Talk to me about Composting

[askew]

I have never liked composting as the bins I saw were rodent and insect magnets and always surrounded by bees, which I am allergic to.

That being said, I know that if I were to compost I would greatly reduce my waste. I was thinking of trying one of those self contained composting balls like this

Anyone have any experience with such things? Or want to talk me into how important it is to compost to reduce my footprint.

[swimswamswum]

My friend has one that she loves. It makes compost much faster and with less effort than a standard bin. That said, we have a standard bin that we share with our neighbor. It works really well for us because it's in our garden which is away from the part of the yard where we spend the most time. It's really easy to compost- we just keep a container in the kitchen, fill it with scraps, egg shells, peels and grounds and then dump it when it gets full. We rotate the compost when we remember and put it on the garden at the beginning and end of the season. I don't really care if critters use it too because it's far from our houses. I use it mostly to eliminate waste- it's a bonus that it produces nice fertilizer. The composter machines are great if you're all about the fertilizer.

[spiderdust]

I have some friends with two of those composting barrels and they love them!

I kinda went the cheap route with mine. I got some plastic : trash barrels with snug-fitting lids, drilled holes in the sides and bottom, and use those as my compost bins. Once a week, my BF mixes up the compost with a pitchfork so it can aerate.

He also built a sifter out of some pieces of wood and some small mesh chicken wire, and once a month he sifts the compost (although this is after it's been composting for months). The bigger pieces go back into the compost bin and the smaller, completely composted bits become potting soil. You can completely skip the sifting process and it will still compost just fine, but this gives some of the harder pieces (like sticks, woody root vegetables, etc.) some more time to break down.

We currently have 6 bins going right now, one of just soil, one that is our "fill" bin, and the others that are "cooking"/going through the composting process. Many households get by with just one or two, but ours filled up pretty quickly! All of our lawn clippings go in there, egg shells, coffee grounds, vegetable peelings (or at least the ones that don't go into the soup scrap container in the freezer get composted), rosebush trimmings, apple cores, tea bags, etc... sometimes we'll get some wood ashes from a friend to throw in there, but most of it's just our own stuff!

[Best Feeling]

This is on my list of things to set up once the weather starts warming up. Does anyone have any good tips or websites for a total newbie to composting?

[moderngal]

I kinda went the cheap route with mine. I got some plastic trash barrels with snug-fitting lids, drilled holes in the sides and bottom, and use those as my compost bins. Once a week, my BF mixes up the compost with a pitchfork so it can aerate.

I did, too. Except that I use a metal trash can instead of plastic.

I'm a really lazy composter though, so I'm not always good at remembering to turn or water it. But it still works and I get good compost.

some good compost sites:
http://www.earth911.org/master.asp?s...s/organics.asp
http://www.composting101.com/

[swimswamswum]

Originally Posted by Best Feeling

This is on my list of things to set up once the weather starts warming up. Does anyone have any good tips or websites for a total newbie to composting?

Check with your local extension office. The ones around here have free workshops about composting and making worm bins.

[dillonandmarasmom]

Originally Posted by moderngal

I did, too. Except that I use a metal trash can instead of plastic.

I'm a really lazy composter though, so I'm not always good at remembering to turn or water it. But it still works and I get good compost.

some good compost sites:
http://www.earth911.org/master.asp?s...s/organics.asp
http://www.composting101.com/

Me, too.
I have a plastic can with a lid, and I have a big black stackable. One is stinky and I try to keep it to grasses and soil, the other gets constant air, so I put it all in there. Both work well and have yielded some nice soil so far.

[spiderdust]

Originally Posted by moderngal

I'm a really lazy composter though, so I'm not always good at remembering to turn or water it. But it still works and I get good compost.

I know of someone who used to bungee cord her trashcan-style compost bin closed so the lid couldn't pop off, and then she'd let her kids kick it around the yard to aerate it!

[MiaPia]

angelika13 - I couldn't open your link to see what composter you were talking about.

We have 3 composters.
One is an fully enclosed tumbler like this
Then we have a pyramid composter like this.
And last we have a pile in a corner of our yard that sharply slopes down.

The tumber would definitely keep out rodents and large critters, but you will still attract some bugs more than likely. I like it because it's fast, and can make really hot compost if we remember to turn it. Because it is enclosed I also use it for kitchen scraps that I would normally throw away, like chicken or fish bones and things like that.

The compost pile is what we use for bigger yard waste. It's easy to just pile it up. When I'm repotting indoor plants I empty the old pots in the pile. I also sometimes chuck garden waste like over-ripe produce. We don't do anything to it, just let it sit and do its thing.

The pyramid is by far my favorite. Even when we don't remember to stir it as often as we should it still makes good compost. We've got a ton of earthworms that have moved in, so that helps. I've never seen a rodent in it, but we do have a HUGE lizard that lives in it, and I've seen snakes.

[kdaisy]

Ours is definitely the cheap route. It is wire fencing wrapped in a circle in the far corner of the garden, at the end of our yard. It composts very efficiently because so much of it is exposed to the elements.

I suppose it gets its share of bugs, but I have never had a problem with rodents or other critters. We live in the city though. Insects we don't want don't seem to be a problem, either; I've never seen bees in it. However we always have a good ratio of wet to dry material. When we dump our kitchen pail, we always cover it with the drier material that is under it, like leaves or dried grass. We never have a problem with odor either.

However, this pile does get hard to turn. We turn it as much as we can. But after it really got big our solution was to simply start a new one in another corner after about five years. The old one was a goldmine of rich black compost. (Compost piles don't "expire" or "die out".) I may be a little nutty, but all of that black stuff just made me so happy!

[SageR]

We just have a regular old pile surrounded by old wood pallets, pretty similar to what my parents - former organic growers - had when I was a kid. one of the pallets is not nailed down so I just move that out of the way when I turn it.

I've never had any problem with odor or insects but last spring when I turned the pile a family of HUGE rats came scrambling out of the ground! I asked around and most people talked to think that only happened because the pile is near a very large, very old tree. The roots made a very nice place for the rats to dig out a den for themselves. Anyway, it scared me half to death but there was no harm done.

Getting nice fertilizer and reducing landfill waste are of equal importance to use. Even though our compost sits for a big chunk of the year - it is not constantly turned- we don't have any problem with getting good soil out of it each year. One important thing to make sure you do if possible is layer your materials - we don't bother in the winter but in warm months every couple weeks we put in a layer of leaves, grass clippings etc on top of all the kitchen waste. This prevents the pile from getting to wet and heavy - which would prevent air circulation, which is critical to aerobic decomp. If you can get straw that has been in a chicken coop or animal pen that is really good too!

[Jojo F.]

I would give my left leg for one of those!!

Whenever we buy our own house- we rent- I'd like to try to make one- http://www.solidwastedistrict.com/pr...bin_barrel.htm

Right now I have a bin our neighbor gave to me and I really don't like it. It's too hard for me to turn it and it filled up really fast. In our old yard I had an open pile and loved it. It was soooo easy to turn and composted really fast- hot pile.

[2 in August]

We just have a pile in the back corner of our yard. We are in a subdivision that backs up to some woods (although they put a road and houses in the middle of the woods). Anyway, my dh dumps the grass clippings, leaves etc in a big pile and during the summer we throw the kitchen scraps out there too. We get some critters, but they live here anyway. Dh turns the pile once a month or so. We don't even have a fence or anything around ours. It's just a bump in the back corner under the trees.

[TinyBabyBean]

Composting is so very important. I didn't realize it at first on my road to becoming aware of living in harmony with the earth.

In two words, Methane Gas. From fermenting food waste in land fills. Methane gas is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases being trapped here.

When you stick stuff in a plastic bag all that stuff is trapped in the plastic bag just fermenting away. Unless the bag gets ripped open at the landfill, and it will still of course just rot outside the bag. Or worse, if it gets incinerated.

The stuff that can be composted can take up almost 1/3 of your trash.

I found this quote online, Will Rogers, who lived through the great dust bowl once said: “They’re making more people every day—but they ain’t making any more dirt.”

The earth in her lovely design intended for all waste to go back into ground and create more rich fertile dirt. In a very fundamental sense I believe we feed the earth by composting.

If you are worried about rodents sprinkle cayenne pepper around your compost pile. To keep flies away make sure stuff is buried at least 15 cm below the leaves.

We have a huge lazy compost heap that rarely gets stirred and we never water it. It is making great soil and is filled with all sorts of compost making insects. Just a few days ago we discovered a potato plant growing in it! Feeding the earth and she is feeding us back I guess! Might sound silly but I was pretty impressed and thankful too.

[rachaelmomma]

Composting is something that my husband and I have recently started to look into. We live in an apartment complex, but have decided to grow some veggies and herbs in a potted garden on our balcony. Do you have any "composters for dummies" sites or something to visit, that can spell it all out for two basically clueless people?

[anonyma]

I am so excited to find this thread. Back when I lived with friends, we composted, and it was amazing how little we threw away when composting was combined with recycling. Ever since, I've wanted to start again, but DP and I have never lived in a place with the right kind of set up or space. Until now! But the array of composters is really mind-boggling. I'm going to sit down, study this thread (and sub), and see if I can't find some useful pointers.

[Ravin]

I just started composting. Anyone know if I can through fruit/veggies that have gone bad in the fridge in it? What about moldy bread? Palm leaves? I just had a huge pile of those hauled off, but I have more still. Should I mulch them first (I've been debating buying some sort of mulcher)? What about rotten fruit that's been sitting on the ground outside (citrus)?

[barose]

Does anyone just compost even if they don’t have or panning on having a garden? I cant grow anything so I’m not even going to waste my time (and money) on it this year (plus, I am horribly afraid of spiders), but I would like to compost anyway.

[kdaisy]

I would go ahead and compost if you want! It can just sit there, and then years later, should you have a flower bed or something, all of that lovely stuff will be there waiting for you!

And we compost rotting fruits/vegs, that is what it is going to do in the compost pile anyway. It just has a head start! From what I understand the only things you don't want to put in the compost pile are animal products such as meat or dairy. I have heard you shouldn't put in animal waste (like dog poop), unless you have a really "hot" compost pile, because of bacteria. But I know sometimes our grass clippings are not scrupulously clean, and we have never had a problem.

Edited to say: We also put in a very small amount of paper products such as a paper towel or two, or the cotton from a pill bottle. It takes longer to break down, but it is all biodegradable.

[notwonamesalike]

Originally Posted by Ravin

I just started composting. Anyone know if I can through fruit/veggies that have gone bad in the fridge in it? What about moldy bread? Palm leaves? I just had a huge pile of those hauled off, but I have more still. Should I mulch them first (I've been debating buying some sort of mulcher)? What about rotten fruit that's been sitting on the ground outside (citrus)?

If you mulched it, it would break down faster. But it will compost one way or the other.

I vermicompost, and always mulch my leaves before throwing them in. I also shred paper products before tossing them in.

For my fruit and veggies, I just toss em in.