A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 What did you feed your compost today?

<b>MEEEEEEEEEEEE , A LITTLE OVER And Longy is the best too.. Don't get any better info on composting.....

Very glad you had great results, and hope you keep on posting and helping others with their new adventures in gardening too!!!

Well the roommate has alergies and they were getting worse while he was in the apartment and guess what. The Coleus was busy blooming again. That Fack Coleus wants to produce flower spikes much more often than any other coleus I've ever had. It has huge leaves too. Frequently as big as 1/3 the size of the whole plant. Well anyway the flower spikes and the leaves that had some brown on them went in the compost pail along with the tossed salad fixin's waste. Oh, did I mention the very large contribution coffee grounds? And then there is the wad of hair. Better that the compost bin gets it and not the vacumn cleaner. It can break the belt on my vacumn cleaner without a problem. And I shed as badly as any dog I've ever known lol. Ok that's it for the compost pail. Tomorrow I finally get to dump it out and play in it and I can't wait. Whoopie!!!!!

Thanks Weezie & everyone! I doubt that I'll be able to add much to all this expertise but am always willing to help. I do have a question: Is it a bad idea to put your weeds into the compost? Wouldn't the seeds be a problem when you use it or do they die off in the "cooking"?

Weezie: Tell us more about the "can of beer" getting things cooking. I've never heard of that. Does it matter if it's flat or not? If I give it too much will it start doin a dance out there & burping the top off?

TK: I brought my Coleus all inside for the winter & some of the leaves are dropping off. Is it too warm or what?? (I'll have to remember to put them in the compost.)

Have a happy weekend everybody

leaf drop probably has to do with the change in the amount of light they are getting. If you baby them for a week or two they will probably come back as strong as ever. I pinch mine back very very often and also take the large leaves out when a branch starts on the stem in a place that will help me look bushier. Although with the size of my current apartment that may not be the best idea I've every had lol.

I put weeds in my compost but I usually pull them set them on the concrete for a few days until they are totally brown and dry looking and then remove the root and seed head before I put the stems in the compost heap. I'm not confident enough to put live weeds in my compost bin yet. Although I do know it gets hot enough to cook them. I did put some tomato stocks in the compost bin though and they did have some small green tomatoes still on the vine. I guess maybe that's the same thing. I just have a hard time seeing the tomatoes as a weed. I guess that's because I'm so new to gardening.

Do you think i can starve my compost pile??? lol Sorry, but I've been really busy and haven't fed it in a while. lol So I was getting worried. Dee

lol, from what I've been reading what you really want to do is make the pile all at one time and then let it cook turning it when it cools down. And it should make finished compost in anywhere from 10 to 45 days.


But I haven't been at it long enough to know.

Ladybug,
I can't stress enough that each pile can be different.... Mine in the fall are the quickest for me, cause there's a perfect ratio of brown chopped leaves and grass, I can dump it in and
can have it rendered down very quickly...
Depending on how much I have or how many of my bins are open and ready for loading, is depending
on how fast I feed them...

I also have one, that isn't always so fast, because I have kitchen scrap's in and browns from the garden and I don't need grass in cause of the scrap's... so I keep browns such as chopped leaves, saw dust or wood chips *home made from a chipper* etc, type stuff right next to my bin..
then I add kitchen scrap's and load some browns..
some times I might not do anything to them..

It's really a personal preference... how you do you compost piles..
While Tammy and Mary like to get compost reasonably quickly they are willing to do the work for it, by adding and turning and chopping things up finely or thinly or with the most exposed edges on the item to be decomposed cause they decompose faster..
While someone like my self, who has several to work with *8* and may not need to work them all fast...
(cause I'm slow sifting and getting it out* )

but if you don't feed it, don't worry.. it should be okay..

The only one bit of advice I can say is, not to let them sit around tooooooooooooo long.. especially if there is a big plant or tree near it, cause those plants tend to send roots to the pile and filter up thru it and use your compost
and if it gets rained on, after a while, say the full year and them some, the nutrition leaches out of it thru the rain water washing thru it..

Oh really so i should keep my piles away from and trees. thanks Dee

Oh yeah......the roots will be in seventh
heaven, finding a stock pile of good eats
right there...

And sometimes, if you plant something that
is too close to the compost pile or in it or around a compost pile, depending on the plant,
it can kill them believe it or not...
**Well, for people/places that there's a winter
and cold, freezing temps..**


It will keep the plant will stay too green too long and won't prepare it's self for winter in time and have too much new green growth on it
and the winter weather, winter freezes.. will
more than likely kill it or weaken it badly....

Well I couldn't quite believe it but the compost compacted really badly this time. I must have had way to much green in there I guess. I've put at least half a bin of new stuff in there the last two days and it's plenty hot so it's working good. But I can't believe it shrunk that much.

Why is it that one should not start a compost pile near a building??? I read that somewhere on the internet.

As I have mine near my LARGE storage shed.

By the By last night, a Bear moved my whole compost bin...lifted it right up..pulling the pegs right out of the ground.

Nothing in there..food like..other than potato peelings, and tomatoes.

What I put in today (please let me know if anything is wrong)

Dryer lint
cardboard box (ripped up)
potato skins
cucumber skins
coffee grounds x3
paper towel
small handfull of crushed chips
2 crushed up egg shells

Hi Noxema. Sounds like your compost got a tasty meal today. Everything sounds right on! )

That's crazy about the Bear! Just ask Mary & TK & Longy & Weezie.

My 'Special Of The Day': I always threw leftover buns (hamburger/hotdog/rolls/etc) into the freezer until they got burned, and then I would finally toss them out. Not anymore! I just mixed a whole bunch of those in my compost today instead of the garbage for a change. lol. I've never even considered bread before. It's amazing what you can find to compost.

Hope you all have a great night,
~SuzyQ~

You have learned well, grasshopper.

They say you should build it away from your house because of spontaneous combustion...but the chances of that happening in a compost pile are slim to none, though I guess the heat/moisture/insects that thrive in a compost heap might not be good for your foundation/siding/etc. either

Sounds like everything you added is right on noxzema (and welcome to composting and the forum while I'm at it!) the only thing you might want to be careful about is the chips - as weezie pointed out to me, the salt on the chips isn't really good for your plants - a little bit won't hurt, but you dont want to go crazy adding lots of chips or that could be bad. Otherwise, great job!

As for the bear, well, I know they're super sensitive about sniffing out food. Whenever I dump food in the heap, I take a pitchfork full of compost and cover it up - though Im not sure that's quite enough to keep the bears at bay, it might help

I think there was something on CSI about use having so many odor sensors in our noses and animals have many many more of them. So even though we can't smell a thing the compost bin is hollering dinner time to the local animal population lol. Or something like that.

The bear was back again last night. She is a Mama with 2 cubs. Guess the babies were hungry!

I know I wont be bothering her LOL. Dont want a swipe across the head. Mother bears are very dangerous when they have thier young with them.

And I guess I am going to have to move the composter anyway...way to close to the shed. Thank you for letting me know that.

Hot or Cold...ummm...I am clueless as to what exactly that means? Could someone help a fool out with that???

Oh and another question.

I dont have leaves here..but I have pine needles out the wazzoo. Can I put pine needles in the pile? Or would they have too much acid?

Hope you all dont get sick of all of my questions

I've heard that compost is normally pH neutral but I've never heard about composting pine needles so I don't know what to tell you.

I put them in, do you have a lawn mower
or something you can run over them a few
times/??
That's what I do...
and sprinkle in in layers as needed..

And Tammy's right, most compost piles,
no matter what you put in them,
end up closer to the Neutral side.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="3" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> You have learned well, grasshopper. )

The microbe action started to work and heat up for me when I finally got the ratios closer to 3-parts browns (carbons) to 1-part greens (nitrogen). This is by mass and not weight though. Plus air and moisture.

I don't know if you've looked through this thread yet, How To Make A Compost Bin , but there's a wealth of information in there if you've got some time to read through. Lots of great questions and answers to get you going. It eventually became long enough that it's now continued here --> How To Make A Compost Bin II , and is another great place to ask your questions. I know I still refer to these threads often.

So keep posting, Noxzema, and let us know how it's going! It really is a fun and interesting project, with many wonderful benefits. Looking forward to reading about your successes, too.

~SuzyQ~

Also one of the reasons' is, that compost piles
invite and need some buggies.... to them..
One of your best visitors' are worms..
EARTH MOVING CREATURES!!!!
Who, love to eat dirt.. and that means near
foundations...and regular area's don't mean
any difference to them, if there's something
for them to eat, tunnel thru, ooooooooooooh, they're in 7th heaven..
and other one's that would eat decaying browns,
which can be wood structures next to your house,
they'd be like "Hey, I can't tell the difference..
it's dark down here..."

Always best to keep it a distance from your abode.

The only one that I would suggest is those tumblers maybe..and some of those aren't air tight, and when it rains, it drips in, and when you add anything with a liquid it drips...
so, hence there in lies the same problem, maybe just smaller amounts..

I will definately be moving it this weekend. Thank you all.

I will also add some of my pine needles. There is no way I could add them all. We hauled them away when we first came here..and it took 18 1/2ton loads.

Dats a whole lot of pine needles..lots and lots and lots of trees here.

SuzieQ I will definately read those 2 links! Thank you.

Cardboard (I always have alot) is that considered a "brown"?

Yet another question LOL LOL. I am full of them, seems like as soon as I read on here..questions are just popping out of my head LOL.

You are all so great.

And I know now that I am going to be addicted to composting. I am making steak and potatoes tonight. The boys wanted baked potatoes...I said "Well I will bake them..but they will be peeled..my composter needs those peelings"

IMAGINE...addicted or what.

What I fed the composter today:

Banana peels
egg shells crushed
leaves that fell off my colius (SP?) plant
Ripped up pizza box
Brown paper bag (lunch bag)
cucumber peelings
Tomato
paper
coffee grinds
coffee (is this aloud?)
dryer lint
dried up weeds that I pulled from the garden and let bake in the sun (is this aloud?)
Grass clipping from weed eating around the shed

Yep, cardboard is definitely a brown. Good that you're ripping it up too so it has more exposed edges to break down quicker. Same with paper. But don't use the glossy stuff.
I Know! I'm a crazy woman standing guard over the trash when the kids help tidy up the supper mess. lol. "HEY! Get that outta there! That goes in the COMPOST!!" lol. They're catching on.

Coffee is definitely allowed. Mine gets a daily slurp right after I've had my fill. Pop and beer is also good. I'd watch out for the weeds though. Even sun-baked those seeds can rise up again in your flowerbed if your compost doesn't get hot enough to cook the bejeebers out of them. Luckily I don't know that by experience... I read it here though and that's good enough for me.

I smiled at TK saying she had to force herself to leave the compost alone last week. lol. I find I'm doing the same thing. I want to keep digging into the centre because that heat action in there is sooo cool to see. lol. But I know I'll slow the process down by doing that. Oh well, I'll just go find something else to do then.

~Suze~

Go pee-pee on your compost heap. The nitrogen helps the heap warm up and rot down faster. This is probably easier for the guys to carry out logistically, but if you can get some on there no matter how, try it.

Well then, that would certainly help deter me from wanting to reach in and feel the heat now, wouldn't it! Hmmmm.... Perhaps down the road once the novelty wears off. lol.

Oh my...I seriously could not see myself doing that. Hee Hee that is wild! I could just see my husbands face if I asked him to relieve himself out in the composter LMAO.

Yet another question...sick of me yet LOL.

What about when you sweep the floor and the sand and such you get off the floor..can that be put into the compost?

I know..weird question. This is such an obsession.