totally wacko for composting

Okay, so today I was running errands and on the spur of the moment I pulled into a fast food restaurant, went to the pick up window and asked for the coffee grounds. They gave me a plastic sack with several pots worth after asking why. So I figured, I'll hit them all. I came home with a big old sack of coffee grounds for the composter. I had to share with people who will understand! My compost sure smells pretty now! C

Nice!! In the winter my compost is probably 70% coffee grounds and tea bags.....lol

LOL! Bet your car smells great, too!

WAWA has a huge coffe counter here, probably has a nice trash can full of just grounds back there......

Sally, I was feeling just too lazy to walk into the stores, I like drive thru trash pick-up. The car does smell good!

;-D Cathy

yes, i left a starbucks bag in my husbandscar once....'what the heck is this slimy bag of dirt ...and.why do i suddenly want a frappacino?'

Starbuck's is a once if not twice a week stop for me!!! On my yard, in my beds, in the composter.....

hmmm, I like the drive-thru option. We don't drink coffee, and this compost thing is mostly my idea.

Now get this.......my son is a Barista at a fairly busy coffee shop. Only about three times since I began composting have I been able to get by and pick the grounds up or have him bring them to me. I just made a note today to tell him that I will be coming by routinely to get them. This same son has recently become a new father and I am trying to see our grand daughter at least once a week. I could kill two birds with one stone if he were to bring the grounds home the same day that I visited with her. Really gonna suggest that.

Ruby

Ruby, that would be perfect, two happies in one trip.

Isn't there such a thing as too much coffee grounds?

I drink a good size pot of coffee everyday and throw any leftover coffee + the grounds into my compost pile. Are you guys talking about doing a lot more than that on a regular basis?

Ooops - I just saw another thread about how much coffee, so that answered my question. ;)

Sorry to bother you SCNewbie, but what did the article say about the correct amount of grounds to mix in?

I recently found out that the reason our compost ended up being mainly brown in color, versus black is that we used more browns than greens. I am sure that it will be some good stuff and a very nice feeding to the two small beds that I am going to use it on.

I wonder why composting is so addictive? It seems that when folks first start doing it, they go full speed ahead in most cases. I suppose that my answer to this question would be that I find it very satisfying in terms of first keeping waste out of landfills and secondly because I am producing something with my own hands. I was raised to not waste any thing if at all possible.

This is a very interesting thread. Thank you to all participants.

Ruby

I hate it when we are traveling and I have to leave the coffee grounds in from the hotel room coffee pot in the hotel room. It just about kills me but even I draw the line at soggy grounds in my luggage. But, come to think of it, can't you just imagine the faces on the airport security guys if I did carry them home............

Ardesia, that might make a "priceless" commercial for Mastercard.... LOLOL

Rubyw - I read this thread here, and the linked article, which basically told me you really can't overdo the coffee grounds. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/781653/

I think we get so addicted to composting because it appeals to a very basic sense of creating something from nothing when it comes to earth - ie, garbage to liquid gold for our plants. My baby sister lives in Kuwait with her KW husband and he is soooo jealous of my compost piles! lolol She won't let him compost (don't know why), so when they're visiting he plays with mine constantly and even writes me to ask how it's doing. lolol

I'm having probs keeping the balance in mine, I think, 'cus I get clouds of fruit flies whenever I open the lid to mine. Yuck! Think I need to add more brown.

In my town, we either have to pay for them to take it away as trash or pay the water and sewer bill if we disposal it. Even if we don't get any compost, it's already saving money.

x, C

Yeah, I've never heard a good reason *not* to compost.

SCnewbie, 2 things come to mind - a) how much you're turning your pile and b) how wet it is. But if you turn it often , it shouldn't be too wet, so it's almost the same thing. But that should get rid of your bugs...

Ya, I wasn't turning it. :( I have it in a black resin, bottomless bin and didn't have the tools I needed to get it turned easily.

I just got an aerator tool the other day that I got from Gardeners Supply, so I turned it the first time the other day. Now I'll be out there at least a couple of times a week. ;) I want this stuff on my garden!!!!

As a SB barista, I can tell you that all of the SB are supposed to prepackage used grounds for composting. If they're too busy they will often give you a whole trash bag full, cheerfully. Ask 'em to double bag, though!
Rick

Oh, wow, that's good to know!!! :))) Can you believe there's not a Starbuck's here in Anderson? But we're supposed to be getting one soon, from what I hear. I can hit up other Starbucks' in other areas, tho. :))

Barista, hunh?

x, C

Never thought to ask the coffee shops for the grounds...but we make enough of them as it is.

This message was edited Oct 22, 2007 10:03 PM

rick- will you get a prize if I squeal on two here that are certainly not saving grounds? one had no clue, the other just never has requests so why bother.
I would appreciate so much if they could put them outside for drive by snatching. I am shy about going in the front to ask. plus wating for the line a the counter. If they get anything supplied in large buckets, they might fil the bucket with grounds to be taken. But all this is only worthwhile if there's a level of interest in taking the grounds.

OOOoooo - they're in trrrrouuuuuble.....

Love the drivethru idea. I also thought about going to restaurants and asking for veggie and fruit scraps. I owned a restaurant at one time and I remember how many potato peelings and things we threw away. Wish I had it now.
I don't get al lot of that kind of thing from home cause I decided I'd cooked long enough and don't cook that much anymore.
I've also asked a gro. stores , but most of them already have pig farmers who pick theirs up.
Any other suggestions?

Don't forget the browns that you will need. Do you have a paper shredder? I am having a good time shredding the junk mail that seems to try and take over sometimes. I just go through and try to sort the shiny paper and put that in regular trash.

I was able to get about a full 5 gallon bucket of old coffee ground one day last week. My son is a Barista at a local coffee house and I just forget about getting it from him. It does require a bit of a drive for either he or myself, but I am going to try and get a bucket at least once a week.

My first batch of compost is done and ready to spread on two flower beds in back yard. I am looking forward to seeing how well next years flowers look versus this years which didn't have the good stuff.

We are lucky to live in the country and have cow pastures on both sides. It isn't pretty but we usually have a pile of cow dung somewhere on the property that we mix with regular soil when doing new planting. That too really makes things grow large.

Ruby

I too, swear by shredded paper. I even convinced DH we needed a more powerful shredder to handle shredding the amazing amount of paper that was coming into the house. Just out of curiousity I send a sample of my compost off to the Extension Service for an analysis and my NPK were all over the top of the scale.

You caught me. I spend a lot of time watching TV and shredding paper.
I just feel SO proud of myself. My kids just think I'm crazy, but they'll wish they had some of my compost this spring. Heh heh, but I'm going to be like the llittle hen with her wheat. "Remember when I begged for scraps and wanted you to save paper and cardboard"
I'm still not really sure what the limit is on paper, or what it's ratio to the other things should be.

Lorraine, as I understand it (haha) If you put a bucket of food scraps and green garden stuff in, you put in a bucket of newspaper shreds because they have a higher ratio (of nitrogen?) than the food scraps have of whatever it is they have.

Now I may be wrong, it has happened before! haha! Mine is doing well except for the vines I didn't chop. I've been pulling them back out as they surface in the tumbler. The only thing I can still really identify is the larger pieces of newspaper that got thrown in from a package I received, they were damp and I just pitched them in whole. Lessons learned.

You're *this close*, Cathy!

If it's green, it's probably a green a'cause of it's nitrogen.

It it's brown (or dead, usually) it's a brown a'cause of it's carbon.

Do ya'll have a favorite shredder? I've had two die young on me and I'm hesitant to invest in one again.

Thanks pagancat, I knew something had nitrogen, haha. No chopper here, big stuff is still going in the yard waste pick-up.

Nnnnooooooo!!!

Please don't spank me, I don't have any way to make it smaller. It isn't going in the trash, it is made into mulch. I don't pick it up because a neighbor did and it was full of bugs that they can't get rid of.

No spankings, honest - you do so well, anyway. But I'm glad to hear it goes to mulch!

Our little city is fairly progressive, we've been recycling everything for many years. Each week we have a plastic/glass/can/paper pick up one day, yard waste another day, in addition to regular trash, all for free ($ comes from sales tax). Half of the year they come by every other week to chip large branches, and if there is a storm, they set up special chipping days. We put very little in the regular trash. Now if we could get everyone to participate, it would be wonderful, the lazy lumps. (oh, did I say that outloud?)

Regular trash for us is $3 a bag. We compost everything we can. x, C

Wow carrie, that is a good incentive to compost.

Shew!!!

We have Starbucks here but most don't save the grounds. I know of a few that will, but they're not anywhere near my home. (not upscale enough for Starbucks). If I'm driving around the city and come near a Starbucks I stop and ask, but most just say "We don't do that".

Mine is not a very "green" area. Yard waste isn't composted, it goes to the landfill with everything else. I had a heck of a time buying a compost bin locally because stores don't even carry them. I'm too cheap to pay all that postage. I finally did get a guy at a local Smith and Hawkin store to special order a Biostack bin for me. I liked it so much that I then ordered another. They're kind of expensive, but I really like them. Much easier to use than a solid bin.

Karen

I might try checking on the Biostack composter. Buyiing two is good advertising for them. ha-ha

So, once again I have lost my notes and forget the ideal green/brown ratio. Do you remember Pagancat? From what I hear, I must have used more browns than I should have last year had I wanted the "black" gold that everyone speaks of. My first batch is more brown than black, and I read somewhere that is due to using too many browns.

I am sure that it is going to be good stuff though, despite it's color. It will soon be spread across two smallish type of beds that I have in the back yard. The soil there is not as good as the quality of most of my other beds which had cow manure worked in to soil, while planting. We are just waiting for the first frost and the old stems and things to hit the ground before we spread any of it.

I noticed while I was in town the other day that people are beginning to bag up their leaves and leaving at the curb. Will probably try to get a few bags of leaves pretty soon.

You all have a good Sunday.

Ruby