totally wacko for composting

I haven't had any luck yet finding a Dunkin' Donuts nearby that'll save coffee grounds for me. . . "why not try to find a Starbucks?" you say--remember, this IS Massachusetts! LOL! (Actually there ARE Starbucks in cities here but not near me on the Cape.) But I have managed to train DH never to discard our own coffee grounds anywhere but in my under-the-sink compost-pail. That is major!

I am not trying to be a shill for the Biostack either, but I also like mine a lot--I now have three and am asking for another for Christmas! (you KNOW you're totally whacko when a compost bin is at the top of your Santa-list!!) The three-part construction makes it much easier for me to toss the compost. Also, I don't have room in my garden for a large "open-air" pile or three, much as I would love to have this.

Below is a link to the Smith & Hawkin site. The Biostack is presently on sale there for $103--in contrast to $145 on Amazon.com.

http://www.smithandhawken.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=prod21199&categoryId=cat340061p&sku=21199

Thanks so much for posting Cape Cod. Those really are good looking composters and look easy enough for some of the frailer women to use. That is a new website to me, so thanks again.

Ruby

If you can find a Smith and Hawkin store, you can get them there and avoid paying the shipping charge.

I know I also sound like an advertisement for the Biostack. But before them I had an old plastic bin, one cube with one of those stupid doors at the bottom. I never could flip the contents adequately so it took forever to get compost. The bottom door was a joke because as soon as a shovel full of material was removed from the bottom, the upper stuff would just fall down, some out the door, so that it wouldn't close. I probably had that thing for 15 years and the door just stayed open since trying to close it was just a frustrating exercise in futility.

The Biostack is easy to flip so I generally do it after the temp of the compost falls to 90 or 100, or at least every couple of weeks. I get compost in a fraction of the time. I hope these last as long as my previous bin.

Karen

Ruby, I am a 55 year old woman, 5"3" tall, with some physical challenges and I flip the contents regularly, as I said above. Occasionally my husband will see me and take pity on me and come and do it. I never ask him though, because he isn't wild about my compost. He finds it pretty disgusting.

A compressed nerve left me with a neuropathy (pain and weakness) in one leg, I have arthritis in both hands and carpal tunnel in in one. Overall, not a picture of strength and ability, but I do the compost thing. It makes me feel good.

OK I talked myself into going out into the cold wet yard. Maybe I'll spread the rest of that finished compost. Have to finish everything in time for the Steeler-Bengal game today. Go Steelers!

Karen

ackkkk----I got money riding on the Steelers----(oops)

I need my DH (who is currently out mowing the leaves LOL) to empty the wheelbarrow so I can try to empty my compostumbler into it! We went with that brand because I'm in a wheelchair and DH has a seriously bad back. i know NOBODY would be turning that compost if it weren't easy!

x, Carrie

I use the compost tumbler too for the same reasons. It is actually easier to turn the fuller it gets. Mine has openings on each end. I like that because I can see how much it is mixing when I turn it.

Threegardeners: in the winter when you have mostly coffee and tea grounds, what is the other 30%? Here comes the dumb question again, are grounds brown or green? I finally understand newspaper, haha.

The other 30% would be the coffee filters, and maybe the odd bit of vegetable remains---lettuce, carrot peels, cabbage, potato peels, etc.

Wow, I never heard of openings on each end. We have the biggest size because that's what someone had on Craigs List.

Oh Karen, it's funny; I too am the composter of the family (at 5'5' and age 62). DH has been know to come and give enouragement as I am flinging my pitchforks of compost between various Biostack-layers, but basically he doesn't understand the "appeal" either! I'm not sure I even do, but it's SO REWARDING! Yesterday I forked enough crumbly brown stuff out of my bins to fill a 40-gall. trash barrel, and I am SO proud that I want to floodlight the barrel for all to see! With a separate display area for earthworms!

Rewarding indeed. I cut down all of the annuals in my front bed today. Then I spread the rest of my finished compost there, it smelled wonderful and It was exhilarating. My husband mowed the lawn, and the front yard was mostly maple leaves. After topping off the bed with compost, I then spread the leaves about 4 to 6" think over that bed.

A great feeling of accomplishment. One small planting bed area ready to put to sleep for winter.

Karen

Wah! I want my Biostack, *now*!

"A great feeling of accomplishment. One small planting bed area ready to put to sleep for winter."

It's like tucking them up all warm and cozy and safe for the winter.

All of you are women after my own heart. I too am 5' 3" and have some limitations with my body too. I understand the peripheral neuropathy very well, even though I am now working with doctors to figure out what is causing it. Yep, my husband actually got "huffy" with me a few days ago as I was talking about my compost. What is wrong with these guys? ha-ha I will just try to limit my dirty talk to you all instead of him from now on. ha-ha

Kqc, I am envious. I haven't begun cleaning up the beds yet. Will either begin tomorrow or one day next week when a friend has offered to come and help. I also have several bunches of bulbs that need to go in the ground and will try to get them in about the same time.

Well, thanks to all who are posting here. I am getting an education.

Ruby

Ruby: I really have to get moving on this. We have our first frost now at 32 degrees. Problem is, leaves are just now beginning to fall. The leaves I used yesterday fell from my maple so I got a little start, but still so much to do. I still have annuals in the ground from which I was hoping to collect seeds. I spent all of last evening cleaning dried seed heads, a job I detest, but the surface area in my dining room was completely consumed by drying seed heads...

No neighbors have started cleaning up leaves yet, so I won't be able to finish fall prep on my beds until those leaves start accumulating. Then I start hoarding the leaves for next year's composting.

Karen

Yep, sounds like you and I both still loads to do. I guess that taking one step at a time, will get us to our destination. No other way to do it. ha-ha

Here is a pic of my compost pile.

Ruby,
That looks just like the wall around my raised bed!
x, Carrie

If you want a Biostack, you can buy it at Lowes for less than $100. Smith & Hawken is a Scotts Miracle Gro subsidiary, so I think the bin says Scotts Miracle Gro larger than it says Biostack on the bin, but it's the exact same one that Smith & Hawken sells.

I bought two this past spring and like them very much.

Oh, sure, NOW you tell me that! You are, indeed, a wicked elph >smile< !

Maybe I could use two... hmmmm...

My daughter is going as Galinda with a friend going as Elphaba. "Elph" made me think of that, I know it's not on topic!

widkedelph: That's not true everywhere. I tried both Lowes and Home Depot and neither carried any compost bins of any type. Also tried city, county, township, civic garden center, other garden centers- no luck. The only place I found any locally was at Worms Way. I didn't like the few that they had and they were very expensive.

I first saw the Biostack online but our local Smith and Hawkin didn't stock any. I had to have them special order it for me, but at least it avoided the shipping charge. I picked it up at the store.

I've heard before that the Biostack was made by Miracle Grow. Mine doesn't say that anywhere that I see, nor did the literature that came with it.

Karen

Cause you bought it from S&H. (Not green stamps, lol!)

Wow, this thread is just full of all us poor pitiful bad back people. I am 61 and have had a back thing for 20 years. Ruptured disks, herniated disk and anything else you can think of, but I still get the composting and gardening done!! May not get to the dishes, but my compost looks good!!
I'm really having a hard time finding enough green. Just don't cook that much, but do eat fruit a lot, but still not enough. I do put grass clippings in when I have them. So what does that mean for my compost and can anyone tell me some other greens.
When I turn it it looks good and black and smells like good rich dirt, but will it be any good

Interesting - usually people have the exact opposite problem.

Lemme see -
-Weeds - if you aren't getting heat, pull any seed heads off, first.
-Annual plants in decline
-Start bringing home doggie bags from where you ate with salad (no dressing, please! Well, some won't hurt, but not a ton,) veggie, and garnish leftovers. Lettuce is great.
-You can buy alfalfa cubes or pellets from feed stores. A 50lb bag is about $10, and they need to be soaked for an hour or so first.

Ummm.... can't think of anything else, but I might later...

If it looks good, smells good, it IS good!!! Good job!

I went out yesterday afternoon and played in the garden for a bit. We had much needed rain last week and I didn't get outside much. I have two flower beds that had an assortment of different types of plants. Gladiolus for the most part. I cut back the dieing stems on a lot of them and added to compost. I also began cutting back the dieing zinnia's. One day this week my hubby or son will probably mow for the last time this year. It will most likely be long enough that we are going to need to rake it up and that will make for some compost material.

I am hoping to get to front beds later today and see what all I can find to compost. I do know that I have a ton of moist leaves to get up. Probably will have some twigs and other woodsy type things too. We had some horrific winds after the rains stopped.

I am thinking that next week will be the time that I choose to plant the new bulbs that I bought recently. They are mostly tulips and were a spur of the moment buy. I like tulips but they just don't last long enough.

Thanks to everyone contributing to this thread. It is good reading.

Ruby

Lorraine, whenever I pinch fading leaves off of my houseplamts, I add them to the compost bucket that I keep under the kitchen sink. It doesn't make a lot, but every little bit helps.

Ruby

Of course availability will vary with location, but I'm sure Lowes would also be able to special order one. I just put it out there so some people can save a few bucks, I know I was excited when someone here but on another board first mentioned it and I ran over to Lowes as soon as I could. Also, if you look at the Smith & Hawken website, you will see at the very bottom that it is a division of Scotts Miracle-Gro.

Pagancat, don't fret! They're worth their weight in gold- black gold! ha ha, I couldn't resist. Once you start using yours, you will soon want a second and then probably a third. I know I do!

You are an enabler, aren't you, elph? LOL - just what I need!

My area is just not very "green". No govt. composts anything- city, county, township...
When I asked for a compost bin at Lowes and Home Depot neither person even knew what a compost bin is.
"A container for making compost"
"What's compost?"

Pitiful.

The county has a bin sale, supposedly one day in spring and fall. This spring, at the Cinti Garden Show, I saw the composter that they were going to sell at the spring sale, and I didn't think much of it. Still, I was going to buy one because it was cheap. However, when time came for the one day sale it was cancelled. Not postponed, but cancelled. They said they couldn't get them from the supplier. So I bought another Biostack from S&H. Now I'm so glad that I have 2 of them, even if I paid $99 each.

Like I said, not a "green" area. I only know of one person in this city, a neighbor, who composts.

Karen

Last I heard, the trash company still supplies the recycle bins for free. I'm sure that is built into the contract costs, but it keeps the street tidy, everyone has the same bin out at the curb. We've worn the bottom out of the one we got over 10 years ago. It has saved everyone money in the long run, not to mention dump space. This is one time when government really worked good for us, we used to pay a monthly fee, some people paid, others didn't, it was a giant mess. Karen, maybe you can form a consortium of neighbors to contract for services since you are paying anyway?

I doubt it. There is recycling of plastic, glass, etc, but not composting being done. Really, most people around here don't seem to even know what compost is. And they have no interest in finding out about such things.

Karen

That's really too bad, Karen. The way I see it is that every beneficial nugget I put into the stuff growing at my house, whether it be water, fertilizer, manure, or whatever, can be recycled right in my own back yard. Otherwise I'll be buying stuff forever. As it is, I'm buying way too much food we don't eat and so forth. Throwing anything so precious away seems like such a waste.

xx, Carrie

Carrie, you've said it so well. . . EVERYTHING has the potential for recycling, especially those "beneficiial nuggets" (love that phrase) in our so-called garbage. It does feel so good.

You folks are to be commended on your compost capers. I've been doing it for well into sixty years.

You can raise the bar a hundred fold or more by learning how to create aerobic tea from your compost and or worm castings. You have not seen an addiction until you find the value of aerobic teas.
Go to the North Country Organics web site to get a quick aerobic tea 101 course for yourself. This is one of the better basic no baloney sites available.

Went to NCO but I didn't see a recipe for aerobic tea! Can you provide the link?

On the North Country Organics site get into the pages that talk about the Bobolator. I have evolved to forty gallon brews. My base is made up of the following: Three cups of local compost, two cups of earth worm casts, six ounces of black strap molasses, four ounces of fish oil, two ounces of 30% humic acid, one cup of trace minerals and eight teaspoons full of dehydrated kelp meal.

I started with purchased compost from NCO. As soon as that first bag was used up and my compost pile was innoculated with or by it I went to using my own local improved compost.

I used NCO bacteria and fungi boosters the first year only. Improved local compost and my personal application away from the NCO suggested starting base seems to be working excellent for me.

Without further changing of content or blend I paid to have one brew tested. My results were about as good as the test results shown on the NCO site. I did not pay nor will I pay for further testing. I know it is excellent. That's good enough for me. There are so many things one could add. I think that is fine but suggest highly that additional add in parts be done very lightly so as not to fix something that is not broken.

The above base elements produce finished aerobic tea in about eighteen hours at 76 degrees. I use Biti Bobolator which is no longer available. To mimic the Bobolator....an excellent and easy design to use and clean incuding a compressor will cost about $200.00.

It has been said that one gallon of aerobic tea made properly contains about as much living biology as fifteen or more tons of fresh manure. The suggested farming application is to apply one gallon per acre two or three times a year. More will not hurt in any event. Your soil organic content should be over 5% in order for the biology being added to have ample food. I apply forty gallons over my whole property lawns and gardens three times a year. Cost after initial outlay is hardly worth counting up. Returns can be dramatic. I am a competition grower that has seen the improvement over all as well as size and weight of items I grow.