Composting

[domestic goddess]

So, all you wise composters...I have an issue. I have my compost 'bin' which is chicken wire around metal posts, in semi shade. It is probably 3'x3'. I put a layer of dirt, a layer of brown matter and food scraps. Then I have put food scraps then more brown matter. This is my method. Thing is, I generate ALOT of food scraps being a rawbie. My guess would be approx. 1gal of scraps per day MINIMUM! I will fill my compost bin in a month, maybe 6 weeks. What to do? Also, I am seeing fruit flies or something similar...that isn't ok, is it?

[Raw Yogini]

Just curious-why so many food scraps? Are they peelings (banana, orange) or actual food that you're not eating?

[saxmaam]

So, all you wise composters...I have an issue. I have my compost 'bin' which is chicken wire around metal posts, in semi shade. It is probably 3'x3'. I put a layer of dirt, a layer of brown matter and food scraps. Then I have put food scraps then more brown matter. This is my method. Thing is, I generate ALOT of food scraps being a rawbie. My guess would be approx. 1gal of scraps per day MINIMUM! I will fill my compost bin in a month, maybe 6 weeks. What to do? Also, I am seeing fruit flies or something similar...that isn't ok, is it?

Your compost pile will magically shrink as it works. Eventually you'll want to start another pile so pile #1 can finish off. But if your experience is like mine, you will be surprised at how much stuff your pile can take. That's assuming you aren't putting in a lot of yard waste, too. What are you using for 'brown matter"?

Compost is so cool ... yesterday I harvested 7 five-gallon buckets of sifted compost from my pile #1. The stuff that wasn't finished got added to pile #2. Now today I get to put the good stuff on my vegetable beds and plant some new stuff. I still haven't finished off pile #1, but that's all I have time for THIS weekend.

Oh and bugs ... they do a lot of the work in the compost pile. I don't worry about them.

Susan

[Bookish Lass]

Will adding worms make it break down faster?

Our family puts put about that much into the compost each day too - cores, rinds, stems, peels. We sure seem to go through a lot of vegetable matter! :)

[saxmaam]

Will adding worms make it break down faster?

Our family puts put about that much into the compost each day too - cores, rinds, stems, peels. We sure seem to go through a lot of vegetable matter! :)

Worms are good! I did add worms at one point and their descendents are munching away in the moist, temperate parts of the compost pile.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is moisture in the pile. Where I live (desert southwest), it's arid. I water the pile every once in a while and keep it covered with a tarp. If it's dry, it won't compost.

Lately I've been adding "bad apples" from a neighbor's tree... the rotten and/or worm-eaten ones that fall on the ground. Great stuff!

[domestic goddess]

Raw Yogini, I put in peelings, stems, banana peels, cores etc along with left over food scraps from the kids.

I need to get me some worms! A friend of mine offered me a shovel full of her compost as she has the red worms...I am going to get me some of those.

My brown matter is mostly shredded leaves...we live in the woods and hubby has a chipper which he uses to shred things for me :D

Thanks for all the replies! I am so excited to finally have a compost bin! (does that make me a dork?):D

[Rawmommie]

I go through about that much a day too! It's insane! :)

I'm composting right into an unused garden right now. I made a box that I plan on using next year and I have been putting everything in there. I cover it with a tarp also, to help it along and then this fall will add lots of yard waste. I will have to start a new one at the end of the summer, but the one I'm doing right now will be perfect after adding some dirt and mixing for next year's gardening! :D