Composting help?

[Bettacreek]

Well, it costs us $2.70 per bag of garbage (the kitchen bags), and they cannot weigh over 30lbs. So, I've started to get on the boys about recycling. They've started to do so. We're also getting a burn barrel today. Unfortunately, the bf says NO COMPOST! Any ideas on how to compost without dogs getting into it, or without any smell and without spending a fortune? Thanks!

 

[Hillsvale]

In Nova Scotia we are big on recycling...

-Pop/beer cans and bottles, wine and booze bottles to the recycler for a refund on deposit

-plastic bottles, milk cartons, tin cans to curbside (well there is no curb) for municiple recycling

-newspaper, cardboard and clean paper to curbside for recycling (seperate bag)

-meat, bones, fatty substance and dirty and or wet paper and boxboard into the curbside compost bin where they burn and grind it then sell it to gardeners

-fruit and vegetable scraps, bread type products, egg shells, rice and noodles, coffee grounds, tea bags (anything traditionally compostible that is not animal based if that makes sense) ... this goes into our back yard composter and will be mixed into the garden in due course.

Some even put leaves and grass clippings in there but they take too long to break down we just leave ours on the ground and mulch. Make sure there are no animal byproducts in your backyard composter or the critters will come.

You will be shocked how much compost you get (we have two and just started using these ones, new house) and so much better for the environment.

http://www.vwrm.com/pdfs/sorting_guide.pdf here is a link for more details... we of course break out the compostables to backyard and the municipality

 

[Countrywife]

There is no reason your compost pile should smell. Do some research on what not to put in it. If there is not meat/grease the dogs don't have any reason to go in it. I have compost piles, they don't smell. Composting is a good thing, you just have to research what you are doing.

 

[Goose and Fig]

We have a huge raised bed that we use for all of our fruit, vegetable and garden scraps (the dead tomato plants, annuals, etc) I have flowers planted on 3 sides that benefit from the "compost tea" and hide the bed a bit. We also add most of our alpaca manuer. The chickens get in and eat bugs and scraps, and till it as well. In the spring we go through it will the tiller, and add it to the garden beds. It does NOT smell, and our garden does soooo well- you'd think you were in the Amazon.

For a family of 5, we have maybe 2 bags of trash a week. Once we're done with diapers, it should be down to one. We recycle everything possible, and I also try to shop for products that don't have alot of waste packaging.

Also- our dogs don't bother the compost. Once in a while they'll grab an eggshell off the top, but that's about it.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

get 4 wooden pallets and make a box, put your compost pile inside, the dogs can't get to it.

Steve in NC

 

[wombat]

Buy or build some barrel composters.

We were using two for our family, though I'm going to have to get more as we have more chicken waste that we'd like to process for the gardens.

Here are some inexpensive ones.

http://www.rainbarrelsandmore.com/composters.htm

Not sure how those stands will hold up, but we have the same barrels on ours. Our stands are made of steel pipe, but I couldn't find ones exactly like ours in a 5-min search. We've had our barrels for about ten years, and all I've done is replace the gaskets a couple of times. There are side-mount barrel composters too ... but unless you plan to build your own, plan on them costing a lot more. They'll process more faster, from what I've read, but I couldn't see sinking $400 each into a pair of side-mount barrels when I stared this.

At $200 a piece, these might look expensive, but they'll pay for themselves in a few years even if you save only one bag of trash fees a week at the rates you're paying.

A mix of lawn clippings, leaves, garden scraps and kitchen scraps is generally done in about a month in the barrels we use. Prior to getting chickens, we just alternated barrels, and two barrels handled everything.

Since we've gone all chicken crazy, though, we run the kitchen and garden scraps through a chicken, use the pile method on the chicken waste, and add nearly finished pile output to the barrels loaded with leaves and lawn clippings ... with only two barrels, we are no longer able to keep up with all the chicken output.

The barrels smell a bit "earthy" when you oepn them, other than that, there's no noticable smell. You'd be fine with them unless you want to put them right next to the picnic table.

The compost does wonders for our gardens. We have tomato plants that grow over 9' tall. I have to get out a step ladder for the kids to pick.

 

[thebritt]

Quote:
That's exactly what we did. We also stapled chicken wire to the inside to keep the chickens from squeezing through, and a piece of chicken wire on the top: stapled down on one side, with a 2X4 on the other so we can roll the cover out of the way easily. We tied the corners of the pallets together with bailing twine. When it's time to turn the pile, we just untie and move 3 sides and shovel the compost over to the new spot. Piece of cake!

 

[mjdtexan]

Your compost piles should not smell. Here are mine, I can not smell them and they are horse manure, chicken manure, vegetable scraps, hay, straw, dead leaves, egg shells, coffee grounds.

DO NOT use dairy products, pet waste, human waste (I know you wouldnt do that one anyway), meat products, or processed foods

Good Luck

Oh, you see that field? Thats going to be a garden next year.

 

[Big Chicken Little]

Might need a new BF that can't smell

 

[Hoosiermomma]

Quote:
See the field??? Heck no I'm looking at that awesome red truck you have!

Oh and just compost right in our garden. I have 6 gardens that are probably 8'X12-14'. We just throw what we want composted on each and then til it up in the spring.