I set up a couple stacked vermiculture bins last winter, was pretty easy and worked well. There was no space to move it while we are in our temporary digs waiting to move to our new house...so they are now "free range" worms.
We’ve been composting for as long as I can remember because we’ve always had a garden. Now we use a 3x3x3 ft plastic bin that was here when we bought the house 25 years ago. It has a cleanout door low on one side and we usually get a couple wheelbarrows full every year. I turn it with a t-bar tool a few times a year and we throw food waste, leaves and plants and a little soil in from time to time. I also have a big leaf pile that I turn once a year and take quite a bit from each year. I need to get both set up so I can turn them more often with the tractor. You can never have enough compost. In the winter we keep food waste in 5 gallon pails outside and mix them into the piles in the spring and it really kicks things off. Kinda smelly though.
Anyone add egg shells? Also, are coffee grounds good for any compost pile or should they be more reserved for roses? ~Lissa
I use all of our kitchen scraps, including eggs shells, coffee grounds, weeds, wood ash and bones from fish, deer, grouse, squirrel, rabbit, chicken, pork chops, t-bone steak, etc...basically anything biodegradable. The more diversity in your compost the better. I build some pretty big piles that get very hot. I monitor with compost thermometer and turn the piles when things start to cool below 120f. I don't have to sift and simply use my finished product as top-dressing and mulch around my plants all season. The worms turn it all in for me. You might like Rick Larson's Permaculture videos. I have used a similar philosophy for decades.
Here is his latest compost video. Maybe some can relate that watching this is very relaxing, but not as fun as turning one's own pile. I can hardly wait
The egg shells i have put on an empty coffee can once they are dried out. Every once and a while I take a meat tenderizer and smash them down. I have also added used coffee grounds and their filters.
Yes bones are whole, including whole fish and small game carcasses. The pile gets so hot that everything is pretty well broken down that ends up in the center. Occasionally I find a grouse sternum, fish jaw, deer rib, chicken bone, etc, but after a year or two laying under multiple layers of compost mulch in my beds, they all go into the ground. Same goes for egg shells, egg cartons, coffee filters, leaves and all other browns. The only things I cut up are fresh tree branches from pruning. I just stand over my pile with my Felco pruners and clip them into 1" or less chunks. They all disappear as well.
By the way I should also add another tip I have found: You can add some not too thick whole dried or green longer branches to your pile. When turned in, they provide some air channels to the center of the pile which aids in the microbial activity. Eventually they also seem to get broken up when turning and end up small enough to not really notice. And if too big when your pile is cold and ready to spread around, but add them to your hot pile.
Meats, cheeses, oils, and bones/carcasses are not for the casual composter. here's a short article that covers those How to Compost Cooked Foods, Meats, and Dairy | Today's Homeowner
Yes, absolutely correct. We got rats. Took me a few months to take care of them all. First, we stopped putting tasty treats in the bins. Then, a combo of lead (pellets), traps, both live and snap, and believe it or not, I caught two by hand off the bird feeder. They somehow made it past the squirrel baffle, and just sat on the ledge of the one feeder, about 5' up. I walked up to them with a bucket, up under the feeder, and put the lid on. Wouldn't believe it either, if I wasn't there. I think they were young and used to having me around all the time. No poison. There was one left, and he must have decided that this was not a safe place for him, or got caught by a fox, hawk, or weasel. Haven't seen one since.
I've been splitting some (tree service wood) piles the last couple days that were left laying on the ground since spring of last year. One nice thing is, the bark falls off and you're left with nice, clean, bark free wood in the stacks...and some really nice (ash and maple) bark for in the compost piles. (I park the yard cart next to the splitter and toss the bark right in) I started an all new pile just for this bark. I will probably put all this years yard waste in this pile. My neighbor has a tree service and another neighbor lets him dump the chips in piles in a field. the first piles are getting pretty well broke down, there is some really nice looking dirt/mulch/compost there I'm planning to put in the garden boxes...
No animal parts go into my compost bins. Don't want to attract critters. Egg shells, yes. Bones/skin, no.
I know what you mean. IT has to get very hot inside a pile to do this...over 150f. You need very big piles to reach these temperatures. I use a compost thermometer. Watch Rick Larson Permaculture on youtube if interested. He is using the same principles that I use. He is northern Wisconsin, I believe, with lots of critters around, and no problems with his hot piles and lots of fish carcasses and animal bones. I did it this way 150 miles north of Duluth MN for 10 years while we lived there, along with all types of critters....but no feral cats, rats or opossums. Maybe they are impervious to very hot piles?
I’ve started using the piles of bark that are all around the splitter too, great idea! Next time I split, I’ll use the yard cart, another good idea. We also get a constant supply of bark and debris from the back of the truck after hauling firewood. I’m going to start sweeping it out directly onto the garden pathways between the raised beds as a mulch. I gots muh thinker tickin’! ~Lissa