Beginner question about composting...

I have tried composting before using different methods, but I've never got it quite right. I want to try again, but one thing has always really confused me. Most things I've read say that you should add everything you're going to add and then let the pile decompose into compost and that all you should be doing while its "working" is turn it and keep it moist. But then on TV shows I see people just throwing whatever weeds/debris they have for the day onto the compost as if that's just what you do whenever you have debris. But I thought you were supposed to make the compost pile and then leave it alone so it can decompose. Do you usually keep two piles? One that is full and just decomposing and one that you can keep adding to? I am really looking forward to understanding this!

You can do it either way. The thing is, if you keep adding to the compost pile those additions will need more time to break down. So if you need compost in two or three months you might be better off throwing everything all at once and then not adding anything else to it.

But if you don't need the compost until next spring, for instance, you can keep adding your leaves and kitchen scraps and all those other good things to your compost pile all fall and winter if you want to.

I do think that at a certain point you should either stop adding things to your compost pile or you should be prepared to sift through your pile for the good stuff and then put the unfinished compost material back into the pile when you are done sifting out your black gold.

passiflora07 - that used to confuse me, too. I see your are in Zone 9B - I used to live in Palm Beach County and found compost decomposed so quickly that there was lilttle or nothing left to put into the garden. So I "trenched composted" instead. Just dug a trench and filled it with scraps, and turned the dirt over into the trench until it was full. This made a trench for the next lot of scraps. There were never enough leaves in that that neck-of-the-woods, although sometimes we were able to have the guys who went around collecting "yard waste" to dump it into our yard instead of taking it to where-ever they usually took it.

At the beginning of August each year, we had a local stable deliver a dump truck load of aged horse manure.

Now that I'm in NC - I have two compost bins. I fill one and let the contents break down, while the other is being filled. Right now we have another two compost piles going because there is so much "good stuff" available.

How long should an open, outdoor compost pile typically take to decompose? Our maple tree is due to shed its leaves sometime in the next couple of months, so I will have lots of good stuff to compost, but I wonder it will be done in time for spring planting or if I'll have to buy compost from Lowe's again...

It's really hard to say how long it should take since so much of the process depends upon what you put in the pile (a good mix of browns and greens will speed it up), the size of the contents you are adding (chopped leaves will decompose faster), and how often the pile gets turned (more air promotes faster decomposition). But I really would expect a compost pile in your zone to be ready for spring planting if you put forth at least a little effort when it comes to working in the pile this fall/winter.

I have some questions too.

I started last spring and have a pile that looks ready. I don't have much raw material to add. We have a small amount of house scraps, but no grass and most of the few leaves we get are from invasive trees, so I do not want any part of them in the pile. We have horses and goats, but trash the poo to keep flies down. I use neighbor's well aged manure. Both her and our manure is mostly in balls, should I be breaking that up somehow before adding? Another neighbor has had utility company tree trimming 'chipper' trucks come and dump some loads on our dirt road. I have used some of that.

I have a lot of sticks and such, do I use some kind of mesh to screen it and if so, what size mesh? How do you do that and then do you put what is left behind back in the pile? Our rainy season is coming - hopefully we will be blessed with rain this year - should the piles be covered to prevent runoff? Maybe I should screen it and store compost that is ready in a trash can?

Honeybee, so your compost just vaporized? We have very hot, but dry summers and the veggie stuff decomposed fairly fast. We had more of that this summer as our neighbor tried selling veggies they bought at the swap meet. Too hot and lots of waste.

Grubs. It appears I have grubs (from looking at google images) living in the compost. Have not seen them anywhere else in our sandy soil yard. Do I just leave them? When I turn the pile, should I kill them? They are HUGE and will not obvisously not go through a screen. Way gross.

quilty - I don't think it's necessary to break up those "balls" of compost. In fact, I know a lot of people on here that prefer the chunkier compost. Anecodotal evidence suggests that the worms like to get in there and break up those clumps themselves and then, of course, they leave behind their worm castings which are great for your garden.

As for screening your compost you could do that any number of ways. I know some people stretch wire over a wooden frame and then dump the compost through the frame sold of like panning for gold. I just use a shovel and just move it back and forth over a bucket so the small stuff falls off. I do put the larger stuff back in my compost bin to decompose further.

Rain water isn't bad for compost at all. Compost piles need moisture. If it will flood where your pile is and carry off your compost then it probably would be a good idea to either relocate it or contain it somehow. In addition to storing completed compost in a trash can, you could put your compost pile in a trash can if you wanted to. If you do that it would be a good idea to drill some holes in the can so air can get in.

I have never seen a worm anywhere on this property nor at my place in San Pedro (on the coast). Have remotely considered vermiculture.

From reading another post, looks like grubs are
not a good thing. Should I kill them and let them rot in compost? I have seen birds digging holes in the finished compost -probably having grubs for breakfast!

I have three outdoor horse manure compost bins which are basically 4' x 8' raised beds, two of which are dug into the ground and used for hardening off transplants in the early spring after the compost has been removed. In the spring I add red wigglers to these outdoor bin from my four indoor worm bins use for composting scraps. As mentioned by GardenSox the horse manure in these bins is still clumpy come spring, but it doesn't seem to matter that much when I apply it directly to the areas where I am planting or transplanting.

For my potting up mixes for tomatoes, peppers, etc., I fine grate some of this material to add to these mixes with a 1/4-inch screening box I have made for this purpose. Occasionally, I find some green manure in the gratted clumps and I toss most of it back into the compost bins. This grated material is no more than 1/3 by voiume of the materials I use in my potting up mixes and it has never 'burned' any of my plantings.

Something I have tried recently is to leave at least six inches of composted horse manure in the bottom of the third bin which is solely dedicated to composting year around. This seems to help speed up the process as I add new manure to the bin. I have tried adding various things like leaves, grass, and some commercial fertilizers to this compost bin, but I don't see much difference in the process time or the fertilizer value of the completed compost.
A shovel full of soil from the garden or two seems to be the best solution to adding helpful microbes.

Since our winters can be quite severe I have considered trying a new experiment next spring, and that is adding a nematode solution to my garden via sprinkler. Our soil can freeze a foot or more and other than the occasional red wiggler from my compost materials there are no worms present in my garden, which leads me to believe the addition of nematodes might work to get rid of some of the grubs you have been talking about. I am seeing more of these in the garden and raise beds each year.

I went to a site that sells nematods and see they get to ants also. DH has been on a mission all summer to kill all the big ants. I figure if the ants are not attacking the livestock, dogs or humans and are staying outside, what the hey. From the description the site gave, the nematods enter the grubs and work from the inside out. Cool. Now, I have noticed birds digging in the compost and now I figure they are going for grubs. Will the nematods that might be in the grubs kill the birds then? I can screen the grubs out, but do they lay eggs that will mature by my plants when I use the compost.

The local Nursery said not to use horse manure unless it had aged for minimum one year. I guess that is not necessary since, mraider3, you have success and your manure is probably preserved in an uncomposted state during your long freezes.

quiltygirl. nurseries would prefer you purchase their compost, so that is not an uncommon comment...just consider the source. Each fall I add fresh manure directly to sections of my garden after rototilling. I the rototill in the horse manure and wait for a good rain to repeat the process. After the rain I check the garden to make sure it is dry enough to rototill again. The clumps are generally gone after the final fall tilling and in the spring I rototill again to loosen the soil. I have never had a problem with this procedure and I have used lots of horse manure in my newly opened areas.

As for the horse manure compost bins I turn those when I can and add water in the process. It's work to get them completely broken down so there are very few 'biscuts' left, but I have a 1/4 inch screen which fits over the top of a plastic bucket which I use to grate the manure before using in my potting up mixes. I do see some green stuff which I toss back into the compost bin. Never had a problem here either.

When I transplant potted up tomato and pepper plants to the garden I go directly to the bin and fill a wheel barrel full and add at least two to three heaping shovels full into the hole where I transplant these. Again, never a problem. I have a fertilizer attachment for my seeder which I use for carrots, parsnips, beans, and other similar plantings. Grating the horse manure compost is required when using this attachment. For onion sets and corn which I hand plant, I place several large hands full directly on top of the bulb or seed before raking soil over the top of the shallow trench.

About a year or two ago there was some lengthy disscussion about the safety of horse manure composts to humans. In these discussions it was stated there are no know diseases transfered from horse to man, and that the various drugs used to treat horses would also have no human ill effect in the form of composted horse manure. This issue was of concern to me at the time. I have a pretty good comfort level now with this issue, especially with all the problems associated with our grocery store imported foods which may have come into contact with human wastes and pesticides.

It's possible this last comment will stir up some heated discussion but I think that is why most of us prefer to grow our own food. So bring on the heat!