Growing compostable items

Hello, I would like to produce a good amount of compost on my residence. My problem is that I don't have much of anything to add to a compost pile. I don't have a yard to get grass clippings from, nor do my wife and I produce many food scraps. So what I would like to do is have a garden with the sole purpose of growing high quality compostable materials, green & brown. I've been reading about cover crops, but I'm not sure if that would apply here since that seems to be geared towards improving the soil that it's grown in. I'm really interested in doing this myself without having to go to others for compostable materials. Anyone have any ideas for good green & brown items to grow for the compost pile? Is this a terrible idea?

Ok, I've thought of something I may can use for a green compost item. I live on 5 acres that's littered with mesquite trees and prickly pear cactus. I think cactus would be a good item to compost, but I'm worried about the stickers breaking down.

I heard that ranchers will use blow torches to burn off the stickers off of cactus so that their livestock can eat them. I decided to test this out for myself, so I took a little lighter and put the flame on some stickers. The stickers indeed burned very quickly in response to the flame.

So now I've basically got an unlimited supply of a green compost item. Using a lighter will be inefficient to burn off stickers, and I don't want to get a blow torch. I think I will just create a small camp fire and hold a pad at a time over the flames until there are no more stickers. Sort of like roasting marshmallows.

Now for the brown compost items. Mesquite trees have a lot of dead branches and twigs. I wonder if I could just take a bunch of twigs and break them up as best as I can and mix them with chopped up cactus pads, if that would be enough to get the composting started. When I say twigs, I mean no more than 3/4" thick. Would sticks that thick take too long to break down? Do dead twigs even have any carbon left in them?

This message was edited Mar 15, 2012 6:20 PM

Don't know anything about cactus, but you'd have to grind down any twigs for compost
You don't produce any food scraps???? vegetable peelings? apple core? egg shells? coffee grounds?

Here's some info for you
http://www.texasstar.org/index.php?pg=composting

Destroying native cacti and mesquite in order to collect compostable material seems very much at odds with the overall purposes of composting.
As noted, surely you could collect compostable material without resorting to this? If you don't create any compostable waste (hard to believe!), have you considered collecting it from markets, coffee shops, paper shredding businesses, neighbors, etc.?

How does destroying cactus and dead mesquite twigs go against the purposes of composting? I literally have hundreds, if not thousands of both plants on my property - neither of which are very attractive and would take me a very very long time to clear, if ever. I'm not sure if you have cactus or mesquite trees in Canada, but these are very unfriendly invasive plants in my area.

My original intention of this post was to find out what would be ideal garden plants to grow to get a lot of compostable materials. The little scraps that my wife and I produce like banana peels and coffee grounds go to my worm bin. The worms make quick work of them. From there I poor water over them to get worm poop tea to pour on my plants.

Then I thought about the cactus and mesquite twigs as readily available items. I think it was Roosevelt who said "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

I would prefer the quicker hot method of composting where I just throw a bunch of items in a pile all at once, instead of the slower method of just getting the occasional scraps to add to the pile. I really don't want to have to resort to asking others for compostable materials. I prefer to be self sufficient.

An interest in composting often springs from a feeling of environmental responsibility, which often goes with a sense of respect for nature. Destroying nature in order to make compost is, therefore, an unusual proposition.... just sayin'.

I have to agree with Altagardener and the view she holds on the environment around up. perhaps your not making yourself clear, you say you and wife don't produce much compost yet you have a wormery, as far as I am aware, your wormery should be taking everything you can throw at it, like potato peeling, all veg waist (uncooked) tea-bags, coffee grounds Salad waist, shredded newspaper, cardboard, old pure wool items, fluff from cloth driers, vacuum cleaner waist, egg shells, plant trimmings waist, cant believe between the 2 adults eating breakfast and dinner at night cant produce a bucket of waist from the kitchen alone in a week, then garden waist, in summer there is never enough room for the waist produced in my own garden,
Sounds to me what your really asking for "is there a really quick fix to giving me compost" well the answer is no, compost is like cooking soup or a stew, you only get out of it whatever you put into it.
Suppose you did clear all your land of those "HORRID LOOKING CACTI" you need to wait till they have composted down to a un-smelly soil looking medium before you could use it, as you only grow plants, surely the wormery is enough to feed a few plants.

I am like others who's footsteps form part of our world and don't really think there is a reason for me or anyone else to clear the land anywhere to just get a quick fix of compost, by all means clear the land of those cacti to replant the area with grass, food crops or whatever but if you do clear it, the cacti might all come back again, theres one thing for sure, after gardening for many years, the more land you clear, the more hard work it is to keep it clear from other stuff you might not like the look of either.
Were all different Fishingdude and as much as your entitles to voice your opinions I'm sure you wont have any difficulties hearing others points of views, thats what's good about this site, everyone can make there views known so long as there is no insults flying to and fro.
Whichever way you go, reading between the lines I get the impression even clearing your land of Cacti will be too much like work as I feel you really just want a quick fix. If I'm wrong, please accept my apologies and will re-read your question / answers again to see where I've got the question?answers wrong.
Good luck WeeNel.

I think we're all on a different page here.

I just want to make compost and need sufficient materials to do it. If that means growing alfalfa or using the local plants for materials, I will. I see nothing wrong with clearing cactus, mesquite, junipers, weeds, and whatever else that may be useful as compost materials. Perhaps I'm not as nature sensitive as some, but I don't believe it's evil or irresponsible to take the life of a plant and use it to encourage the life of other plants.

In my eyes, the sole purpose of generating compost is to better grow trees, shrubs, flowers, fruits, & vegetables of my choosing on my property. I'm 29 years old. I don't want to look outside when I'm old and only see mesquite trees, cactus, and dirt (my current view). I want to see a variety of big trees, flowering plants, & greenery that I planted and cared for. I don't think that's too much to hope for.

Check this out:
http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/growing-compost?cm_mmc=OGNews-_-849606-_-03212012-_-growing_for_compost

It's called "Growing for Compost"

Nice link JLP.....clover is excellent for composting as the article above states...so are grasses...especially the taller grasses that can be lopped back and added to the compost.

Fishingdude, your wormbed is the perfect start for a compost pile...if i remember correctly, switchgrass grows well there and can be cut back to add both green and brown to your heap...juniper and mesquite will take a long time to break down. Since you have such a large area, you could have an area for those plants and another that gets clover, grass etc. we have separate bins here, compost bins and one small worm bed...we move a shovel full of worms to the working compost bin two or three times a year...we get bigger healthier worms and better compost. One bin holds the woody and hard to break down material and the other holds the quicker to breakdown stuff and a third holds the finished product. You could purchase a couple bales of hay to get things started.

Thanks for the link, jlp. Good info for sure. I'll have to figure out what grows best in this area.

moonhowl, are your compost worms red wigglers? And they do ok outside of the bin environment? I currently have a black tumbler compost bin: http://www.hayneedle.com/sale/rotocomposterjr7cubicfeetcomposttumbler.cfm?source=channel_intelligence_gbase&afsrc=1&tid=GID018&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=GID018

Do you think the worms would do ok in that bin?

Hi Fishingdude. Yes, we have red wigglers, night crawlers and "green" earthworms. Our worm bed is an open bottom compost bin. Thanks to our environment here they do quite well out side the bin also....I import a few each spring into various flowerbeds

The only problem I see with the bin you are using for compost, is that it may become too hot and would "cook" the worms. The bin we use is pictured at the bottom of this link http://www.kauai.gov/Government/Departments/PublicWorks/SolidWaste/RecyclingPrograms/HomeComposting/tabid/116/Default.aspx

We have two of these bins...one for the worms and one for compost with a few worms added. we used a 15 foot length of heavy re-wire (like that used for concrete stabilization) 5 ft tall and formed it into a circle...we use it for woody and hard to breakdown garden waste (small branches, ginger leaves, weeds etc)

I've just used a few of the 15" deep storage bins you can get at Home Depot, and poke some holes down low on the sides (and bottom if drainage is not a problem. You can easily(?) move the bins as the seasons change, and alternate filling sides so the worms migrate left to right as you harvest castings right to left. Just be careful that it doesn't accumulate too much water.

But this wouldn't help with large-scale plans; I've heard you Texans do it big time.