What Would You Do?

Since I was a teen-aged gardener, I've composted mostly because as  a view inside my garage, basement, attic, or closets will confirm, I hate to throw anything away.  My composting practice is pretty lazy, toss stuff in, water every now and then and once a year or so, move the bin & spread what's ready.    I'm almost exclusively organic in my garden, making exceptions for a few hanging pots which sometimes get a little Miracle Grow and I like the idea of recycling.  However, my city recently has decided to permit food waste to be placed in our yard waste containers and getting rid of the compost bin would give me  a little more space for plants or an additional potting table.

Here is the path to the compost bin aka the walk of shame.  You see, the area on the left is a 15 foot by 2 foot potting area that I assembled a few years ago.  It's out of the way and is a great place to put new plant purchases until they go in the ground.  In addition to that, it has now bedcome my tomato growing area, hospital spot, propagation area, etc. and is  overcrowded with the visable proof of my addiction. Hey Louis, that banana is Musa xishuangbannaensis 'Mekong Giant' that can reach 40' if the pesudostems don't die to the ground.  I think you need one.  Plant Delights and  Brian's Botanicals will send them via post.  This one came from Jungle Fever.

 Here's the bin itself.  The bowl of carniverous plants happily consume many of the friut flies that like to hang around in the warm months, the black pot contains a newly acquired Polygonum scoparium awaiting being potted, Monkey, the cat, belongs to my neighbors but I love him and he keeps me company in the garden if my pesky dogs aren't around.

My bin never produces that much compost and I'm always bringing in manure & Tagro, our local biosolid product for use in the garden. Is there a huge benefit of using home made compost as opposed to just using manure and biosolids both of which I get free?  Another benefit of 86ing the compost bin is that I believe wildlife of an unwelcome sort (rodents) like to occasionally visit.

While we're on the topic of unwelcome visitors, Ciscoe Morris recently said that he's removed his bird feeders because their presence drew rats. Hmm.  For those of you who don't know, the Puget sound region provides a great home for rodents because of our population density,  proximity to water and because in our relatively mild winters, they can breed year-round.  We also have no reptiles to eat them.  I don't want to encourage rodents but I do love to watch the American Gold Finches and others at my thistle seed feeder.  Monkey is waiting patiently.  By the way that little brick thing at the bottom is all that is visible of the garden path in this area.  Overplanted much?

Evening Grossbeaks, Chikadees, Finches, and others love sunflower seeds but they're not alone...

 I use hot pepper suet in the suet feeders as birds don't mind but all mammals except humans hate hot peppers!

 Some welcome guests at the suet feeder.

 What would you do about this compost bin thing. If I got rid of it I could still feel good about recycling food waste but wouldn't be doing it myself.  Where do you land in the bird feeder conundrum?  Thanks for any advice you'd like to offer!