Read How to Sew a Button: And Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew for Free Online Page B

ripped or shredded).
    Step 3:
Make it wet. Add enough water until the contents reach the consistency of a wrung-out sponge.
    Step 4:
Activate it. Toss in your “greens,” or nitrogen-rich material, which includes any fruit or veggie peels, trimmings, or rinds; tea bags; coffee grounds and filters; weeds and lawn clippings. Never add: meat, bones, fish, oil, dairy products, grains, beans, bread, or diseased plants.
    Step 5:
Protect the process. Top your greens with more browns to keep your bin working properly and smelling fresh. Replace the lid. Keep feeding your bin, always layering one part green with three parts brown, as often as you’d like. Getting down and dirty has never been so much fun!
    Step 6:
Stir your pile monthly with a pitchfork (or big stick), and wait for about six months until compost forms at the bottom of the barrel. You’ll know it’s ready when it looks rich, dark, and crumbly (and nothing like what you put into it) and smells earthy.
    Step 7:
Harvest your compost by tipping the bin. Scoop out the rich dark matter near the bottom, and sprinkle it throughout your garden and around the base of your plants or trees. It’s the world’s best fertilizer! Plus, it saves money, saves water, and saves the earth from trash. After you’re through feeling righteous (and you should), return any not-yet-ready scraps to your bin, replace the lid, and keep it up.

More Nifty Tips
You can also buy a ready-made compost bin at your local garden store or online.
For easier stirring, you can tip your bin and roll it on its side so long as the lid fits snugly.
Save yourself a few trips to the bin by storing your kitchen scraps in a bowl in your fridge or in a ziplock bag in the freezer. When either container gets full, go feed your bin.
If you’re not getting rich compost, your pile may be too dry (add water) or too brown (add “greens” and turn).
If your pile gets stinky or flies appear, it’s either too wet or too green (add “browns” and turn), or you’ve put something in there that you shouldn’t have. Remove any meat, dairy, or grease.
You can start composting at any time, but autumn may be the best season. Your fall leaves will decompose throughout the winter (composting slows, but doesn’t stop, in chilly temps), and you’ll be ready for spring planting.

Spice Up Your Life

    “Growing up in Brooklyn, we didn’t have a yard, but my father did have a green thumb. He grew a lot of basil in the window. It was amazing what he could do. Fresh herbs, you can’t beat them!”
    —G RACE F ORTUNATO
H OW TO S TART A W INDOWSILL H ERB G ARDEN
    Step 1:
Select your seeds. Chives, cilantro, dill, oregano, basil, lemon verbena, marjoram, plus all the Scarborough Fair types (parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme) will thrive on a sunny windowsill.
    Step 2:
Sow your seeds. Grab as many tiny flowerpots (or even two-ounce plastic cups with drainage holes poked in the bottom) as you have seed types, label, and fill with new soil. (A loose mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite, often sold in garden stores as “potting mix,” works well.) Soak your soil thoroughly with warm water. In each pot, sprinkle a few seeds, cover with a quarter inch of soil, give it a gentle pat, and say a few kind words. Then set your pots in a shallow tray partially filled with warm water, and let them sit there for a few minutes until the top layer of soil looks wet.
    Step 3:
Get your germination on. Turn each pot into a mini greenhouse by covering its top with plastic wrap, secured with a rubber band. Set your pots in a warm spot, like on top of the fridge (it doesn’t necessarily have to be bright), and watch for sprouts. It may take up to four weeks. Until then, always keep the soil damp byperiodically setting your teensy pots in a shallow water tray. When the top layer of soil looks wet, remove the pot from the tray.
    Step 4:
Let the sun shine in. Once you see some sprouts, hoot and holler and dance around. Then remove the