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To compost of not to compost, that is the decaying question that I have. For those that are backyard compostors, can you please let me know the positive and negative aspects of composting.
I'll assume if I so chose to decay our food debris in my rear yard I would want to get a composter so the decaying garbage is contained. But does this composting attract more bugs and critters that I probably do not want to see passing through my yard for a short or extended stay? How bad is the smell? What maintenance is required on my parts to maximize the composting process?
What do I do with the post composted material? Can I use it in gardens and flower beds?
How much compost can be composted in a month? Is it more work than good? Will I be left with more compost that I can shake a pitch fork at?
I would like to reduce the garbage we generate and create a recycling program for our left over foods but just don't want to create a new habitat for bugs and critters that I work hard to typically eradicate!
You can buy an enclosed composter if you want -- I'm secretly eyeing one of those spinning composters, but am balking at the price -- but all you really need is some chicken wire and fence posts.
There's no smell, no bugs and no critters -- except worms, and those are good.
Be careful not to put any meat products at all in your compost, or any animal waste. Turn the pile often --every couple of weeks or so. I've never seen any critters at my compost pile -- except the neighbor's cat, who likes to sleep on top of the pile because it's nice and warm and comfy -- but if you're apprehensive about it, you can bury any food waste under a couple of inches of yard waste.
You can buy a container, make your own container or have no container!
We have a compost heap/pile in the back yard.
If done correctly, the only pests your heap will attract are "decomposers" such as worms and pillbugs. As long as you bury the food scraps, you won't attract flies or anything.
You can compost anything "green" but no meat or fat (ie: you can compost a half eaten baked potato as long as it didn't have butter on it).
The best way to start your heap is by collecting your grass clipping and add leaves and small twigs. Then start adding your green scraps (including coffee grounds, fruit/vegetables/grains etc) by burying them in the middle. Pray for rain so you don't have to "water" it and turn it once a week.
Unfortunately it takes a while for it to start cooking. Mine has taken about a year to get to a point where I can actually use it for gardening purposes and chances are slim you'll have too much compost. You start with a huge pile and by the time it's composed, it's about 25% of what the original pile was!
If you have a smell, that means you need more carbon. Carbon can be found in the form of dried leaves, wheat straw, anything brown. Nitrogen is what causes the odors. That's in the form of food scraps, grass clippings, green stuff. You want about 80% brown, 20% green for a good compost pile.
Started one this year. I added leaf mulch to the pile that I got for the garden from the landfill. Now, I put food scraps in the pile, turn it over, and no smell. There are lots of flying insects, but they are the pollinators I need for my flowers and garden.
There's plenty of great sites online which can help you get the right green and brown mix.
A good compost should never smell. Also it's a good idea to cut up your kitchen and garden waste into small pieces. If you buy a container make sure you line the bottom of it with at least 4 inches of straw, leaves and small twigs. Then add a few shovels of good dirt to it. After that just start layering. No one layer should be more than 6 inches deep. You can turn it with a garden fork once a week or once a month. If all goes well you should start seeing some good signs in a few months. You can start adding it to your garden or make compost tea out of it and use that when watering your flowers or shrubs.
I am going to try to use an old bookcase laying on its back to
do earthworms/compost/ and rabbit droppings
Actually I have no idea what I am doing.
I read a site that said you could do worms in rabbit
droppings in a bed like this. Then it said to feed them
produce waste from the kitchen . Sounds like I can compost
and grow worms??
The Dept of Public Works in my town sells plastic composters at cost, ($40) and encourages composting....makes sense as it cuts down on garbage going to the landfill. I started in April this year.....I don't put in any left overs/sauces as most of that has oil or fat--so no potato salad etc. I do add some garden and yard trash and all the potato peels etc and old lettuce and moldy bread and coffee grounds and tea bags and also paper napkins and lint from dryer and dog hair....etc
Now it is getting warm...I notice some little fruit flies when I open it and if I don't carry out the kitchen scraps at least daily they are around my counter. There isnt a bad smell to the compost....there is an odor but not really unpleasant. I havent seen any evidence of any critters--I have recently seen slugs in there (they are a problem in my garden).
I am surprised at how slowly the compost builds up.....I keep adding but in 3 months it isn't more than 1/4 or less full. It must be breaking down or it would be overflowing by now.
I have noticed a marked decrease in the amount of trash I put out on garbage day.
Back when we lived in a historic neighborhood, we had oodles of trees. I tried a simple sort of composter - four sides of wiring, fixed so one side could be raised. I bought it from Park Garden, I think, but lots of garden catalogs have them now.
I also purchased a gadget that's an aluminum stick with two things on the end, hinged, so they fold up when you push it into the pile, and pivot out when you pull the stick out - makes it easier to circulate the stuff in the pile. I added a box of "starter" chemical....don't know what it was, but it was natural.
In the fall, we filled up the bin with leaves and poured about half the box of starter on it. Piled more leaves on.
Took about a year, but once it started we had lovely leaf compost, rich in nutrients for the flower beds. Super! I'd scoop out the "finished" product about twice a year. This was a pretty small composter, though. It was amazing how much that pile heated up and stayed warm, even in the dead of winter!
I didn't try food waste, but would have if I could. I remember my grandparents saving food waste, but it was to slop the hogs!
The biggest problem was where to put it so it wasn't right next to you while you were grilling out.
I'd have one now, but have no trees and thus no leaves.
We had chickens as our composter! They did a wonderful job! No chickens now, since we moved---we are looking into different kinds of composters!
I had another friend who had chickens as his composter; they swore by them. They chickens also kept all the bugs and snails down. Someone told me that if you have a lot of wild turkeys they will keep ticks down; I wish they ate slugs....I have both turkeys and slugs.
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I'd scoop out the "finished" product about twice a year. This was a pretty small composter, though. It was amazing how much that pile heated up and stayed warm, even in the dead of winter!
