Catch 22 Composting

[MiaS]

Yup! That's the essential dichotomy of composting all right. BUT in the warm months when you've got grass and clippings galore you can still add carbon-rich paper and cardboard to balance it out. And in the Winter when there's not much that's green growing in the environment you can still add kitchen trimmings and waste and also coffee grounds which, tho brown, are nitrogen-rich "green" compostingly speaking.

Check local coffee shops (including the ones installed in grocery stores). They sometimes bag up their spent grounds and leave 4-5 pound bags for those of us who compost to help ourselves to. If you make friends with the produce manager they might save what they pull off the outside of lettuce heads, etc. That stuff can really come in handy during the colder months.

I think it's best not to get too wound up in the ratios every time you add things. It's fine for things to balance out over the period of time that you're turning and mixing your ingredients.

I, personally, don't fuss with it at all. I throw everything into huge piles and let them sit for as long as a year before I start dismantling them, sorting out what needs to go back on a newer pile and turning the loose smaller bits still decomposing. Lazy, but it works for me since I have 4 huge piles in progress at any given time and, so, plenty of humus that's garden ready.

This is pretty much what I do and have always wondered where in the world people who say build a 3x3' pile of brown and green material actually live. I save leaves to use during the summer but my pile never gets that kind of volume even with a large garden, not all at one time anyway. Mostly I use what I call the 'dump and run' method. Whatever I have at whatever time goes in. Give it a stir once in a while and see what happens. It makes compost eventually and reduces our bagged waste, which DH has to haul.

 

[Mimi13]

This sure is a good thread on composting...

Yes! Tons of good information and a variety of approaches.

Agreed, there is SO much wonderful and completely useful information here. I have read the entire post and want so badly to be successful at composting, but I’m still drawing a scared, blank stare. I honestly am so overwhelmed at how to even start, much less keep it going.

BTW, I do have a pile started. (A literal pile in my garden pasture behind the chicken coops/runs.) It’s mostly chicken poop with a little PDZ and a few feathers, with torn up cardboard I pulled from the burning barrel along with a few dead-headed geraniums. What a start, huh? I don’t even have sides built around the “compost/poop pile.”

Ugh! I’ve just about already given up, but ironically I have learned a bunch.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

MiaS, I have 8 chickens and 10 rabbits plus an eighth acre of weeds and gardens for my back yard. I'm in the middle of a suburb. The hay and straw bedding for those animals and their waste builds up fast. Our compost pile is about 5'x4' and we have two of them - one to age one to build.

Mimi, that sounds like a great start to me. It probably just needs some more carbon sources. Straw, shredded paper, sawdust, wood chips/shavings etc. I would put in a nice big amount of carbon (depending on how much cardboard you've got in there), mix it in and it'll break down fast.
Take off the top few inches with a pitchfork or a shovel, etc. Then examine it. If it smells gross and it's thick and sticky, more carbon. If it's hot and musty and breaking apart, just right. If it's cold and still a lot of distinct objects instead of starting to crumble, more nitrogen. If it's kinda crumbling and dry to the touch, add water. If you can wring water out of it, let it dry out some (cover in rain, open when dry).

 

[jthornton]

If it smells gross and it's thick and sticky, more carbon. If it's hot and musty and breaking apart, just right. If it's cold and still a lot of distinct objects instead of starting to crumble, more nitrogen. If it's kinda crumbling and dry to the touch, add water. If you can wring water out of it, let it dry out some

That's some really good advice, last winter my compost was sticky balls of stuff but didn't stink and I know now I needed to add carbon (saw dust, shredded paper, leaves etc.). Since I started this thread I have added more carbon and wow what a difference.

JT

 

[aart]

This is pretty much what I do and have always wondered where in the world people who say build a 3x3' pile of brown and green material actually live.

Where they don't have space to make a bigger pile?
3x3x3 is probably minimal for mass to generate some 'heat', and even smaller would work but needs more attending too.

Give it a stir once in a while

This sounds so easybreezy when in fact turning a compost pile effectively takes way more effort.

 

[aart]

This sure is a good thread on composting...

JT

It is for sure, nice to have a discussion stay on topic and so much good info.
Glad you started it and the thread title is right on!

 

[jthornton]

BTW, I do have a pile started. (A literal pile in my garden pasture behind the chicken coops/runs.) It’s mostly chicken poop with a little PDZ and a few feathers, with torn up cardboard I pulled from the burning barrel along with a few dead-headed geraniums. What a start, huh? I don’t even have sides built around the “compost/poop pile.”

Are there any wood workers near you? They are always looking for someplace to get rid of sawdust and that's just what you need.

JT

 

[MiaS]

Where they don't have space to make a bigger pile?
3x3x3 is probably minimal for mass to generate some 'heat', and even smaller would work but needs more attending too.
This sounds so easybreezy when in fact turning a compost pile effectively takes way more effort.

No, not the space so much, that's pretty easy. It's having enough material, carbon and nitrogen, all at the same time. I have a huge garden but the green stuff and the brown stuff are never available at the same time Saving leaves in the fall helps so that when the green stuff is abundant I have brown to add in. I'm down to my last few shovels full from last year and I'm doling them out conservatively to keep down the fruit flies while I compost fruit from canning etc.

Yes, it does sound easy and isn't. I use a compost aerator tool which works not too badly but I still end up dumping both bins and turning with a garden fork at least once or twice a season.

 

[aart]

No, not the space so much, that's pretty easy. It's having enough material, carbon and nitrogen, all at the same time.

TrueDat...why I also stopped with vermiposting, just don't generate enough kitchen scraps to keep them going.

 

[MiaS]

Agreed, there is SO much wonderful and completely useful information here. I have read the entire post and want so badly to be successful at composting, but I’m still drawing a scared, blank stare. I honestly am so overwhelmed at how to even start, much less keep it going.

BTW, I do have a pile started. (A literal pile in my garden pasture behind the chicken coops/runs.) It’s mostly chicken poop with a little PDZ and a few feathers, with torn up cardboard I pulled from the burning barrel along with a few dead-headed geraniums. What a start, huh? I don’t even have sides built around the “compost/poop pile.”

Ugh! I’ve just about already given up, but ironically I have learned a bunch.

You don't really need sides