I used to compost everything including citrus peels and eggshells until a master gardener called me out

Honestly, for like 3 years I was tossing orange rinds, lemon halves, and whole eggshells into my backyard pile thinking it was all good. Then this old guy at the Austin community garden told me citrus can actually mess with the worm population if you overload it, and eggshells take forever to break down unless you grind them to powder. He showed me how his pile was hot in 4 weeks while mine was just sitting there cold. Anyone else ever get schooled on a basic practice they thought they had down?

2 comments

2 Comments

hall.ruby24d ago

Yeah the citrus thing got me too. I was dumping whole grapefruit halves in there and wondering why my pile just smelled like rotting fruit and never got hot. Now I just toss them in the regular trash or blend them up first if I'm feeling fancy.

willow73224d ago

Wait, you used to throw in whole grapefruit halves too? I did that same dumb thing for months before I figured it out.