not being a composter and when it was encouraged to use compost in vegetable gardens (of which I just committed myself), I dug deeper. Get it? Dig... as in dirt? Ha. 

I consulted a few of those hippie friends I was talking about above and asked for their input. Just for fun, let's create a list of things that constitute one as a hippie (but not limited to):

- vegetarians and especially vegans
- driving a Prius or anything made by Volkswagon before 2000.
- piercings or tattoos (sometimes associated)
- breastfeeding mamas
- cloth diapering mamas
- attachment parenting parents
- babywearers
- owning Birkenstocks
- people with dreadlocks
- people who have their own veggie gardens
- Whole Foods shoppers
- wearing or consuming anything with hemp
- pot smokers
- most people in the states of Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and about 1/2 the state of California
- people who compost

I realize the list could be much longer, but let's consider the purpose of this post. Dirt.

I was all sold and ready to purchase this compost bin last night but my husband encouraged me to sleep on it.

So I did. And I'm still about 80% sold today. The other 20% of me is lazy and that concerns me slightly. Let's also brief what my husband had to say about the whole idea:

"We are not becoming those people!"
"I repeat, if I had any say in this, the answer would be no. Also, do you have any idea how big 52 gallons is?"
"Meanwhile, the neighbors are going to know we're freaking composters. That's like being a Beetle driver. Put a little flower right in the console. Are you kidding me."

Ah, but we all know he has no say in the matter. And honestly, he's fine with it as long as I really want it.

So for those of you out there who compost, here are questions I'd like answered that I could probably consult Google for instead... but what fun is that?

- Will rodents be attracted despite having a sealed (yet airated) container?
- What if I have too much compost? What will I do with all. that. dirt?
- How does composting work in sub-zero temps like we get for about 6 months of the year in Chicagoland?
- Any other recommendations or reasons the 20% of me should be talked down from the hippie pedestal?

Thank you, from the bottom of my veggie-loving heart.
p.s. I thought I would note that after 9 months sans nosering, I stuck it back in with no effort. I'm looking the part now again, too.