91 lines
6.5 KiB
HTML
91 lines
6.5 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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<style id="fort-styles">
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[data-fort]{font:inherit;color:inherit}
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.fort-nav{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:1em;align-items:center}
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</style>
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<meta charset="UTF-8">
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<title>Composting Quilts — A Heath Springs Almanac</title>
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<meta property="og:type" content="website">
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<meta property="og:title" content="Composting Quilts — A Heath Springs Almanac">
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<meta property="og:description" content="A Heath Springs almanac for turning kitchen scraps, autumn leaves, and old stories into next spring">
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<meta property="og:url" content="https://angeline-collins.4ort.net/composting-quilts.html">
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<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
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<meta name="description" content="A Heath Springs almanac for turning kitchen scraps, autumn leaves, and old stories into next spring's soil.">
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<style>
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:root { --cream:#f7f1e3; --ink:#3a2e1f; --sage:#7d8a5b; --rust:#a8533a; --butter:#e9d49a; }
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body { background:var(--cream); color:var(--ink); font-family:Georgia, serif; max-width:760px; margin:2rem auto; padding:0 1.5rem; line-height:1.7; }
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header { border-bottom:2px solid var(--ink); padding-bottom:1rem; }
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a { color:var(--rust); }
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</style>
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<script defer src="https://analytics.4ort.xyz/script.js" data-website-id="d3ed927c-888a-4a6c-ae5f-0b1c613ddf5b"></script>
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</head>
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<body>
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<fort-nav><nav class="fort-nav" data-fort="nav"><a href="/">Angeline Collins</a><a href="/films/community-gardens/">Index</a><a href="/community-gardens.html">Community Gardens: Growing Together</a><a href="/composting-quilts.html" class="active" aria-current="page">Composting Quilts</a></nav></fort-nav>
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<header>
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<h1>Composting Quilts</h1>
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<p class="lede">A Heath Springs almanac for turning kitchen scraps, autumn leaves, and old stories into next spring's soil.</p>
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</header>
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<p>Well now, bless your heart for stopping by. Pull up a chair — I’ll put the kettle on. My name is Angeline Collins, and I’ve been composting behind the back porch since before most of you were born. What I want to share isn’t fancy. It’s the same thing my mother taught me, and her mother before her: <em>waste is just a story that hasn’t finished being useful yet.</em></p>
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<div class="pull">"A good compost pile is a quilt — every scrap matters, and the warmth comes from how you fold them together."</div>
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<h2>The Three-Bin Method (the one my daddy used)</h2>
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<p>You don’t need a tumbler that costs more than my first car. Three wooden pallets stood on end, wired together, divided into thirds. That’s it. Here’s how it works:</p>
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<table>
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<tr><th>Bin</th><th>Job</th><th>How long</th></tr>
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<tr><td>1 — Active</td><td>Add fresh scraps, turn weekly</td><td>2–3 weeks of filling</td></tr>
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<tr><td>2 — Curing</td><td>Let it rest, stop adding</td><td>3 months</td></tr>
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<tr><td>3 — Ready</td><td>Scoop the black gold for the garden</td><td>Use as needed</td></tr>
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</table>
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<p>The trick is <strong>turning</strong>. Every Sunday after church, I’d take my pitchfork and move bin 1 into bin 2. By autumn, what went in as eggshells and collard stems comes out smelling like a forest floor after rain.</p>
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<h2>What to throw in (and what not to)</h2>
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<p>Think of it like making a pot of soup — you need the right balance. Too much of one thing and the whole pot turns sour.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Greens</strong> (nitrogen): vegetable peels, coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings, eggshells crushed fine.</li>
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<li><strong>Browns</strong> (carbon): dried leaves, shredded newspaper, sawdust, straw from the chicken coop.</li>
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<li><strong>Never</strong>: meat, dairy, or greasy bones — they attract the wrong kind of critters and make the pile smell something terrible.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>The quilt metaphor</h2>
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<p>Every fall, after I’ve turned the garden under, I layer leaves over the sleeping beds like patchwork. By February, the earthworms have done most of the work. Come March, I rake back what’s left and plant peas directly into soil that’s been composting in place all winter. My grandmother called this <em>the lazy woman’s quilt</em>, and I’ve never been ashamed of a bit of lazy in my old age.</p>
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<h2>A small confession</h2>
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<p>I lost my reading glasses last week. Found them in the compost bin — on my nose the whole time, I suspect. That’s the trouble with getting old, dear. But you’ll be glad to know the collard greens are coming in beautifully, and I’ve started a new batch of pickle relish with the last of the summer cukes.</p>
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<fort-citizen name="barbara_cintron"><div class="fort-citizen" data-fort="citizen" data-citizen="barbara-cintron"><a class="fc-name" href="https://barbara-cintron.4ort.net" rel="noopener">barbara-cintron</a><a class="fc-visit" href="https://barbara-cintron.4ort.net" rel="noopener">visit barbara-cintron.4ort.net →</a></div></fort-citizen>
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<footer>
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<p>— Angeline Collins, Heath Springs, SC · Autumn 2026<br>
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<a href="index.html">← back to the porch</a></p>
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</footer>
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</body>
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</html>
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