STORM2K

I hadn't been able to get outside into my garden for the last few weekends, so I didn't know what to expect to find in the bin (too dry, not enough decay, etc...). I was pleasantly surpised to see that it was still moist and crumbly. Just about everything in the bin had decayed. I shovelled some in each of my backyard flower beds and scratched it into the surface, mixing it with the mulch.

I started a new batch for the spring with the weeds I pulled and some leaves and pine needles I gathered and added more water. I made brownies for Marty this morning so I added the egg shells and some coffee grinds from this morning's coffee into the pile with newspaper.

I can't wait to see what affects this will have on my garden in the spring!

Stephanie, you may need to crush the eggshells very finely or you may find they did not decay.

DaylilyDawn wrote:Stephanie, you may need to crush the eggshells very finely or you may find they did not decay.

Thanks for the advice Daylily! I didn't crush them when I first dropped them in, but I'm assuming that when it mixed the compost with my spade that they got crushed then. I'll make sure I do it the next time though.

At this time of year, pumpkins are GREAT. They provide needed nitrogen. When I was doing mine, the pumpkins (old jack-o-lantern) gave the leaves a real boost. It really heated up.

My composter was made of pieces of old wooden fence. It is open to the ground and open on top.

I had been putting in kitchen scraps and they were great too. I mentioned before that we had rats move in and I discontinued the kitchen scraps.

At this point, I just put in leaves, occasional grass clippings, and trimmings from the shrubbery. I stopped mixing it. Now It's more as a means of disposal than anything else. I put it in and it keeps going down.

Good luck with yours, Stephanie, sounds like you are really doing it right!

I added more egg shells today and coffee grinds too and I made sure that I chopped it down really well with the shovel. I added more leaves and pine needles and water. I know that I won't get out during the winter to mix it - it'll probably be frozen most of the time anyway.

It's pretty neat Ed. In the beginning I had more weeds and grass clippings (greens) than leaves (browns) in the pile. Then I read that it should really be at a 3 - 1 (brown vs green) ratio for it to really heat up and decay. I have it in an old rubbermaid trash can that I poked holes on the sides with a screwdriver. There's some holes on the bottom and cracks so critters can crawl in there and do their thing! I originally was keeping the lid off of the can, to catch the rain water, but it didn't heat up and breakdown as quickly. So now I keep the lid on.

The coffee grinds and egg shells will probably be the extent of the food that I'll put into the bin. I like animals but....

Hmm.. Browns and Greens. All we need are Jones's..

And the pumpkins... They're orange.