Composting?

[peas-on-my-head]

So who all composts here? I do, and its so cool watching life get turned into substances that new life can sprout from, ya know? But what do you composters do to balance the browns and greens? Because here in the summer its not all that easy to find some dead leaves like in the fall.

[Veganforlife]

Hey there! I love your user name - too cute!

I have been composting for a long time and I actually have let nature take care of most of it. I have a bin and throw everything in it and then every year or so will work up the soil under it and all. I am fortunate to have lots of trees around so dead leaves fall by themselves into my bin. I leave the lid of. Most of the time I have critters that raid it. I find rinds of this and that all over the yard. I can see the racoon now, standing there, flipping food behind him, looking through everything - not really "seeing" him, but guessing that's what he does...
Here's a link to get you started...
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/de...ing/basics.asp
Oh sorry I see you've BEEN composting. I would suggest contacting your local extension organization and see what they would suggest. Maybe in the summer you don't need to add the browns. Maybe it's a seasonal thing...dunno...

[Glow Worm]

Composting rocks! When I started, I just dug a hole and dumped the scraps in and let the worms do their thing. I didn't have any browns, but the scraps would decompse within a week.
This year, I made an official bin (8'x8'). All the leaves and twigs from the fall raking went into the bin, so now I have plenty of browns. Each week I'll pick a corner, bury the food in there, cover it completely. By the time I get back around to the same area, the food is already broken down.
I also do vermi-composting, which I think is more fun and less stinky. I feed my worms pulp from my juicer, usually carrot. I've found they take forever with cabbage leaves, grapes, and avocado peels. Depending on how many worms you have, after a year, you can harvest the worm castings (aka poop) to use in your garden or potted plants. I have over a thousand worms now, those things multiple quickly!
On another note....are you close to the Wild Oats in St Louis??? There's a raw potluck there on the first Sunday of every month. Email me if you are interested in coming and need more info. And if you want to start vermicomposting, I can hook you up with some worms.

[the_lab_rat]

We compost! And are going to start using it for our organic garden next spring. Hmm, finding the dry leaves aren't really a problem here... but sometimes we also add weeds we've pulled from the garden. We pull them, stick em somewhere until they're all dried out, then add them to the compost bin. Composting is so awesome! I wish everyone would do it; think of how much less waste/garbage there'd be.

[sport]

I compost but I do not give it any thought at all. I just collect all of my waste and throw it in. I expect that mother nature will take care of the rest.

[Conscious Midwife]

I compost and use an Earth DSAver MAchine I purchased from my local recycle center for like $40.

For browns I will often add grass clipping or trims from our bushes that I've let dryout and brown for 2-3days.

The browns keep the fruit flys down:)

We are a family of 7, so we produce a lot of waste both compost and recyclable. It took several weeks before we had a good usablemix of compost and now I've already started turning rotating and adding to my Crepe Myrtles and mailbox area where i have decorative fleurs.

The amazing part is how fast the waste disappears and presumably seeps into the existing soil area. Thr grass around my compost area is JUMBO size and lush and green.

Next time I'm ready to seed the lawn I think I will add compost to the barren and slow growing spots. Plus I definately plan to enrich my soil with the compost when i'm ready to put out fall mums this year.

Oh regarding the browns. Brown paper shopping bags are a good quick fix option I heard, butmy guess is that most composters use reusable bags.

[RawVee]

I feed my worms pulp from my juicer, usually carrot.

GlowWorm, You can also use your carrot pulp to make mock tuna salad! :)

[peas-on-my-head]

Maybe in the summer you don't need to add the browns. Maybe it's a seasonal thing...dunno...

Yeah, I guess you're right. So in the fall I can just put more browns in it to make up for it. Thats really cute about the racoon! I think they are too cute to consider them pests. We used to get them in our trashcans, but now that all those real estate people cut down the woods near our house there isnt much racoons anymore... The most interesting thing i find in mine are a bunch of toads

[peas-on-my-head]

I thought about vermicomposting, but there are a bunch of worms in my compost allready so I figured there would allready be some benifit, but it seems alot faster than regular composting...

On another note....are you close to the Wild Oats in St Louis??? There's a raw potluck there on the first Sunday of every month. Email me if you are interested in coming and need more info. And if you want to start vermicomposting, I can hook you up with some worms.

Ive never heard of the Wild Oats, is that a store or something? The name sounds cool! I actually live in the outskirts of STL, in High Ridge (Jefferson County)

[peas-on-my-head]

we also add weeds we've pulled from the garden. We pull them, stick em somewhere until they're all dried out, then add them to the compost bin. Composting is so awesome! I wish everyone would do it; think of how much less waste/garbage there'd be.

That sounds easy, to dry weeds and put them in... I think ill try that! Yeah, I think everyone should do it too, with all that that trow a way. And everyones yards would be beautiful!;)

[peas-on-my-head]

I compost but I do not give it any thought at all. I just collect all of my waste and throw it in. I expect that mother nature will take care of the rest.

I think you're right. I think I shouldnt worry to much about it, and just let nature do its nature...

[peas-on-my-head]

The browns keep the fruit flys down:)



The amazing part is how fast the waste disappears and presumably seeps into the existing soil area. Thr grass around my compost area is JUMBO size and lush and green.


Oh regarding the browns. Brown paper shopping bags are a good quick fix option I heard, butmy guess is that most composters use reusable bags.

Ah! I have a huge fruit fly problem in my kitchen! Its horrible!
But thats really funny about the grass around your compost area! It reminds me of a story I read in one of my mom's gardening magazines where a lady kept bags of manure over some crab grass so it would sufficate it and block it from the sun, but when she took the bags off the patch was so big because of all the fertilization! Haha! Yeah, ive tried some paper bags before, If I was traveling or something I'd put some food scraps in a bag and just toss it in my bin! And I tried to rip up newspapers, too, but it takes for ever! But yeah, reusable bags are a life saver!!

[Shoshannah]

I compost and use an Earth DSAver MAchine I purchased from my local recycle center for like $40.

Could you elaborate on your compost machine a little more? I really, really want to start composting and gardening but I have no clue how to go about it.

It would be great if I could find a machine like yours.. I might check to see if we have a recycle center that supplies them.

[freelive]

I ordered worms and worm-o-can from wormman.com almost two months ago and I am still waiting-they never answer calls, answer emails after two weeks, and then it is always the same - they will send it soon. Do not order from them!

[exurb]

browns are high carbon, greens are high nitrogen y'all.

peas, I keep a bag next to the composter with some sawdust (it is clean pine sawdust we get from someone we know). You can also keep a bag of dried leaves next to it. You can use brown paper bags ripped up.

I learned some things from a "master composter". If you're just doing all kitchen scraps (which as peas probably knows but maybe not everyone are all "greens" generally doesn't matter what actual color they are) and not balancing with browns, that the pile can still work ok, but it just won't be as fast and as hot. So if you can get a handy source and have it next to your compost in a bag you'd probably have a little better results. But if you don't, you'll still get composting, just not as fast and not as hot, so you may have things like tomato weeds growing in your compost from the tomato seeds because they didn't heat up, etc.

In the fall, you could keep yourself a bag or two of leaves and put it by the composter to layer out later with the greens.