My first day of composting!!! [Archive]

View Full Version : My first day of composting!!!

catherine

9-10-12, 5:36pm

Today I started my first compost pile!!! I'm so excited! Bought corn for dinner and told the cashier at the farm market how excited I am to be able to compost the husks and the cobs. No more putting them in a PLASTIC bag for the landfill! My BIL was joking with me saying, "OK, now you need two supermarket shopping lists: one to eat and one for stuff to bring home to throw in the compost bin." I have to say, I wasted no time cleaning out my fridge!

Wish me luck!

Next big step: Sheet mulch for the fall.

puglogic

9-10-12, 5:45pm

Congratulations, Catherine, and welcome to the composting tribe. Reading this on my way out the door to go start building a composting system for our brand-new-not-even-built-yet community garden :)

Corn cobs will take a long time to compost, but you can speed things up by whacking them with a machete or a sharp hoe into smaller pieces. But if you don't care about the timing, carry on! If you haven't ever leafed through (no pun intended) the book "Let It Rot" you might get it from the library. Neat.

Gardenarian

9-10-12, 5:51pm

Way to go!!

I agree, some things (corn cobs, avocado pits & skin) just don't break down. We have a kind of junk pile compost where we toss stuff like that; it's good soil to use for filling raised beds etc. but not the nice loamy stuff you look forward to.

catherine

9-10-12, 5:53pm

Corn cobs will take a long time to compost, but you can speed things up by whacking them with a machete or a sharp hoe into smaller pieces.

thanks for the advice! I'll get DH to whack away. I'll also check out Let it Rot!

ETA: Also, thanks, Gardenarian... A "junk pile" might be the way to go for us, too. We have a lot of "browns"--sticks and stuff that are probably too thick to compost quickly.

Tussiemussies

9-10-12, 6:17pm

Good for you Catherine. I know the excitement you feel since I cannot wait to get a composer next year.

I have read that to speed things up people put things in their vitamixer or a blender that can take it.

Are you composting in a bin or outside?:)

catherine

9-10-12, 6:20pm

I actually ordered an Envirocycle (a company out of Montreal), because I really wanted DH's buy-in and he saw value in the compost tea feature. It was much more expensive than I needed it to be, but, again, it was worth it to have DH on board, ready to substitute the MiracleGro for organic fertilizer!

As for me, a newbie permaculturalist, I just want a variety of experiences to learn from.

Tussiemussies

9-10-12, 6:24pm

awakenedsoul

9-10-12, 7:37pm

Congratulations! I've been composting and sheet mulching for 15 years. It's awesome. My neighbor gives me her horse manure for my compost pile, and the plants just love it! It really reduces your garbage. I only have one small bag a week.

iris lily

9-10-12, 8:46pm

Just WAIT until you've cooked all of that gunk into fabulous compost! I love me the smell of good compost! It is rich and earthy and very clean. I could roll around in it, like a pig.

Oh I have a silly story to tell about corncobs in the compost. Years ago one of our bulldogs had palette reduction surgery. Her throat area had sutures and she was supposed to be fed soft food for some days. Well, one day she went out and rooted around in the compost pile like a piggie and snarfed down a corncob and THEN the vomited it back up, so it scratched her throat going and coming. We had to rush her to the emergency room because there was blood coming out of her mouth.

As it turned out, she had not done serious damage, but we were scared silly until the vet said all was well.

That was weird because she never had shown interest in the compost pile before that and not since then. What a dope.

Tussiemussies

9-10-12, 10:23pm

Hi Catherine, I looked up the type of composter you have and it is exactly what I want. Does the compost tea drain out and sit on the bottom stand? How will you get that out without it having it mistakenly fall over the sides etc.?

I like this model better than the type that rolls but stands much higher; I heard the compost is much more work to get out of those models.

:)

Christine

Minz

9-10-12, 10:32pm

I'm excited to follow this thread. Been thinking about composting for a while, just not sure what kind to get or possibly even make my own composter. For those that compost, do you have a problem with wildlife getting in the compost (other than Iris Lily's dog). J/K

puglogic

9-11-12, 12:02am

Minz, we have a lot of wildlife here (deer, elk, bears, raccoon, skunks....) and I've spent years learning about what attracts them, and how to minimize that.

A tumbler isn't appropriate for us (we make a LOT of compost) but a good solid plastic one can keep almost anything out, if you choose to use one. The bears can knock them down, but we've seen them just roll them around trying to find a way in.

We don't put fruit out except in high summer, when things are neither emerging from nor getting ready for hibernation. Food scraps are mixed well with manure and composted hot. The deer like spent grain from the breweries, so we bury that under everything else. A good layer of soil on top of a finished pile is often enough to make it not so interesting to the critters.

Weirdly, last year we had problems with bags of dry leaves. I actually drove a half-hour to pick up these bags, and set them out by the composters. The next day, the elk had torn them completely open and were munching on them like they were doritos! They ate almost every one. I didn't expect that.

I keep the composter 100' or more from the back doors, so in case something comes visiting at night, they won't be tempted to stop by the kitchen for a snack too :) Sheet composting is a challenge because something always wants to be digging in there, from dogs to bears. But we're hoping to be able to save up for an 8' fence next year, so we may have more freedom to do more...

A lot of people make compost bins out of discarded pallets: http://www.livingoffgrid.org/used-wooden-pallets-or-skids-making-free-easy-compost-bins/

ToomuchStuff

9-11-12, 12:19am

I have extremely mature trees for the sizes of yards in my neighborhood. Pallet mulch piles seem to get overwhelmed, then not turned enough. This year, I picked up the barrels (need to finish it, as the whole work emergency thing hit at the same time) to make my own. On YouTube you can find several plans for them, this is the style I am making: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7IN_9s8C8E but I am putting two on the stand.

leslieann

9-11-12, 8:01am

I had two pallet sided bins, still do, actually, but I didn't like how our urban wildlife could just graze there. So a couple of years ago I got a plastic bin composter, a soil saver (which I am NOT recommending). The lid was particularly difficult to latch, so I left it unlatched and some nocturnal visitor broke it right off. So there I am with two open bins and an open plastic composter, feeding any critter wily enough to climb in.

I decided that they could have what they wanted. They don't cause (much) trouble, though when we do put corncobs in, they leave them scattered across the lawn.

Have fun, catherine!

puglogic

9-11-12, 9:08am

Toomuchstuff, it sounds like you need MORE room not less, if you have so many leaves??? Those little tumblers seem to make about 2-3 five gallon buckets of compost, which is nowhere near enough for all our waste materials.....even having three big 4' x 4' spaces is taxed sometimes with all the stuff.

The barrel would be good for food waste though, so maybe something for us to look into for that special purpose. We'll also be adding worm bins this winter just for kicks.

ToomuchStuff

9-11-12, 3:00pm

I have since bought a bagging lawnmower, so mulching helps (although the Oak leaves out front don't like to be mulched). Also more frequent turning means it will compost quicker (takes less time to flip then to flip the pile by transferring from one pit to another). Do I need more room, maybe, but this seems to have inspired at least one neighbor, who might let his leaves pile up until they blow my way. (other neighbor is a vacant house, so I might turn that whole back yard into a mulch pile)

iris lily

9-11-12, 9:06pm

We have mice who live in the compost piles during the winter, but wouldn't you go there in the warmth if you were a mousie?

Minz

9-12-12, 9:58pm

We have mice who live in the compost piles during the winter, but wouldn't you go there in the warmth if you were a mousie?

Yes, better they hang out in the compost pile than go inside the house!

Wow...great ideas for making composters...thanks everyone! You all rock!

Float On

9-12-12, 11:15pm

Congrats on starting your compost.
I love my compost bins - just 6 pallets. I haven't had wildlife problems but I do have 3 turtles that come back every year to visit during the summer so I always let some strawberries 'accidentally' fall short of going into the piles. The chickens love turning things over for me and they love when I dig deep and find them worms.

catherine

9-13-12, 8:30am

I really like the pallet idea.. If I need another pile at some point, I may go that route.

I also read that certain plantings like lavender and rosemary will help deter some rodents.

I made tacos for dinner last night and it was SO great to put my onion tops and browning lettuce, etc. into my little kitchen compost bucket.

Thanks, all, for your support!

puglogic

9-13-12, 9:22am

Awesome, Catherine! I'm building a new pallet setup, but because I have picky neighbors, I'm going to put lattice around it. My husband finds that quite funny (do they know what's IN there???)

I'm also starting a worm composting thing today, to see if we can divert to it some of the more wildlife-attracting things like fruits and other sweet things. Allegedly, the Rubbermaid container I'm using will hold about 1000 little worms who'll eat up to 4 lbs of garbage in a week. So we'll see how that goes this winter....fewer trips out to the compost pile, at least :)

Minz

9-21-12, 9:51pm

Based on inspiration I received from this forum, I just started composting today!! I'm confused though....the instructions seem to say fill it 1/2 - 3/4 full, but then don't add anything until this batch completely composts then start again. For some reason I was thinking you can add things every few days, but I guess not? Is that why some people have several compost piles going at once! I'm a newbie at all of this...help!!