THE UNDERGROUND COMPOSTER

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The virtues of the new system were immediately apparent. Cats, dogs, and flies were shut out ... while odors were shut in. At last, no more pests! Maggots did appear once—after we put fish innards in the can—but the heat generated by natural biodegradation killed off the little varmints before they could develop into adult flies. (Various "trash can" insecticides exist, but I can see nothing to recommend them. And besides, even though Maggots ARE repulsive I don't mind them spending their short lives working the soil in my subterranean composter!)

It seemed like forever (actually, it was four months) before that first small can was completely full. The container might be brimming with garbage one day ... and it might be down to a third of that amount a few days later. (in hot weather, the wastes seemed to "melt" like ice.) Finally—when the barrel was nearly filled to capacity, and stayed there—I mixed in a shovelful of manure to help speed decomposition ... then I closed the lid tight and let nature take its course.

In the meantime, I started dumping garbage into the second can. And—Sure enough—long before it was full, the first container's contents had turned into rich, black compost, ready to be spread on the garden or used to top-dress our flowering plants.

A bonus we hadn't counted on, by the way, was earthworms. The little squirmers were attracted to the barrels in droves and—after coming in through the openings in the cans' bottoms—kept themselves busy working the rotted garbage into a black, meallike fertilizer (which proved, once again, that worms are every bit as much a blessing to gardeners as to fishermen).

We're happy to report—thanks to our "underground composter "—that we no longer have any problem with pests, our neighbors never look at us with wrinkled noses anymore, and we now have a garbage disposal that'll never choke on a bone or add a cent to our utility bill!

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