Ok crunchy mamas.. I need some input on composting!
Now that we have our own place, our own yard etc etc et als.. can you please help me figure out what I need to do to start composting? Where do I start? What do I need? I need something that the kids won't be playing in. Do I get a bin? worms? Where do I find this stuff?
Really I have no clue other than I know I want to start composting.. just looking for the right way to start.. (and as cheaply as possible please!)
Thanks for any help/links/etc!
~Cheryl
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SAHMama to 4 beautiful little munchkins and one angel 6/26/05
Try contacting your Public Works (sanitation, recycling..) department and ask them about composting in your area. Often times they have bins that they will give you for free along with how to get it started. Or you could try a local county Agricultural extension service and they might point you in the right direction. I think bins are easiest when you have kids, easy to keep them out of the compost. All you really need is a place to put it, some leaves or grass clippings and start adding scraps. Remember, no meat or dairy. Yes coffee and tea, even the filters and bags if biodegradable.
Gotta go, meltdown of a 2 yo in progress.
Good luck,
Kaight
Location: somewhere between complete exhaustion and utter euphoria
Posts: 5,852
You need a place for a pile, a pitch fork or shovel and stuff to compost. It helps to have some black plastic or dark fabric to put over it to heat it up. And have it in a sunny spot. Worms help but are not necessary. They will come. Layer dry, wet, dry, wet, and so on.
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Michelle
-- Mom to Beth, 11 and Sam, 8
Our system is as cheap and easy as it gets. I have this incredible ability to make everything seem more complicated than it is though, so stay with me here, lol...
We compost on a much larger scale than most people. Our farm is also our business. We don't make much money, heck...we hardly break even most years, so I do things as inexpensive and reliable as I possibly can.
So my composting system is plain old piles on the ground. We have an area that is kinda hidden behind one greenhouse and a fence so it is not an eyesore from the house. There are 4 piles that rotate each season. Pile every single compostable thing into the pile all season long. All your old plants from the garden, yard waste (no woody stems though), manure, food scraps, dead potted plants, etc. During the hottest days of summer we put a small sprinkler on top of the pile to keep things humid. This pile will sit undisturbed over winter.
Next season starts pile #2. Same thing as #1. #1 sits and decomposes this season with an occasional churn from the tractor.
#3 is, of course, the same as one and two the following season. While you are building #3, #1 is ready to be used as soil. It is sifted into barrels and agricultural perlite is added at a rate of 1 part perlite to 3 parts soil to prevent compaction (Because I use my finished product to fill pots of plants for sale. If you were just going to use your compost for putting back into the garden then you can skip the perlite, unless you have hard or clay soil...then it will help tremendously.) Whatever is too big to go through the sifter goes back onto the current "green" pile. It is some of the finest soil you have ever seen.
Oh, pile #4 is a burn pile. All woody stems and whatever other organic stuff that needs disposing of (fallen tree branches, cut rose canes, grape vines, etc) gets burned. The ash is used in various ways on the farm. After pile #3 is full pile #1 should be nothing but a bare spot on the ground since you used it all up enriching the soil in your garden spots! This is where you put the new green pile next season.
On a home-sized scale you would not need the tractor or barrels of course. Just a good shovel and a sharp pitchfork as someone mentioned above. No expensive bins, no need to add anything special and nothing to break or fall apart. Of course you'll have to wait longer to use the finished product, but the quality of the soil is outstanding when you let it go slow (like it is supposed to!)
Just make sure to use no animal source food scraps (no meat, dairy, bones, eggs, or anything like that). Unless you know you can get your pile or bin good and hot, I'd caution against using manure or fecal matter of any kind. It's got to reach a certain temperature to kill off any nasty microbes and other oogies (my technical term, lol!), and although I don't know a lot more about it than that, our agronomist/composting expert friend gave us that advice. I could get more info if you need it.
Worms are helpful because they break the compost down more quickly. You'd want to use red wigglers, and make sure to add sawdust or shredded newspaper to your compost for them, and keep it damp but not sopping wet. When you want to take out compost but leave the worms there, shine a light over half the box. The worms will pretty quickly migrate to the darker half and you can scoop the compost out of the light side without displacing any of your worms.
Whether you have worms or not, make sure your bin (if you use one) has air holes. We just drilled a series of small holes up at the top edge of ours on each side, then overlapped the lid like a roof overhang so it was somewhat protected from the wetter weather. When it's not raining, we generally leave it open a lot of the time, but we have to pay more attention to how moist it is (this may not be as much of a concern without worms).
We put all fruit and veggie scraps in our compost, along with shredded junk mail (no plastic windows, of course), shredded newspaper, lawn clippings, coffee grounds and filters, houseplant clippings, smaller yard debris (again, no dog or cat piles), etc. etc. etc. One thing we found was that pine needles took way longer to break down than a lot of other materials, so we no longer add them. We turn ours every couple of weeks. It's simple and it sure makes the garden grow!
**Forgot to mention that we got our new bin free from the garbage company. They offered a choice between a yard debris can or a compost bin, so we got the compost bin. It's all right, but I like our old wooden box better. But that might be an option in your area too.
__________________ ~Melissa~
~Mama to one angel on earth (9/19/00)
And two in heaven (12/4/03 and 4/28/04)~
"If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all." ~Pearl S. Buck
Last edited by MayciesMama : 03-26-2004 at 01:05 PM.
I got my compost bin from the garbage company. They did some promotion, buy the bin for a discount etc a few years back.
I got a second bin from my neighbor who's idiot DH decided she shouldn't have it anymore & was going to throw it out!
I got my 3rd bin from my mother who bought it when I got mine then decided she was tired of composting.
The point...keep an eye out for compost bins that people are getting rid of. I think a lot of people say "ohh I'm going to compost" then don't & sell the bins or just give them away.
Chole
__________________ 18th century Mama to a super 7yr old, SO to a graphic novel guy
Do I get a bin? worms? Where do I find this stuff? 
lmk!!
and Sam, 8 
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