Compost

Hi all-another veggie gardening season is gearing up and I'm activly planning, weeding etc!

One area I need to improve in is compost. I use a compost tumbler. My problem with creating compost has always been obtaining the right 'mix' of green and brown. Can never find enough 'brown' to create the heat. I also sprinkle on the pile an organic liquid to keep things cooking. I know I could be doing much better at this.

Anyway, I read in a gardening publication that you can add shredded paper to your compost. Shredded paper from my office is something I can do easily!

So before I begin, please give my your opinion. I don't shred magazine paper or glossy advertisements. Do you think this is safe, or even work? Does anyone have experience using shredded paper?

Thanks all! Sue

Hi Sue! There's a great discussion under Soil. RootDoctor gives a Compost 101 lecture.

Thank you! Heading over there........

Two things, Sue.

First, the heat is generated by the greens, not the browns.

Second, shredded paper is fine. But you may not be aware that kitchen scraps are also considered to be browns, not greens.

You'll want to add about 40% browns to the pile to prevent it from turning into a slimy, smelly mess. But, despite what many seems to want, you don't have to turn this into a science.

Cold composting---just adding the stuff as it accumulates---is the way God makes compost. It takes longer, but doesn't require the labor input of turning a pile.

Accellerators, whether in liquid or dry form, are unnecesary. The bacteria needed to work the pile occur naturally. At worst, just throw a handful or two of soil in with the other ingredients.

You might want to look at my article on compost tumblers in the latest Mother Earth News for more details.

Thank you, Brook.

I need to start over from scratch....I've got this thing wrong! Kitchen scraps are considered 'brown'? Potato, carrot (whatever peels), coffee grounds, eggshells, fruit etc?

I've been giving the worms all of the kitchen scraps.

Glad to know I can use the shredded paper. That will really help me simplify since I have a hard time finding leaves to keep it going. As soon as the accelerator is gone, use a few handfuls of dirt?

Great! I'm ready to work on the pile today. Have some time off and even though it's raining, I'm headed out there. LOL.

Yup, Sue, all those peels, and coffee grounds, etc. are browns.

But if you're running a worm bin, you're better off keeping them for the critters. Worm castings are one of the best soil amendments going.

Re: Acceleration. You shouldn't even need the handsful of dirt. The bacteria will be on the grass leaves, and in the soil clinging to weeds, and so on. Just to be clear, you won't hurt anything using an accellerator. But numerous studies have shown that they don't do any particular good, either. Except to the bottom lines of the people who sell them.

You might want to consider sheet composting, too. This is basically the "lasagne" method popularized by Ruth Stout. You lay the materials in layers (i.e., sheets) right out in the garden, where they act as mulch as well as eventual compost. You can then till them in in the fall, or just leave them and let the worms pull them down---which is Ms Stout's approach.

With sheet composting you don't have to maintain a pile at all.

Brook ~~~

Thanks for your wise insights. I like the way you go about this. I saw your article, and it's nicely done. Congrats.

Personally, by inclination I'm a sort of technical person. I studied a lot of math when younger and actually enjoyed it (on the other hand, I was skinny, wore glasses and girls didn't like me). So much for calculus!

I like drilling down into the precise "whys" and "hows" of things. What is soil..., how does it get that way..., why is this plant growing..., why not that one..., how do I optimize conditions to get the desired result? Etc.

Along the way one discovers that much common sense underlies traditional methods of doing things..., the tried and true is, most often..., true. And this is what I call practical wisdom; it turns mere technical data into artful gardens.

But, some traditional methods can be merely old wives' tales. And this is where a little chemistry and biology come in handy as a guide to what will actually help in a given situation.

I always enjoy your posts and hope to see a lot more of them.

Adam.

"But, some traditional methods can be merely old wives' tales. "

True. But more often old wives keep alive knowledge the experts would be wise to learn.

Uhm..., I think that's what I said.

Read it again.

;~)

Adam.

PS: You're very welcome for the compliment, by the way.

I have been putting shredded paper on my compost piles for a couple of years now, not a lot just my own shreds. I put practically everything in my compost except meat or that type of thing. I also have one tumbler type that I must get started. A friend saves leaves and grass clippings for me . I have only a couple of little tiny areas of lawn and my trees are mostly too small yet to produce many leaves except for the poplars which were cut down and shredded last fall. Donna

Rick: Re-did the compost yesterday...wish me luck!

Donna: I like my tumbler, is this your first one? It is so much easier on my back than turning everything manually from one bin to the other. I will also try to learn about lasagne composting. I added paper and more grass to my tumbler, now I need to remind myself to go out there once every other day or so to tumble it. Even if it is raining....alot. I'm glad to know that kitchen scraps are considered 'browns' and whatever the worms don't eat, I can toss in to the tumbler. I keep worrying that it is not generating enough heat.

Can I add my two cupfuls of ideas?

1. You will _always_ get fruit flies in your compost bin, if it's too slimey.

Solutions: (a) don't worry, they go away eventually; (b) add lots of shredded newspaper, to dampen down the heap, just as with a worm bin; (c) spray the fruit flies with hair lacquer. They will then tumble down into your hand, and can be made into 'amber' jewellery. And sold to Nieman Marcus at an unspeakable price.

2. You can (in the UK) get shredded newspaper from newspaper recycling firms, along with shredded cardboard. These are sold to horse breeders, to give deep litter.

They are magnificent in the compost heap, if mixed well with fresh nitrogenous lawn clippings. The fabled CAT centre in the UK found that these two, just by themselves, will yield excellent compost.

Hi John!

What_is_hair lacquer? And...is that organic? (sly grin).

Seriously though, I have not noticed any fruit flies yet.

Thanks for posting more info about using shredded newspaper (and cardboard) for compost. It boosts my confidence that I will have better results this time around.

Hairspray! It probably would work. And, no, it ain't.

At least now I know what the necklace is that my wife splurged on at NM. You made that, eh John? How many pints did I shout for?

Adam.

another thing you can do is let your weeds and grass dry a bit befor you put them in if you are woried about it getting to wet and if it gets to dry just add a bit of water.

Wot, is the US ignorant of hair lacquer?

Permit me to illumine you at once - with this great contribution to the control of fruit flies in the compost heap, herewith (or even hairwith).

Forgive me... John

Trust me, the US is not ignorant of hair lacquer (hairspray)..., just yesterday evening my wife and I attended a wedding on Staten Island (known affectionately here in NYC as "The Rock").

I can confirm for the record that, had I struck a match when walking past the ladies convenience door, we would have all been launched into the next world.

Adam.

Adam - you're making me howl! I run a subsidiary of Staten Island Bank. Although I did not attend last year's Holiday Bash, word was there were many, many "high maintenance" gals. Tooooooo Funny!

I have potatos growing in my compost? I did not plan on growin potatos in it. I have 2 bins and one was really getting good. Now what? I just put those in with all the other kitchin scraps!

Weeelady: Let 'em grow. You'll get some of the nicest little potatoes ever. Potatoes are very hungry critters, and love compost.

The downside is that most people site their piles where not much sun hits. So the taters tend to be small. But they sure taste good.

I have to go find that thread that Haighr posted about the potato bin. It's time!