Composting.....

[Guest]

Do any of you gardeners have compost bins or etc? Just curious how you started yours and what you put in it and how you manage it and use it in your gardening?

I don't ask hard questions do I?

Patricia

[chadtm80]

http://gardening.about.com/gi/dynamic/o ... l%23design

Check that out ticka

[Miss Mary]

Composting isn't that hard to start. It can be as fancy as you want or as simple as you want. Many types of containers are out there. What you need to do is turn it frequently and hose it down. Follow instructions, that sort of thing. My daughter had a wonderful Science/Homeroom teacher 5 years ago. I credit him for waking us up to the garbage/recycling problem in this country. I recycle now as much as possible and we're down to 1/2 can of garbage a week. It takes some planning but now I keep paper bags in the kitchen and all paper/cardboard goes in there. We fill about 4 bags a week! Junk mail, old magazines, newspapers, etc. I also keep one plastic grocery bag and keep putting all plastic in it (froz. veg. bags, newspaper bags, etc.). The plastic I drop off at a local grocery store (there's a large can near the entrance). This teacher started 4 worm bins at school. All food scraps, paper napkins, etc. went into the worn bins. Then students would sell the "fertilizer". Now that's one level I haven't started - a worm bin. If you leave on vacation, you need someone to take care of it. That's a little too much work for me. We do have a heap in the woods with weeds, dead flowers, etc. that could be classified as a compost pile. Down deep is good soil. Soil I have created new flower beds with in the past.

Good luck Ticka - starting a compost bin cuts down on our ever growing garbage situation.

[coriolis]

I built two large bins behind our shed, about 1 cubic yard each. you need to get a big enough volume so that it can get going and retain heat. Heat is important to keeping the organisms going and for killing pathogens. I started out just putting autumn leaves in it as a method of disposal. That worked fine, but it didn't heat up and it took about 2 years to get usable mulch. Last year I started to put in kitchen waste. That kick started the process and it got downright hot in there. The way to optimize the process is to get the proper balance between carbon-bearing material (leaves, newspaper, etc., and nitrogen-bearing material, grass clippings, kitchen wastes, other wastes. It really liked the old halloween jack-o-lanterns. I had one major problem, though, the kithchen waste attracted rats. I had a colony of them under my shed and they started raiding the garden. that was enough of that, so I just went back to putting in leaves only as a means of disposal, and letting it take its time. The idea of two bins is that you fill one, and then use the other to turn it over. Most people that are really serious use three equal bins to optimize the mixing process. You can also put in animal waste. Horse manure is great, as is rabbit, and some others. Dog waste is controversial becouse of potential parasites and pathogens. However if you're NOT using it on a food garden, it's probably ok.

[Stephanie]

Would a combination of leaves (carbon) and grass clippings & weeds (nitrogen) be sufficient then? I don't think that I want any rats in my backyard ( and neither would the neighbors :o ). Actually, I do usually dump weeds, dead plants and leaves behind my shed also. Would an old rubbermaid garbage can suffice for a compost bin? I would just need to put some holes in it correct?