Composting, Mid Atlantic Style

Compost is supposed to be simple but often it seems too complicated. Let's share our Mid atlantic
collective wisdom and wit about composting. After all, googling for an answer is one thing, and hearing from somone you know and trust can yield a different answer.

Picture came from this article where I tried to simply highlight special concerns when building that very brown leafy fall compost.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3434/

There are a number of composting articles already on DG.CHeck em out by using Search fnction.

And subscribers who can read on the rest of this thread, share your questions or/and answers.

As I said previously, I have way too many greens in my compost. My compost is almost entirely comprised of kitchen scraps. I throw in some dead headed flowers and such but those are all greens too. Recently I added compost granules that are supposed to help it compost better. I have a tumbler that has a divider in the middle so I can have two heaps of compost going at the same time. I have no leaves left from the fall so I think I might start shredding newspapers and adding those. Anything better than that?

Thanks for the link to that great article Sally! I hadn't even thought of a compost bin but makes sense. I wonder what I could find that would be large enough but inexpensive?

Seq my main motivation is to create new garden space through lasagna-ing *and* to find an ecologically sound use for all my yard trimmings and prunings. I want more garden space and it disturbs my sense of natural harmony to just throw my trimmings out. I don't think I can create enough compost on my own to fill the new garden space just by itself so I view whatever I come up with as a supplement not my sole source of compost.

So that is why I'm asking whether it would work to pile soil builder and humus onto my existing plant debris and cardboard mix and have it decay okay over the winter so I can have more usable garden space next spring.

Summer is tough that way. All green.
We'll presume we are not buying anything to make this compost. For me, it is about using everything I have and not buying or wasting anything.

Let clippings dry before adding. Add small broken twigs.
Shredded paper of all kinds is a brown and I think all newspaper ink is now soy.
Put a cover over so you don't add rain for now.
Get a batch of coffee grounds and you will draw soldier flies which are extremely effective with kitchen waste. You might already have them.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/4378/

soldier flies work fast ( incredible youtube videos of it!) but, you will have a very dense wet compost. They don't yield a lot of the nice carbon rich fluffy stuff you fin from two-year-old leaves on the forest floor- simply because you are not getting much carbon IN there.

At this stage I give in to soldier flies. I should collect more dry leaves under shrubs, gosh knows I have those, but only so many hours in the day.

CM- Reasonably small stuff layered, in anywhere near proper ratios, and topped with regular dirt, should work out. But beware that stems and things in long pieces can have tough fibers that take longer. Chop anything that's longer than a few inches.

Adding commercial compost might help add good decomp organisms. Not sure its needed. Not needed in any huge amount.

It may not be uniformly decomposed though, next spring, you may find pockets that stayed too dry or wet. Did you 'lasagne' before? Did it work out OK for you?

Catmint, Montgomery Co gives away free compost bins! I got mine at Whole Foods. There's probably a place closer to you that has them. They're the basic black ones that roll up.

If you feel like taking a drive, I still have a ton of leaves from last year. I haven't produced enough greens this year to break them all down. Let me know if you want to take them home!

I don't know where it would look best in your yard, since you don't have a hidden corner. Maybe the part of the yard that you said was rocky, the corner by your neighbor's rose?

Also, in our area, a shady area might be better, because it's so hard to keep the pile wet enough in the summer. Or maybe under a deciduous tree where it gets shade in the summer and more sunlight in the winter.

Cat--

A couple suggestions.....

1--HD sells something in a bag called "Compost Maker". may be some
micro-organisms that help in composting...You will find it where all the houseplant
stuff is.

2--IF you want to do this--delegate an old blender (buy one in a thrift Shop)
to puree all your kitchen waste. You can then dig this 'soup" into your beds.
Composting this way should be very fast. Add some coffee grinds to it....

Sally--Remember how I said my SEM was full to the top all winter--but it never
got TOO full? And you told me that the Soldier Flies are carrying a lot of it away
at an amazing rate. Did you nean "carrying away"---or "consuming it"?

My SEM is now just 3/4 full--and I have not taken anything out of it.
Is it just compacting? It is now year #4--(5?) and I have not emptied it.
Must be hard as a brick at the bottom... Still plan to do it when it cools down a bit.

Your Article helped a lot--I must have missed it last year....

G.

One basic thing I think needs to be understood.
You WILL NOT pile stuff in a bin or pile and come back weeks later to find uniformly decomposed material. No matter how carefully you think you balance green/brown, chop it all up blah blah. (Unless you go to very extreme efforts to get everything perfect, at which point, I'd suggest you should re-examine your life. LOL)

GIta, they eat, grow, and crawl away. Other critters too. What they eat to grow, becomes part of their body. So that part of the stuff has crawled away. And organic stuff decomposes to smaller particles and compounds, if left for a million years under pressure you get hydrocarbons (oil).

I personally think Compost maker is "snake oil". How long has that sat sealed in a box? How many of the orgs are still alive. Some sure. Dirt has plenty of organisms. Dirt from the woods has PLENTY of fungus and microbes for decay. All you need is to feed them and they will grow wildly.

Can you tell I am passionate about composting? Better said, I am a passionate advocate of passive composting. I may take too dim a view of managed compost. But I think few homeowners really want the work of active composting.

My pile is super wet. Every time I turn the tumbler it drips out. In fact, there is a drip spot on the ground that is building up with compost juice. The flies love it too.

I don't know Sally, it might be snake oil but who knows. I thought it would help.

Is it beneficial to add earthworms to the compost? Or would it get too hot in my tumbler and kill them?

I was wondering, would paper towels be a nice addition to compost as a 'brown' material? I would imagine that would be better than newspaper?

Jeff-
1- put a bucket under the drip spot, collect and dilute your drippings, pour in garden. Stop giving happy juice to flies.

2- Eh, maybe it helps. The way I see it, there are plenty of microbes everywhere already. Once they have the right conditions they go nuts. Wrong conditions, they don't.

3 Earthworms might not survive your tumbler. You can put worms in there. If its OK they will live and grow, if not they die. They don't like it too hot.

4 Feel free to add all papertowels, coffee filters, and napkins from kitchen to your tumbler. GOing to take a lot of paper to dry that up. Better /worse than newspaper, IDK.

Sally---

You said:

****(Unless you go to very extreme efforts to get everything perfect, at which point, I'd suggest you should re-examine your life. LOL)****

So well said. I am glad sanity prevails..... :o)............:o).............:o)

Thanks for the tips Sally. I think I'll start collecting napkins and paper towels.

Catmint, I totally forgot about your foot! I can bring you a bag of the leaves if you'd like.

There's a county website somewhere that tells you which places in the county have the free composting bins. There might be a place that's closer to you.

I'm ok with my greens for now. You really need them for yourself! I would have enough if I kept all of my kitchen scraps, but DH gets really freaked out about keeping them inside, even for a couple of days.

Thanks, SSG! If the bags are not too heavy, we can wait until I'm getting around better, and then I could pick them up from your place! :-)

I was able to find the locations list online very easily. I'll have to check into this. Would be much better than the unsightly pile I currently have.

Oh--OHHH!

It is rumbling outside again...Getting very ominous....
More rain????!!!!!

G.

I have two free 'bins' from my county - long pieces of heavy plastic with air holes. Join the ends and it makes a three foot diameter cylinder to hold compost. You can fill it, let it cook awhile, then pull it off, set to one side, and turn the pile into that. You can pile it and leave it but you'll find it will be dry around the sides, possibly too wet or dry in the pile itself. thus the turning gives you a chance to correct the problems, and gather maybe some good stuff from the center or bottom of the pile.

You got a picture of it, sally???

this link
http://daviswiki.org/Cheap_Compost_Bin

Cat: I don't think the thorns break down. I've read that thorny items aren't good for compost. You might end up getting stuck after spreading the compost.

okay, thanks, Seq. Sounds like I should remove the rose bush leavings...

agreed. Rose canes are too much hassle, and even I would cringe at the thought of a compost soaked rose thorn sticking me, eww. Remember, you may be pushing that stuff around with gloved hands at some point.
I put thorny things in the yard waste bin, or burn them.

thanks, Sally--good to know! :-)

Stopped by Davis Library in Bethesda today after work and picked up *2* compost bins--yay! They are in long boxes and need to be put together. Hoping this is not too difficult!!

can't wait to see!

Why did they have to create the waste of cardboard boxes, to give out plastic ? Maybe those are in panels. Ours were a long piece so it just came rolled up and taped. At least you got cardboard for lasagne making. DO make it the full three foot diameter, you need that for the center to hold some moisture and temperature.

The bin they show is a slightly updated version of what my county gave out, too. There's a video, did you watch it?
Mostly got the basics right, but sugar coats it, and has some bad advice (potting mix recipe).
-They show fluffing up the pile. You can't fluff it once those leaves actually get moist enough to compost. Best way to turn it-- pull the bin off, set to one side, pick it all up with a fork and turn into the newly placed bin. Otherwise, you're fluffing the top six inches, the rest is solid mass.
-They don't want you to use kitchen scraps, just grass clippings and garden clippings. All my grass clippings are mulch-mowed, I never have any for compost. And no one would have nearly enough grass for all the fall leaves.
-Do NOT put sticks on the bottom for drainage. Does not work and they get in the way when you turn.

So, watch it and forget it, do your best to balance what you have available, fill one up, wait a few days, then dig in and see if it heats up some.. let us know, can't wait!

thanks, Sally! Maybe I'll be able to get out there some today. I'm limping along better today! :-)

I discovered last night that my composter, which was new in January, is starting to break. It's a tumbler style and where the plastic hole fits up against the metal bar it spins around, it's splitting. Not good. I'm going to have to see if I can mend it with a hose clamp. Pretty disappointing though.

Ctmint, gosh, take care of your ankle first! I can wait. Composting teaches patience, heck knows!

Man, Jeff, that stinks! You mentioned it was too wet, its pretty heavy too, right? Maybe you should try to get some of the stuff out, even temporarily so it can dry a little better.

I've been throwing in recycled cardboard and paper towels. I'll keep doing that to draw out some of the moisture. If I can get a hose clamp around it, the problem will be solved. Otherwise, it might be a terminal issue for this composter.

I'm going to work on the composting bins today. It looks like really they are big plastic circles with no lid and no bottom, is that correct?

SSG, I think you're right that the rocky area near the elderly neighbor's fence is the best place for them.

SSG, let me know when a good time would be to come buy for some bags of leaves! Thanks so much! :-)

Yes, big cylinders, you have it right.

Catmint, are you well enough to be walking around??? Wet compost can be heavy and awkward to maneuver.

Today late afternoon would work for me, and also Monday late afternoon to evening.

Still limping SSG but better every day!

Here's a photo of the compost bin.

SSG, tomorrow late afternoon would work for me too.

I make brown leaves be the first layer, because then the green stuff can leak down into them to moisten them.

My compost has good soldier fly activity now, so no more fungus gnats in my face when I add to it, yay.

thanks for the tip, Sally--very timely, since I have not yet moved anything into the bin yet! :-)

SSG, my daughter has a music lesson tomorrow (Sunday) at 4, so we could stop by your place between 5 and 5:30. Would that work?