Alternative Compost Ingredients

In addition to traditional compost ingredients (grass clippings, manure, table scraps) I would like to know alternatives for successful compost ingredients. I know there are some of you out there that compost just about anything. What are some of the more creative items that you have composted or have heard of others composting...and how should they be prepared?

Try paper from a shredder. Just keep it moist.

Human heads, when I can get them.

Actually, the odd mouse I catch in the trap. Pinecones for more air, and some badly-written letters from an old boyfriend.

I heard somewhere that blue-jeans work. I assume they need to be shredded and any metal needs to be removed. If blue-jeans can be used I also assume that any natural fiber clothing item would work...like old cotton tee-shirts.

I just use the hair from human heads. The rest takes too long. :-)

Actually, hair adds nitrogen. (human or pet)

My dad used to toss his daily grapefruit half onto his compost heap. (Although I think citrus actually isn't that great for compost.) Because he is a tad OCD the grapefruit halves always had to be perfectly evenly spaced. So his compost heap looked like some sort of alien with these bright yellow bumps sticking out on top.

The mention of human heads reminded me of this...I can just picture evenly spaced heads instead of grapefruit halves on my father's compost heap... :)

pam

I tried feathers. They are very high in nitrogen and I never know what to do with old pillows anyway. I really can't report on the final result because I put them into the compost during this past winter and things haven't really cooked much yet. I would say they have not even begun to break down.

If you are looking for a quick way to boost the nitrogen sources, then adding old lawn fertilizer will make the pile cook faster.

I once diluted the dregs in the bottom of a jug of fish emulsion and poured it on a compost heap. It accelerated the process greatly.

If I were a compost heap and someone dumped fish emulsion dregs on me, I too would speed up the composting process.

I once put a phone book in a big passive compost pile. I never did find it...
The gardener's version of ripping a phone-book in half.

Waste not, Want not, for the frugal composter:

Plants that refuse to bloom, even after verbal threats.

That interminable flood of blasted officious Mantis-tiller mail advertizements.

Citrus rinds are fine, but take longer if thier size isn't minimized.

Children that pick your flowers.

Egg shells are great for attracting the attention of skunks to otherwise uninteresting compost.

Parking tickets have a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 666:1.

The greatest delight can be acheived by taking offending squash-bugs and introducing them into the center of a hot, thermophilic pile. Very fresh nitrogen.

Those rock hard cookies your neighbor gives you, as she has great trust in her cooking abilities and has not tested them before giving them away since 1976, when her cooking abilities were worth trusting.

Aliens that refused to have high tea with you, stating that they were more interested in meeting world leaders.

Last year's day-planner. This years planner for the full-time hobby gardener.

Make sure any clothing articles (especially Grateful Dead Teeshirts) are not polyester or blends. If you give a bucket of compost to a friend, it can be very embarassing, and lead to your friend greeting you with mace in his/her back pocket from that time on.

To-do lists for fickle gardening clients.

Some discussion has found that the (male) gardener, who either lives away from his neighbors or gardens at night, will have a constant supply of nitrogen rich water, easily aimed at spots that need it...

K. James

LOL,

Thanks James

Enjoyed your post, JamesCo. Thanks for the fun. HM

I am getting all I need from Dairy farms open silos. Last year I got a bunch of composted mint. This year I'm getting the same thing cause it made every shovel I turned over smell wonderful. The down wind is far superior to cow doo doo. Pine cones are chopped up and put in my compost so they add texture to my compost and let the soil drain and breath when I till it in.

Seaweed, a delightful guest in any compost heap.

Dang. I thought Colorado had everything a man needs. I'll have to settle for mountain cress.
Some previous discussion/research revealed that Seaweed, if rinsed, does not, in fact, harbour salinity levels worth fretting over. Apparently it contains cilica, which adds traces of an odd clay.

Ahh seaweed tomorrow I will be swimming in the sea ferns off the reef in Ixtapa. I can't wait. See you Kenton.

Your goal in life is just to make all of us jealous.

Another thing you might not know of... lint from your clothes dryer.

Plus, dryer lint makes great tinder to start fires!

Darius, above you said shredded paper works in compost. Are you talking about "office" shredded paper, i.e., white paper, etc? I thought it needed to be newspaper. Thanks for your reply. Pat

Pat, I just remember someone earlier (not this thread) said shredded office paper works well, as long as it is well mixed in. I wouldn't use much paper personally unless they used soy inks. Regular inks are NOT what I want in my garden!

Who knows what that stuff is treated with, but a little can't hurt.

Make sure your dryer lint is from Cotton and not polyester/acrylic garb; unless you are composting to grow a plastic flower garden like the old ladies next door to so many of us.

I have a book called "Let it Rot! The Home Gardener's Guide to Compsting" by Stu Campbell. The ISBN is 0-88266-049-7. It's quite complete. There are 10 chapters along with references and an index. His "Partial List of Materials Suitable for Composting" contains about 100 items. There is a separate chapter devoted to activators, which are categorized as either artificial, bacterial, or natural.

I just bought "Let it Rot!!" from Amazon.com...

I read a nifty one called, simply "Compost" by Clare Foster in one sitting. It sticks out in my memory as being mildly entertaining and a very strait-forward simple book on compost techniques and concepts.

Jamesco

You got me with the earlier hint of putting this year's day planner into the compost heap. On your rec I ordered Compost by Clare Foster - a new hardcopy is available on the Amazon aftermarket for 3.95 + heaven-only-knows how much shipping and handling. Gotta love that one-click ordering. I just emptied the plastic compost bin I have used for years...it is too ugly to look at anymore so it is behind the shed. I am still looking for an iron grate or some sort of chic fencing to surround a new compost heap....something I can disguise with plants so it blends in. I am getting more anti-plastic all of the time! HM

herbmoxie,

Anti-plastic is good. I still can't understand why anyone would coat their house is plastic (code name: vinyl siding) or put up plastic fencing. As an architect this has always been one of my pet-peves. I say use a material for what it was intended (plastic makes great bags & squeezable ketchup containers).

Additionally vinyl requires all sorts of toxic chemicals to make it. It never rots in land fills (inevitably that is where it will end up.) It is not at all impact resistant (try throwing a baseball at it). A good hot summer or a barbeque set too close turns it yellow. Worst of all, it may leak (which it often does) and because it doesn't show wetness your entire wall can rot out behind it and your "no maintenance, lifetime warrenty" plastic siding still looks like plastic.

(I appologize for the off-subject post. Herbmoxie got me started.)

I'm in the "no plastic" camp also. Even when buying foodstuffs.

Those plastic fences, if not put up correctly, look all warpy and unprofessional! I like the idea (form), but function just isn't there... and besides that, they glow in the dark!!!

Down with plastic! You all have uplifted me! I thought I was alone in that, did you?
I love it for seed starting and plant-receptacles. I would never have a smidge of it in my actual garden.

I know that a bicyclist can take out a plastic fence by leaning into it. Collapsable, eh?

How about furniture? (dull, nasty shivers down the back...)

Soferdig,
How do you chop up pine cones? I have about 3 billion Loblolly cones in my yard right now. They never seem to break down for me. I have mountains of them piled up from years past.

I use the shredded junk mail and bank statements in my compost pile all the time; browns are scarce around here. Yes, they probably do contain some nasty stuff but I feel most manures do too. Who knows what they fed those cows?

But, at least there is no plastic in my garden.

Willmetge

I don't think a polite, light rant about anti-plastic is off-topic in a compost forum. Makes me feel better to know that others are skeevie about plastic in the garden. (and microwave!)

Flowrlady - the glow in the dark comment cracked me up! You're right....I will have to think about a moonless night walk sometime in June through the neighborhood just to get the giggles.

HM

I've had my eye on a big pile of bagged leaves at a house down the street from where I work. I've tried several times to get permission to haul them off but nobody has been home. Someone was finally there this evening and thought I was weird for asking but they were happy to have me haul them off. I managed pile the back of my full-sized truck with as much wet, heavy, compacted, six-month-old, bagged leaves as it could hold (which is a lot--probably 30+ large bags).

I think this composting stuff is going to my head. A few years ago who would have thought I would be so excited about a truck load of old, rotting, dead leaves?

They will be great for layering with all my excess sod.

I agree with Darius! Plastic food tastes horrible and has no nutritional value! ;)

Welcome to the club of fanatics, Willmetge. (Will?)
Just wait until you are known at work as having a bag to collect everyone''s after lunch compostables. Yep, it's coming.

I've "stolen" leaves from a public park, as the Fraxinis trees are first to shed. I just couldn't wait...
Want to see my leaf pile?

Let's see your leaf pile James.

I wanna see it too..!!

Loretta...

Ok, just went out to take a picture.
I see now that it has compacted/composted and been used from it's prior glory last fall, when it was as tall as my truck. I don't know why anyone needs to collect all of the leaves from all of the trees in the neighborhood, because now my neigbors expect this free service...

Dogs are for scale. It is about ten feet wide, and a twig/branch pile behind it.
Hm. not so impressive looking, really.

Jamesco

Actually, it is impressive. Those look like the best behaved dogs in the world. Are they real? I am continuing in my quest to replace the plastic bin with a relatively attractive trash to treasure fencing system. The price of copper pipe has risen so much I have had to scrub the idea of building my own chic open-air bin. I can't get my hands on an iron grate. The local used furniture dealer has suggested an old baby crib (cut off the legs and bottom) and has promised me a call when one that is too junky to be used safely as a baby crib comes her way. My spouse has decided I have gone completely round the bend. When my sons learned they have to mow a pile of leaves over and over into bits...well....it was kinda funny.

HM