A simple approach to urban/suburban composting

Bagged dirt feeds plants; local compost feeds ecosystems 🍄

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Rabbit Ears Rescue, Oakland, CA - gives away bunny bedding, a fantastic upcycling opportunity for composters! Please consider donating to them. Or find your local rabbit rescue & ask them what their bedding material is and how it is disposed of.

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Table of Contents:

❓ Why This Method (+ read why local compost matters!)

The real magic isn’t just compost — it’s the local microbes, the invisible ecosystem builders that keep soil, plants, and people in tune with the place you live.

Most city/suburban compost piles stall out. Too small, too smelly, too tempting for rodents. The Velveteen Bean was born out of that frustration — a way to utilize waste streams that are already ubiquitous (coffee, bunny bedding, scraps) to create piles that heat up, break down, and stay alive. Every handful should pulse with local microbes.

Not shipped, not bagged—alive, right where you live.

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Stop buying dead dirt. Start making living soil✨

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Urban and suburban composters often face three big hurdles:

• [ ] Too small piles that never heat up
• [ ] Not enough bulk carbon to balance kitchen scraps
• [ ] Rodent pressure when using food scraps directly

✅ The Velveteen Bean Method solves this:

• Nitrogen-rich coffee grounds from your neighborhood café
• Carbon-rich rabbit bedding & manure (usually sawdust pellets, high-quality) from rescues (available in nearly every mid-big town/city, or ask your neighbor who has a bunnies!)
• Pre-fermented food scraps (tumbler or bokashi) → become a broken down nitrogen rich layer rodents ignore, microbes loves and heats easily once added to carbon-heavy pile.