Do you make compost?

I have 2 bins, I compost 12 months a year.
Great mulch for the beds.

Actually I was like Paulgrow above until I moved to temporary quarters... since I have NO space here I had to honestly vote No Resources.

I compost in two garbage cans that I've punched holes in for air and drainage. I recently received a ComposTumbler but I haven't put it together yet.

I compost kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and filters donated by my co-workers (I'm not a coffee drinker), tea bags, paper towels, and yard waste. I always have nitrogen (fresh) materials but I sometimes run low on carbon (dried) materials. My neighbor generously gave me six huge bags of dried leaves earlier this year and told me that I can have more when I need them.

My soil, if you can call it that, is very rocky. I have maybe 2-3 inches of soil before I hit rock. Shovels are only used after I start my planting holes with my trusty pick axe. I enjoy amending my soil with homemade compost and it serves as an excellent organic fertilizer. It also improves soil drainage and my plants love it.

We compost everything we can. We haul in horse manure but it's usually not aged enough so we have piles of it on which we put grass clippings, weed pullings, everything from the kitchen that's compostable, we shred newspaper, paper bags, etc.

Basically, we are really into waste watching ;)

A few years ago while I was living in an apartment I bought a book about vermicomposting - i.e. composting with worms, in a plastic bin under your kitchen sink or wherever. Haven't gotten around to trying it yet but would be very interested to hear from someone who has! Might be a good option for the cold winter months - ?

This message was edited Aug 15, 2004 11:00 PM

Would love to have a compost area, but alas the only area that would get enough sun is either in the middle of the lawn or is currently under scrub brush about 4 feet tall and very thick. DH says he will build me a nice one once he gets it cleared out.

I do not generally recommend composting because of the equipment, time, and effort, and because few people have the time or inclination to really do it right. Rather, I suggest putting clippings, scraps, etc. into the ground immediately, so that mixed with the soil they can compost naturally, and there will be no flies, rodents, smells, diseases, etc. To read my experience in composting, see the Zoo-Doo Man article at www.foodforeveryone.org/faqs.

That said, here's what it takes to compost correctly. A carbon-to-nitrogen ratio between 20 and 30 is ideal. Moisture content is generally best between 50 and 70%. The material must not become soggy or compacted, but must be moist. A thermometer measuring 100 to 200 degrees, with a long probe, is essential.

Aeration is almost as important as c/n ratio and moisture. Turning the materials 4-5 times at least every 2 days is important. Shred all materials to about 1" diameter. Uniform size improves mixing, and small size exposes more surface area to bacterial action.

Sustained temperature between 135 and 160 degrees fahrenheit for 3 weeks is important - 150 degrees is optimum. Microorganisms are indigenous to the organic materials, and it is their digesting the materials which causes heat. Therefore, do not add dirt to the compost mix. Achieving the necessary heat is accomplished by adjusting the c/n ratio, moisture, and oxygen until the bacteria have the ideal living environment.

Foul odors are from anaerobic activity and indicate a lack of oxygen. Increase turning frequency and/or fibrous content of the mix to reduce the moisture content and increase oxygen.

Green, fresh materials have a much higher nitrogen content than dry materials. Fresh grass clippings are ideal for composting, having a c/n ratio of 19:1. Food scraps vary, but can be as low as 15:1.

Experiment with the materials that are available to you, and remember that success can be fleeting - with constant adjustments being necessary to maintain the ideal conditions. If temperatures are below the target range and the mix is loose and friable, add high-nitrogen materials or water, or both, until the temperature rises. Remember, too dry is as bad as too wet.

For an excellent in-depth tutorial on composting, go to http://www.urbangardencenter.com/links/index.html

Some additional common materials with their carbon/nitrogen ratios, which I have copied from the above source, follow:

Leaves - 35:1 - - 85:1, Peat moss - 58:1, Corn stalks - 60:1, Straw - 80:1, Pine needles 60:1 - - 110:1, Farm manure - 90:1, Sawdust - 130:1 - - 490:1, Newspaper - 170:1.

I am a compost junkie!!

Yes, I live in the suburbs and I have 2 nice plastic compost bins that sit on the side of my house where it bothers no one. I keep one bin as a constant ongoing addition and the second bin is to let it sit and finish. I add everything I can lay my hands on that can be used, including food scraps from my family when I'm visiting them. lol The only problem I have is finding enough dry materials/carbon products. I have been known to frequent our local parks in the autumn and bag up every leaf that falls. I bought a leaf shredder last year, which has helped me quite a bit. I can shredd up all my leaves and bag them up to use during most of the next year. When I run out of leaves, I start shredding up newpaper and paper bags. I even use cut up toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls. Can you tell, I love to compost!!!

My compost does very nicely and doesn't take very long for it to look like nice Black gold.

Clicked the #2. Not a specialist at it, but composting is an important routine after my entry into DG!! I have space and I dump all the leaves and the garden 'waste' into it. The kitchen clippings go in to another smaller one. I must tell that composting is really worth the effort! Results are not immediate, but one can feel its benefits after some months/years.

I clicked other because I had to change for the rest of the year. I was composting everything I could lay my hands on and then I got a fungal infection in my garden and so I stopped using anything outside for the rest of the year. I am still composting my kitchen scraps which, since I live along isn't very much.

I will probably go ahead and compost the leaves that come down. I think by then the cold will have finished killing off whatever fungus is left after the fungicides I used.

When I farmed and ranched I had a 10 x 25 x 2 compost heap made primarily from the hay I daily cleaned out of the lambing jugs in the winter and what came from the lots once or twice a year. (On a cold day it was easy to see it cooking.)

When we moved into town I tried my hand at composting the oak leaves that covered my yard every spring and the pecan leaves in the fall, but the oak leaves were almost impossible to get to decay (lawn mower, bagging and crushing, anything thing to get a break for the bacteria). I finally gave up and started using them as mulch for my liriope that line my frontwalk. Viola! The best of all worlds!

I don't compost table scraps and such, so I voted that I don't have the time and space, etc. What I do isn't technically compost, but it's good for the soil: I spread grass clippings in my flower gardens and cultivate the ground, turning the grass into the dirt. When that stuff rots, it smells like manure, so I know it must be working! ;)

I have horses and compost my horse manure. I have my pile under a tree behind my stalls a ways and add kitchen scraps to it. I add leaves during the fall too and also grass clippings to this pile and turn it with my box blade from my tractor. I just have this in a pile and it does wonders for my flowers and veggies. They grow well. I just try to make sure the pile is at least 3x3 foot square so it will go thru a good heat. Robbie

I pile up leaves, old hay, horse manure, kitchen scraps, and yard trimmings in a big pile, turn it and water it once in a while as time and energy permit, and it breaks down pretty well. In the spring I put it on my garden rows and rototill it under. Some of it goes as mulch around flowers, it all disappears eventually. It's good enough for me, after all even God doesn't do the super scientific method, He just uses the bacteria in the soil, earthworms and time to compost things.

I do vermi-compost (I have a Can-O-Worms) So I use just kitchen scraps. Boy do they love watermelon!!!!!! They can get the rind as thin as paper!!!!

i use green manure and rabbit pellets those little round balls with some where around 1000 rabbits in the barn that is from birth to breed does i never run out

Wow! A 1000 rabbits!!! I would not want to be the one that cleans up all those smart pills! ; - >

I have a trash can with holes that I use for kitchen scraps and some yard waste (it would never all fit!) and a pile out back of yard waste I ket simmer in th sun and then throw on the beds.

The worst thing I ever did in my compost was listen to a friend who told me when I got my hair cut to put the trimmings in the bin, My last haircut was pretty extreme and for 2 1/2 months, every time I turned the compost, I saw this wig of hair turning round and round. Yuck!

Rather have worms. In the bin.

My husband won't LET me.....he says it will stink and the neighbors will scream. So....can anyone verify this (I've read that if it smells bad, it needs oxygen). Also, what's available that is somewhat inconspicuous (if that's possible). To me, it's a crime to dump anything in the garbage disposal that can be composted and then turn around and pay for bags and bags of it. How ludicrous is that? It may be time for the divorce. I wonder if compost-denied is a legitimate reason in Illinois.

This message was edited Aug 17, 2004 2:11 AM

Folks have divorced over far less poop, westyng, but consider that then you will have half the rubbish....

; )

I love the way you think, daisyavenue.

I used to compost, but it was just one big mess and alot of work - so I gave it up. I just buy compost now.

I continuously compost two large (3x3) piles of leaves, grass clippings, kitchen waste, garden waste, etc.; and I have a worm bin for my coffee grinds and eggshells. I also clean out my neighbor's rabbit runs whenever I can, and I beg for horse and cow manure from any/every source I can (fresh manure goes into the compost pile to help speed things up a bit.) We have nasty clay soil and the only decent beds are those that I've been adding stuff to for the past 3-4 years. I refuse to toss all this stuff out, then turn around and buy bagged compost. I *do* buy a truckload of compost when I'm starting a new bed and can't wait for my piles to finish composting.

I can honestly say my compost pile does NOT stink or attract flies unless something gets really out of whack, and it's really not that difficult to maintain a good balance. Just make sure you've got enough browns (carbons) for the greens. Sometimes that means the leaves sit in their own pile from fall til spring and then get added to balance the kitchen/garden scraps. I bury the tomatoes and other potentially smelly stuff down in the middle. Once a year I flip the big piles over and let them rot for a few more months then start using the compost. Are there some other critters in there when I flip the pile? Sure. Worms, roly-polies (and even the occasional cockroach) all find their way into the non-composted stuff because that's what they eat. I just don't keep the big piles near the house ;o)

Anyone add sawdust?

I am so finicky about my 'organic' content that I won't let Someone add his sawdust because much of it is plywood sawdust and I figure that it has too much glue, formaldehyde and unknowns to compost into our relatively chemical free veggie beds.

Maybe I would consider adding it to the perennial beds.

I have been trying for all most a year to compost pineneedles. I put in all the other thing they said to but they are still pineneedles. Have any of you had any luck with them? I have been using a Compos Tumbler but it has not worked on the pineneedles. Has any one used this brand.

This message was edited Aug 18, 2004 10:25 AM

I have a bin made of chicken wire that is 3 foot high and about the same diameter. It is not the easiest thing to turn but it is compact while still large. I am terrible at wattering it and turning it, but after a year it is looking real good. I was adding all I could to it, but have taken a break in the last month or so because it is getting full and I want it to all be ready in the fall for a new bed. I really need to start another small one since I have been trashing garden and kitchen scraps recently. I just have limited space in my tiny backyard.

I have never had a problem with it stinking, though occasionally will have flies if I dump a lot of kitchen scraps in at once and don't stir it in.

This is for Spklatt or anyone considering vermiculture (worm bin) I have 2 bins for worms plus 2 yard composters. There is no smell whatsoever. Check it out on Google. There are many sites that will explain vermiculture to you. I find the worms break down the scraps much faster than the compost bins too ! You must cut up the scraps pretty small or better yet, whiz them up in the blender first or a combo of both. Its a great way to recycle and get great amendments for your soil. I can't say enough about it ! The terrific !!!

Yes, I stopped adding for a few weeks after I discovered my husband was just throwing the kitchen scraps on the top and not getting it into the center of the pile. Yes, we started a fly problem, which we are eradicating. I also have a worm bin and the book "Worms eat my garbage" , but I still haven't figured out the best method for seperation of worms from compost.

I think that exact directions for composting scare folks away from doing it. If speed is not crucial, you don't have to turn it daily or water either. Nature will take it's course. It may not heat to the high temps, but it will still decompose.

I bid on two tomato plants as well as many other things at my garden club fundraiser sale and I just didn't have the time to get into the veg bed this year. I threw them into the compost bin after they had turned yellow and leggy in the pots and I didn't want to feel the guilt any longer. We, lo and behold, my Mother In Law came over the other day and asked me if I was growing tomatoes in my bin! I went to look, and sure enough!!, two beautiful, lush, green, flowering tomato plants!! Of course now they are staked up and I have watered :) One tomato emerging so far :) Very exciting.

Susan

This message was edited Nov 17, 2007 9:18 PM

Whoops- forgot to mention- Starbucks will give you all their spent coffee grounds just for asking. For a while I was taking out their entire trash bag of coffee grounds every day! I did have to hand dig through it and pick out plastics, but hey thats what we do for great compost. I also topdressed my evergreens with it last fall. I mix it in the bin and it's great combo for mixing in with the carbon type materials. They are supposed to give it to you in the small little punny bags meant for gardeners, but they were nice to give me the entire trash bag full on a regular basis. Smells good too!

It's too crazy for a "normal" person to understand this, but I know I will go to the local horse farms soon and ask for their poop too!

Susan

I compost everything too. All vegtable scraps, grass clippings, leaves, and sawdust. You can use sawdust as long as it is not treated lumber but we don't get treated lumber sawdust. I wouldn't use walnut sawdust either. I usually only get pine, oak, cherry, or poplar. I have a compost tumbler and LOVE it. I also have a wire bin set up that I throw leaves into in the fall and it breaks down really fast. My composts has NEVER smelled bad.

Question: are compost tumblers cost effective? And, how much can be produced per year/season?

We make compost of yard waste that isn't too woody and kitchen scraps. Actually, the compost makes itself. The stuff is put into the bin and left to its own devices. The earthworms, maggots, and beetle larvae work it over pretty well. Once in a while, DH sifts out the completed compost and puts the unfinished back into the bin. That's the only "turning" it gets. It rarely gets hot, so it's more like a worm composter, I guess.

I've learned more from this thread than in the last 5 years of reading detailed instructions in books. Thanks, everyone! Particularly soulgardenlove for reassuring us that nature will take its course, and for the excellent tomato story!! What a hoot.
Shannon

Why thank you!! I am determined to get my tomato pics on here soon!



This message was edited Dec 18, 2007 8:40 PM

My very kind husband bought me a tumble composter about 2 years ago, and a few months later we added a second one so that the first one, when full, can quietly "cook" until it is ready, and we've still got somewhere to dump the daily kitchen scraps and the garden debris/mistakes. I love them! It is enormously liberating to know that all the scraps of fruit, veges etc. are going to a good home, rather than down the garbage disposal, and there is nothing more satisfying that spreading out glorious home-made compost, full of wriggly worms onto the garden. I probably shouldn't have composted last year's Halloween pumpkin seeds though, because, perhaps not unexpectedly, I have lots of volunteer pumpkin plants in my flower beds at present! At least they are lush and green. I was a bit nervous about the whole composting process before going ahead and giving it a go, but as soon as someone pointed out that "compost happens", a lightbulb went off in my head, the nerves disappeared and I've never looked back.

I had a worm box for years. How to remove worms. Easy.
First, divide your worm bin contents into two. only put worm food into one part of division for a week or so. Then scoop out the other part.
You will find most worms have migrated over to the food side.

Start removing scoooped out compost aroundthe edges of the heap you have made. Every time you find a worm, return to bin. Eventually you will have wormless compost, with all worms back in the bin to carry on.

Put shredded newspaper b/w only into bin to give them some more space. Mix up the compost you didn't take out..

If youdo this during warm weather you may notice more worms where you use the compost because you will have worm eggs in there too.

Have fun.
Inanda

Ahhhhhhhhh. Very good. Thanks!! I'll do that

Susan

We've composted outdoors using both a 4x4x3 landscape timber frame and the dark green plastic composter "hut". Neither gets turned more than once a month. Everything except "meat/grease/sweets" goes in and sweet loam comes out. Would I actually buy compost? Heck no!

Props to Starbucks for their corporate recycling initiative! My friend used 5 pounds for container gardening with great success.

Vermicomposting is simple too. 40 to 80 degrees max, wide shread newsprint moisture like wrung out sponge, air flow, minimal environmental light, bury the scraps and wait.
Redworms will double populate quickly and the castings are exceptional, nutrient dense, and almost totally odor free.

Starting out I was a worm skeptic (not to mention the yuk factor) but it's a good thing. Don't buy into the complex, multi level units though. Simple, inexpensive storage bins with a vent on either end and a tight fitting lid is all you need.

I compost directly on the ground in the paths between the raised beds in the greenhouse,this is handy because it is ready to be mixed in or forked on the beds whenever I re-do them, and it fills the path up level with the bed so it is easier to plant the edges and it suports the sides of the beds.- the weeds and grass or materials suspected of having lots of seed in it, I put in the chicken coop and let them work it over-- when it is done it is black gold, and anything that grew is eaten and recycled back into the compost. I was given a compost tumbler and I used it for a while ,I decided the price was right and now I store my pop cans in it until they get recycled, I would choose a plastic garbage sack for composting over the tumbler.