A question...

Hi,
I'm so glad to see this forum ! I have a question.Can anyone help me with ideas as to WHAT to do with leftover Foods.I understand you can not put COOKED kitchen wastes into your compost pile?

I do feed a few things to the chickens,and VERY little to my dog.If I feed her more,she stops eating her dogfood and puts on too much weight.

Is there maybe some sort of SOMETHING I can add to the scraps to make them decompose faster and maybe even help them become useful ??

Thanks,
NOWeedSZ

You can throw your garden wastes, grass clippings, weeds that have not formed seeds, straw, chicken poop.

It takes about 9 months to make good compost with hot composting and longer for a cold pile-you just can't rush nature.

I have always added all leftovers to my compost.. you may want to stay away from meat as it will attract racoons, etc... but everything else has worked for years here...
bury it a bit in the pile.

I put everything in the compost: dryer lint, old cotton towels, hairbrush cleanings, vaccuum bag contents, grass, all my kitchen scraps (NO dairy or meat) all non-glossy paper, fiber egg cartons, half drank soda pop and beer, stale bread, clam & mussel shells, fireplace ashes. I only keep out egg shells, which I grind for slug barriers, and coffee grounds which I put on the azeleas & shrubs. I steam alot of veggies and I save that water to water the house plants with (dilute 50/50). I also do some leather crafting and I put undyed leather scraps in the compost too. I even put some unpainted drywall scraps, broken up small, and a straw hat in it last year. In the winter I puree my kitchen scraps in the blender then store them in the chest freezer, so that I have enough "green matter" to get my compost heating in the spring, it helps if you have a chipper/shredder for the dry stuff, the smaller it is the faster it will compost. I turn it as soon as it starts to cool down, that usually heats it up again. If all else fails buy some activator or mix some yeast & sugar in warm water & pour it on. Good luck I hope that I was helpful.

i got told you can put anything there as long as its not of animal origin as it will attract vermin.

lil

i got told you can put anything there as long as its not of animal origin as it will attract vermin. i heard copped up comfrey leaves can also speed the process up too.

lil

In a good hot composting pile, kitchen scraps should be mostly unrecognizable in just a few weeks if placed deep enough in the core of the pile. I have a big old cold composting pile for most yard waste, and "worm pit" composting site for kitchen waste.

I dug out the pit, storing the soil to the side. As I toss in the waste I add some soil, water and then lay over a framed screen to limit access by critters. By the time I am down to the end of the trench (a month or so), I can start again at the original end or start a new trench. The original trench will be rich with worms and worm castings. Great planting site.