Sarahn, thanks so much for taking a moment to comment on the article! Someone mentioned to me that there was a discussion underway over here, so I decided to stop by and see.
My pile did eventually cool down considerably when our windchill temps hit about 15 below, but it still hasn't frozen all the way through, as it has in past years. I give it really minimal attention in the winter months, mostly only opening it to add kitchen scraps when my countertop bins are full to capacity, but I've been pleased to see that it is still not a solid mass. It was definitely worth the minimal effort it took to surround it with straw bales and cover it with a tarp and bagged leaves. My kids find it inconvenient to open the hinged lid on top while it is insulated, but they aren't terribly keen about emptying the compost buckets in ideal situations. LOL
I haven't read up about wood ash. We don't have a fire place or woodburning stove, but I'm curious what impact the ashes would have.
Angie
want to start composting dont know where to start?
I have a pile of leaves dead grass and what was left over in the garden all in a pile at the corner of our property . it has been uncovered all winter, but now that we have unfrozen here for the moment , I was wondering can I put that in with my compost pile in my bin ,it doesn't look like much is going on in the bin yet so I wonder if that might help get things going or will it not be a good idea.
Tammy
Leaves and dead grass are great for a compost bin.
Tammy, that sounds like exactly what you SHOULD put in your compost! If you have some kitchen scraps to put in, too, that might help things get going, too. I don't know what zone you are in, but Indiana is probably pretty on pace with Illinois, and it will be a while before it warms up enough to really get the compost active here.
So. . .go for it!
Angie
Hello again I have another question , I work in a school and the cafeteria ladies has said they would save kitchen scraps for me ,we are talking a lot of scraps here. my question , can you have to much kitchen waste and would this be bad for my compost pile also one of the ladies was telling me you dont want to put bread or oranges in your pile is this true?
Bread and oranges are fine.
You will find that as the pile gets fresher and juicer you have lots of fungus gnats/ fruit flies, possibly larger fly larvae- these are not bad, per se, but may be unpleasant for you.
I have heard that about citrus peels too but I think it is mostly myth. Here is a very informative blog on citrus peels in compost piles: http://tylerstorey.blogspot.com/2009/03/composting-citrus-and-citrus-peels.html
This may or may not apply to you depending upon where you live, but another thing you might want to be mindful of with food scraps is that you'll want to make sure you don't have so many scraps that you can't bury them in the rest of your pile. I find that burying them in the center of the pile helps in not attracting attention from four-legged friends.
Maybe the schools could make money by sending them to us for postage plus $10. LOL. The pig farmers get all the scraps from around here.
Our CC&R's from our HOA say no compost piles. Just because of 4 legged roof rats. I have one, I do not think anyone in here would recognize one anyway. But as I said before, I mostly spot compost and the worms just find where I bury the food. I am always concerned when I dig in an area and find no worms.
Good luck. That is great. Sharon.
Hummingtammy, that is great that the school is willing to save the kitchen scraps for you! They must have a lot of scraps, especially if they work with fresh fruits and veggies at all! I wouldn't be concerned about oranges or bread (I've composted both), but you do want to avoid any dairy or meat products.
If you can, try to include plenty of "brown" (high carbon) ingredients, too, like leaves and straw, to balance all the "greens" (high nitrogen) you'll be collecting from the school. You can even use shredded paper, newspaper, or cardboard (I've found it is much easier to wet it, then tear it up in pieces). It won't add much nutritionally to your pile, but it *will* keep it from getting too soggy and sour smelling from an overbalance of kitchen scraps. I collect bags and bags of leaves in the fall, and then add them in layers along with kitchen and garden scraps. It drives DH nuts to have all the bagged leaves in our shed, but I use them in the compost, as an underlayer beneath my wood mulch in my flower beds, and even as mulch between rows of veggies. I have never yet had a year where I had leftover leaves by the following fall, no matter how many bags I collect!
Sharon , I have never heard of a roof rat , is it a real rat? but I learned a lesson on leaving the lid cracked on my bin. I went out to put more in and found a racoon in it , he was not happy to see me . Our school like most in the country has money issues , I thought about mentioning composting to them, we are a country school system with three schools on one campus .they have plenty of scraps and lots of grass and leaves, they could get 4 h or the FFA kids envolved . they could sell the finished compost and put the money back in the school . so far no one seems interested so I take what I can and just use it myself. Just seems a shame to see it all go in the trash. does it hurt to put soil in your pile I am exspanding my garden and the grass has sod on it to.
Roof rat = bushy-tailed rat = squirrel.
Nope, it is good to put some soil in your compost. I add a shovelful every now and then, because the soil has the microbes that break things down. Great way to get your pile going!
I tried to encourage our school to compost (we do have a beautiful butterfly garden), but couldn't get them interested in doing more than passing out a little ag newspaper about home composting. Oh, well. It's a start.
Well roof rats that are hear are suppose to have come over from Arizona in transplanted palms. They are also called roof rats in Arizona. We have very little squirrels in our area.
I will have to research that. Tomorrow we are suppose to be 70 degrees. I am ready.
My holding bed, which is also a large area I dump scraps into a large hole and cover is totally turned over due to an invasion of roots from a neighbors tree on the other side of the wall.
Here is a photo I took of one area that is still not completed of my holding bed. Will be completed tomorrow.
This is typical color of Nevada "soil". It was dug up 2 feet below garden soil.
This message was edited Mar 2, 2011 8:29 PM
This is that soil after composting area for over 8 years.
Sharon Wow what a difference in your soil. composting realy made a big difference . I am glad you took the pictures it encourages me to keep up with the composting . we have squirrels here but no roof rats. Bookerc1 , Good going on getting the home composting paper sent home from school. I decided to try composting because of a paper that was sent home with my son in Ag. You never know how many folks might have started composting because of your effforts.
Tammy