How/where to start composting

[hvl25]

anyone have any tips on where/how to start? I would love to do this but have no idea what I am doing:

[lilyka]

me too. me too. I wanna know too!

[dharmama]

We started by just putting aside compostable (is that a word?) materials -- peels, skins, any leftover vegetables, tea bags, coffee grounds, egg shells etc. into a container on our counter.

We use a small plastic bucket with a plastic grocery bag liner but I know there are some special counter top compost containers available that have filters to help with the smell. For us, if it starts to get smelly, we just carry it outside.

Right now we just have a pile out behind our house (a good distance back into the woods). Eventually I want to construct a container so we can more effeciently turn our scraps into usable compost. We also mix in leaves, pine needles, grass clippings etc. (although I think some people do not mix in grass because they don't want grass seeds in their compost).

We were AMAZED at how much our trash was reduced by composting.

Good luck! Have fun!!

~Erin

[hvl25]

we are renting right now, just moved here. Not sure how my landlord would feel about acompost pile outside in the backyard plus our dog, not to mention whatever animals are out here. I am thinking about some kind of container system, not sure which one though. I saw a decent one in the planet natural catalog for about 65.00

[lilyka]

I large black garbage can with a secure lid will work just as well as the expensive one in the catalouge. Juat snap on the lid and roll and turn to mix.

I was putting my pile out behind our garage however that is right by our neighbors window. Fine for now but if they decide to get fresh air by opening thier windows I would feel pretty bad about the smell.

[hvl25]

do you do anything special to it? or just dump in all your compostable stuff and roll a couple times a week? What do you do when the can gets full? I am soo new at this, but I hate throwing all the food scraps,peels away everyday knowing I could be composting

[dharmama]

My aunt just started a worm compost bin. I don't know too much about it but I think you can do it in a small container (like a recyling bin size) and you feed your scaps to the worms who turn it into beautiful compost.

Here's a link I just found...
http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html

Interesting...says it works well in apartments and others with limited space.

~Erin

[lilyka]

Thanks for the link.

Garbage can and tossing is all I know. I forget where I learned that much even. I had heard that you had to put something mysterious in it but no one knows what., Wormsa sound good. We have those.

[Gemini]

I LOVE composting!

I read somewhere that even if you don't do anything but throw compostable materials in something, it'll happen, might take a little longer, but it eventually happens. But the turning or rolling makes it happen a lot quicker. I was amazed to look in my compost bin that got all piled up from the winter kitchen scraps a couple of weeks ago and it was down below the half way point! (And I haven't even touched it yet this spring!)

It does feel good to compost instead of throwing away! And than be able to use it! Yay!

Mine can't be turned so I use a pitchfork to get oxygen to it.

Another thing I put into mine is my dryer lint. Cat or dog fur from brushings, or human hair to for that matter can go in.

Just type in composting and you'll find any number of great links to get going!

[princess buttercup]

some people add lime to counter acidity and "balance" the pH (from lots of pine or lots of veggie/fruit waste). Water. aeration, and temperature factor in also.
here's a good link discussing using plastic garbage bags, barrels, and bins.

[LaLa]

I'm moving this to the gardening forum for you so you may find some more answers

[Chanley]

This might help a bit:
http://www.deeprootsnursery.com/compost.html

[stafl]

Compost pile should not stink. If it does, something is rotting instead of composting. Probably needs some ventilation holes stuck in it. Just poke with a stick and wiggle it around making the hole bigger.
Easiest way to start is to make a big pile, add everything you have on hand, grass clippings, leaves, veggie scraps, paper, you name it. And leave it alone. To speed up the process, you can turn the pile with a shovel or pitchfork every now and then.
No matter what you do, compost happens! Sure, some people will tell you the optimum ratio of green to brown ingredients and how much water, how often to turn, etc. But it all depends on how patient you are or how fast you want results.
gardenweb.com has a great forum all about soil and compost!

[CeraMae]

I'm an "everything rots eventually" composter, no bins or special layers, I just have a corner of the yard where I toss everything. I started out tossing scraps into a hole in the ground, then it became a pile. We have SO much less trash and it never stinks (bc all decomposables are outside). I put in grass clippins, leaves, the dirt I sweep off my floors, pet hair, leftovers and scraps. I turn it every couple of weeks or months, whenever I remember, just to help. I was so excited this year to shovel out all that dark, wormey soil to spread on my garden!!! It was wonderfully rich and smelled great. I tossed all the bigger pieces back in that hadn't decomposed completely, and still have quite a large pile left. I can't believe we've gone through so much waste!! I rent also, and the landlord doesn't mind a pile of dirt in the backyard. Believe me, in the end it is just that.

[SunnyMom]

I got four wooden pallets (like the kind used under boxes in the supermarket warehouse) and wired them together to form a "cube". I started with a layer of greens (lawn clippings, etc.) then added a layer of fresh manure. Since then I add whatever compost-friendly items we have from the household leftovers as well as clippings from my flowers and trees, any extra greenery from the garden (i.e. radish leaves, etc.) and every few weeks I cover the whole thing with a layer of dirt. I also water it thoroughly whenever I water the trees along the back of the property, which is every two-three weeks.

So far no smell at all. The slats of the pallets provide plenty of ventilation, plus I can see the progress of the composting (at least what's toward the outside). When it's ready to turn, I'll just get three more pallets and add another "cube" by attaching it to the current cube and then shovel it over. That way, what's on top now will be on bottom when it's turned. The stuff toward the very bottom will be what I'll use for my garden/flowers/etc. I'm not a technical composter, just kind of add to it and give it some TLC when I think about it

[mplsmom]

We love composting!! It makes us feel less guilty about all of the food that we toss out, after DD does not eat it. We started with a pile, every year it gives us supprise plants, last year it was a pumpkin. Then we got a ball, from the neighbor, dont like it too much. Then there is the container that we got from the county for 25$, love that, getting another this year. Squirls dont like it, but the cats love how hot it gets in the sun!!
I have looked into worm composting. I saw a cool container for worm composting at my garden store last week. I would recoment the book "worms eat my garbage"

Kirsten

Ps a nifty composte sifter is a wooden drawer with the bottom taken out and replaced with chicken wire. It lets us throw the chunks back in.
If you do recycle wooden palates, make sure that the wood is untreated, sometimes the put arsenic or other chemicals on those palates.

[kilrust]

I was given a worm farm for Christmas but it doesn't at this stage use a lot of scraps and I currently keep my extra scraps for the neighbours chooks who in turn give me fresh eggs. Great system I think Newspaper is also another item that is great for the worms and the compost heap and breaks down quicker if you rip it up a bit and dunk it in some water to make it wet. We are lucky here that we don't ever get really cold weather so everything breaks down quicker.

Ruth from sunny Australia

[Quirky]

We have one of those spinning composters that sits on a base but I don't think it's worth the money. We're vegetarian so produce a lot of veggie scraps and it fills up pretty quickly.

It is nice to have some sort of closed container though to keep rats out of it.

A couple things I haven't seen mentioned:

We throw our paper towels in the compost (we use unbleached by Seventh Generation).

Leaves compost really well if you cut them up in the fall by running your lawn mower over them. If you leave them whole they take forever to compost.

We don't put in weeds or diseased plants from the garden, because we worry that the pile doesn't get hot enough to sterilize any weed seeds or kill any plant diseases.

Don't put in meat scraps/bones.

If you do worms (I have never done them but my sister loves worm composting) you can't keep them outside when the weather gets below 45 or so (maybe warmer, you'd have to look it up). So you would need a basement or a garage or somewhere they could stay warmish.