Spent the day yesterday cleaning out the spouting on the garage and house and they were pretty full. But, it gave me an idea, something I was thinking about before and never got started...Composting. I'm not sure how many years it's been since the spouting was cleaned but I was starting to get some weeds and little trees growing... I pulled the yard cart up to ladder and tossed the junk right in. The garage has 6" spouting so a 60' spout holds a lot of debris and leaves and water...messy water... It was adding up fast and that's when it hit me...this would make great compost! When I was finished, there was a big puddle of water in the cart so I headed over to the neighbor's to get wood chips to mix in. (One neighbor has a tree service and the other let's him dump loads of chips in a field) I found a pile that was fine chips and a little dirt from a stump job so i shoveled enough in the cart to dry up the gutter debris. This ground (40 acres) is also where I cut, so i took a little ride to see what else i could find to mix into my cart. I found a tree that had fallen years ago and was mostly rotted up, so I gathered the mushy fibers and stringy stuff up and added it in. Found another tree that had turned to mush and chunks like lump charcoal. On down the path i found a good source of walnut shells and some big stalks from brussel sprout plants that the neighbor tossed in the woods out of his garden. I headed home with my new found load and gave it a good mix and a bit of water on top to keep it damp over night. Today the grass needed mowed after all this rain and a few spots needed bailed... Well... I don't rake or bag grass but when I was done cutting, the mower deck needed cleaned...bad! So, I grabbed a five gallon bucket and spent some time under the tractor cleaning and found a good bucket full of clippings. I spread them out over the load on the cart and stirred it in good with a pitch fork. Surprisingly, the leaves and debris from the gutters fell apart like it had been run through a shredder. I cleared a little spot in the woods next to the house and started my compost pile. It's already looking good enough to put in the garden boxes.
I've been composting for years. Mostly kitchen scraps, leaves, and yard clippings. 3 piles - all new stuff goes into the new stuff pile. Another pile is storage and use Middle pile is my "cooking" pile. Before the really cold temps hit, I totally empty my storage/use pile. If not for used around specific plants or new plantings, then it's simply broadcasted over the lawn. The cooking pile is then shoveled into the newly emptied storage/use pile, and the new stuff pile is shoveled into the cooking pile. Basically, they are rotated every year. I try to turn the new stuff and cooking piles 2-3 times a year. This process has served me well for years.
What say you, hoarders? Will this make good compost? What else should I mix in? Is there a perfect blend of brown and green materials?
Doesn't the new stuff cook also? I looked at a lot of YouTube vids and I didn't see any suggestions for making three piles. Seemed most were using just one fenced box or pile. Some had 2 boxes. Some suggested covering and some no covering. I saw some lists of needed ingredients and lists of stuff not to use also. One list I found said a little ash was good and another (from Cornell) suggested ashes were not good as they could kill you worms and goods bugs and fungi.
Yeah..it cooks/breaks down and I'm not trying to set any records for speed composting. All my piles are covered. The process I use works for me and results in plenty of useable compost that doesn't have half-composted bits in it, as I'm always adding to the new pile. Nor do I need to do any sifting to remove those bits. Instead of adding wood ash to the piles, I broadcast it over the yard, usually when there's still snow on the ground in late winter.
Sounds like you are off to a good start. We have a two bin system. One is the dome type container on the ground to hold everything, the other is an old rain barrel converted into a tumbling composter for the final. It gets flipped about once a week. I added two pvc baffles in it to help flip the compost. I've read the ratios are 1 green to 3 parts brown. I don't add grass clippings or acidic fruit such as oranges or lemons. In the fall I keep one or two bags of dry mulched leaves in large leaf bags and these are my browns for the next summer. We seem to produce more greens, so the leaves and sawdust from my shop are used. We are not very eco type of family here, but the kids were learning about composting and recycling in school and we started and haven't stopped since. It is surprising how much weight food waste adds to the weekly trash. I'll just add a few things. Maybe avoid anything to do with walnut trees since it has natural toxins in different parts of it. I got away from a ground compost system as tree and shrub roots grew up into the piles. The tumbling composter is great since it is more focused and cooks a bit quicker. It is also easier to manage the moisture in it. Being black plastic, it cooks well in the sun. I also leave about a five gallon buckets worth of the ready compost in the tumbler to help the next batch along.
Thanks, fp. I read about walnut after I put the shells in. There were only a couple handfuls I picked up. They had been on the ground for some time as they were almost black. I'm thinking it shouldn't hurt anything... I'll certainly avoid them in the future. lol. Never thought I'd get excited to compost...lol
We compost brush, leaves, household scraps.. Because my farmer lets me add a scoop a year of manure and bedding I do.. Flip it 6 or so times a year with FEL.
I just realized I can peek out the window and see my compost pile. It's not steaming yet... Need. More. Grass Clippings.
I have had one of these for 20 years or so....no compost, but I did make plenty of ammonia when I tried to use it back in the day!!
No kidding, I think it was around 500.00. It is still in good shape, the wife hangs the pooper scooper and poop bucket on the handle!
If you put a lot of kitchen scraps in it, you may want it in a container, otherwise it can attract some unwanted critters which may not get along well with the pup...some stinky ones and some prickly ones come to mind...damhik
My better half got one of these: Lifetime Rotating Composter (80 gallon) when we moved back 4 yrs ago. I was very skeptical.....just being me. It took 2 years of adding stuff before we got anything out of it. This year I got 3+ wheel barrows full of real quality compost. It is much easier than the fork/pile method. YMMV
I've had a couple of these that have been in use for years. Compost Bins – Medford's Go Green Initiative! I lay plastic bags on the ground first, to prevent roots from finding their way up into the pile.
I made compost bins by simply drilling a bunch of holes in 2 plastic trash cans about 10 years ago. One gets added to while the other bakes and they get stirred up once every week or two with a clam shovel. With the exception of meat and dairy, all my kitchen scraps go in. That includes paper towels and even an occasional pizza box. It's been a while, but from my soils classes I remember the recommended nitrogen level to be low. Like maybe 10:1 carbon to nitrogen. More recently I've heard and read as high as 50:50 recommended but higher N can lead to smell issues. Grass clippings are high in N. And it's not like people are weighing things before composting them. I usually add a couple shovels of leaves for carbon when I notice an odor while stirring it up.
