We usually use 2-3 yards of compost a year. Our is just a large pile that gets pushed back and forth, sort of rolled over. As we add brown we put it over the whole thing, same with green. We also use our lawn clippings, since they are not treated. All kitchen scrap is fermented a bit in a tote in the driveway and buried into the top layers. I try and treat our pile 1-2 times a year with black strap molasses in warm water, per Doc Gipe's instruction. Now, I've started adding chicken manure. I've always added wood ash from the stove. We apply about 1-4" pot of lime per bushel to reduce acidity when we use it. Not everyone has space for this much compost, Bec used to say my compost was as big as her yard. LOL It's little work, and a lot of rewards, no matter your scale or method.
Composting, Mid Atlantic Style
Wow, that's a ton of compost Ric! I'm still waiting to see the first fruits of my composting labor. Unfortunately, I noticed that my composter is breaking around the bar that it turns around. A real bummer considering this is its first season. I put a plastic tie around it to hold it together, hopefully that works for a while. I thought about putting a hose clamp around it until I realized there wasn't enough room.
Seq, do you have any nitrogen going in along with the cardboard and paper?
That's my problem...I have too much nitrogen. I've been adding the cardboard and paper to 'brown' it out. Unfortunately, I only started doing something about it a couple weeks ago.
oh, ok. Do you have fungus gnats/fruit flies?
I have them! Does this mean something good or bad about the compost?
Gnats/ fruit flies are just living off your kitchen waste. Not bad per se, can be annoying. But good for birds I guess!
You might put plain soil on top of the kitchen scraps if they bother you. If you get your bin set up, try to put the scraps down into the center of the pile when you add them. If the pile gets cooking, gnats have less to feed on.
If you get soldier flies going, gnats go away. A big tub of coffee grounds is good for attracting soldier flies.
okay, coffee grounds it is--thanks, Sally!
Sally, I have a bunch of these bugs all about the composter. I don't know what they're called.
Hm, I don't know. How long are they, about? We may have to ask Bug ID Forum. Soldier flies don't have such long legs.
Possibly genus Sciara , another type of fungus gnat
They are about 1/2" long I'd say. They love my compost though.
Jeff--David (Greenthumb) knows bugs....
Send him a picture and ask him. G.
hey, Seq. I'm curious about that bug, too! Okay with you if I post it on the Spider & Insect Identification forum? Greenthumb is on there regularly, plus a guy named Flapdoodle who is an amazing expert when it comes to bug ID.
Yeah help yourself. I would have done it last night but the pic was on my work computer.
Seq, Flapdoodle says:
These appear to be crane flies in the family Limoniidae -
http://www.fnanaturesearch.org/index.php?option=com_naturesearch&task=view&id=1040
Yeah that could be the guy. Mine have that greenish sheen to them that the article describes.
plus those weird "halteres"- I think that's what the white blobs are
For winter, I have a five gallon bucket on the deck, with locking lid. I put my kitchen scraps in there so I don't have to walk out to the compost each time, but only every week or so, or when I feel like it.
Some critter found I was being lazy. It wasn't locked last night, so it's tipped over. I have a bit of cleanup to do. oops.
I don't know where my leaves went. I seem to have almost no leaves to pile up in compost. I guess we mowed them into the lawn, or left them still stuck under the shrubs. And I'm too busy this year to collect bags from the neighbors. Well, it's not too late for that. One year I got some on Superbowl Sunday.
After all this rain, the leaves I DO have must surely be soaked. One challenge with fall leaf piles is when they're too dry because water just rolls through without soaking into the leaves. themselves.
I have a Tote in the utility area. Once I fill up my Ice Bucket on the counter, I take it out to the tote. I put my shredded mail in that tote too it soaks up some of the liquid. When it starts getting full I bring out the wheel barrow and take it to the compost. Sally your 5 gallon bucket sounds a bit lighter and easier than my larger tote, But I don't have to empty it near as often. LOL
That's strange, Sally. I figured you'd have a ton of leaves from your trees. I took 4 huge bags of leaves to my parents, but I still have more leaves than I have room for. My oak hasn't dropped even half of its leaves yet. I may need to have the county vacuum up the remaining leaves.
I picked up some more coffee grounds from Starbucks to speed up the decomposition process.
I gotta say, it's sooo much fun making my own compost! :) I don't think I need to buy LeafGro again, except for topdressing the front lawn. I can't get my compost to have that fine texture without screening it.
SSG, I usually screen mine, too. There are things in there that shouldn't be. Many years ago we put a pile of somewhat rocky soil in there, not to mention that I still find some of my children's toys from time to time. Really some of that compost is that old. I'll dig into a new spot or Ric will push some of the older soil up and there it is an old matchbox car or superhero. Also I sometimes find mats of old whole leaves that just didn't break down and of course many black walnuts that the squirrels have hidden plus once a nest of snake eggs with the little baby snakes long gone.
I try to keep a good mix of green and brown going. I also have been adding any chicken manure to the pile. By the time it comes out of the pile it is completely safe. I usually treat it once a year with an unpasteurized solution of black strap molasses. If we have a drought and I remember to, I will water it. We produce quite a lot but also use a lot to keep our clay soil conditioned. We don't turn ours like we should, it only gets turned if we dig to the good stuff. LOL I do have a rule of use though, we add a 4" pot of lime to a bushel to adjust the Ph, unless we are just grabbing a bucket full for a soil mix or such.
Now and then, I find toys buried in the ground in the wooded part of our yard....not our kids' toys, so they must have belonged to previous residents.
I'll probably have just about enough leaves. I need to collect the Japanese Maple leaves, mulch them by sucking them up with the leaf vac, then spread them on top of unmulched leaves in my wooded area to keep them from blowing away.
Since Sally and I emptied out my SEM early this summer--there is not much stuff or
activity in there for the measly amount of material that is in there. Besides with winter coming--
whatever is in there will be as cold as a corpse.
I have dumped a bit of leaves in there..the usual veggie scraps from my kitchen..
some pulled up annuals with soil still attached at the roots...and that is about it.
I would say--the depth of material in there at this point is about 6"-8".
We dumped the uncomposted stuff back in there at thew bottom.
That should be a good starter.
Is there anything i could add now so that it has some potential throughout the winter?
I still have a 3/4 bucket-full of Coffee grounds. They are OLD by now....compacted solid.
Remember when i was going to the 7-Eleven and they saved me all their coffee grounds
about 2-3 years ago??? Those are the ones I still have.
I also have a bucket of asst. wood ashes from my neighbor's Fire pit right behind my shed.
What can I do with those--and WHEN?
I SOOO want a thriving, active, productive compost , but the SEM is so limiting in scope
that nothing miraculous will ever happen.
At least I now have 2 LARGE totes-full of the compost soil we dug out of it...
I will use that as needed--but not splurge with it, as it may be 2-3 years before
I can empty it again.
Gita
ssg- I guess we have a lot of lawn too.
You cannot have an active thriving compost without a certain critical mass and somewhat of a balanced content. .
Gita-
Here's what I suggest. Layer some of your brown leaves with those grounds for several inches, make a nice 'seed bed' for organisms and worms to come be ready for your scraps on any mild spells and in spring.
Beyond a certain stage/ age, you are losing some of the value of compost, grounds etc. Can't save them indefinitely.
Hmmmmmmm--so, you are saying i should not save that big tote-full of compost
I stashed in my shed? What happens to compost soil if it sits around 'forever'?
I still need to find a warm day to continue with throwing all kinds of good stuff on my
raised bed. So far--all I put on there is 2 bags of shredded leaves.
As I was sucking up and shredding my piles of leaves--I was dumping the bags
on the raised bed. Then--more raked leaves.
I bought 3 bags of Humus manure at the HD as well as 3 bags of pine mulch.
Opened one of them--it is almost half composted! Very fine--no chunks.
These were the last few bags from the bottom of the pallet.
Would like to dig some of this stuff in. Too busy nowadays and too tired (work!)
when I have some free time.
Yesterday--all we were doing is going up that huge. tall ladder and bringing down
boxes and boxes of X-mas stuff. Then, finding where they go on the shelves.
It was hard--as customers are shopping right there and want to know where this and that is.
Anyway--we are talking about compost... G.
What about compost starter or booster or whatever it's called? I have a bag in my garage that I always forget to use. It might not be enough to warm things up in the winter, though.
Gita,
when compost sits around a long time after it is finished, the micro and macro organisms die off as there is no longer any 'food' for them to break down. So these valuable additions to your soil web health are lost. What remains are small particles and some minerals and nutrients (manganeze, copper, phospherous etc) which can also dissipate over time. Old compost to me is like old potting soil, not much good for growing things but a good soil conditioner. if nutrients (eg osmacote) are added in and it is mixed no more than half and half with fresh potting soil it will extend my supple of potting soil, but used on its own wont grow much of anything.
My approach would be to sprinkle that tote full over those shredded leaves now and those coffee grounds, too.. Or spread them in a low spot in your yard.
To me, the best 'composting' I do here is really not done by me but by the many many earth worms that love my leaves shredded or not! My contribution is to bring in bags of leaves dis carded by others. I also have a source of copious amounts of newspaper which I use in many ways. Since I do not have weed seeds, pathogens or manure , I find little need to 'cook' my compost .
thanks coleup you saved me a lot of typing!
I found some of my leaves, LOL, I forgot I had left some half-raked near the trees.
Thanks, Judy---
I will try to scatter the Compost on top of this bed and others.
There are already plenty of leaf-material on there...
Then--I may spread some of the pine mulch over all and hope for the best.
This issue with BAD soil in my raised bed started with the soil I ordered to fill it with.
My miatake--I ordered "Top Soil"--thinking that was it---then, later, found out
I should have ordered "Garden Soil" . Did not realize there was a difference---
At the HD--I am always telling people NOT to use the "Top Soil" for gardening--
as it is just 'fill dirt". Sometimes it takes a bit of convincing.
Tthe label is SO deceiving! Top spoil is GOOD--Right??? We always talk about
good top soil in our hardens. Don't we?
Well--I got 3 yards of it--and it was terrible. Now I am paying the price....
Gita
I don't have a lot of greens this time of year. I couldn't convince DH to keep fruit/vegetable scraps for compost, so when there are no grass/green clippings from the garden, I have nothing but leaves. Coffee grounds are perfect for giving it a shot of nitrogen.
This message was edited Dec 5, 2014 4:14 AM
My dd keeps her veggie/fruit/egg shells/scraps in a tupperware bowl or zip lock bag in the freezer until able to take to neighborhood compost piles and chickens. I've also heard of people blending (in a blender) and then pouring the resultant sludge almost anywhere in the garden as it breaks down so quickly unlike larger pieces one might bury.
SS--
I keep a shoe-box sized plastic container right next to my drain board.
Since this is right next to my sink--I always put any veggie scraps and peals in there.
When it is full--I take it outside and dump it in my SEM (Stupid Earth Machine) composter.
It is not far from my back door--as my back yard is rather small.
I am sure you have seen pictures of my shed--with the 2 brugs on either side.
On the left side is the ugly black SEM. It is...what it is.....
IF you are a cook--I am sure you use a pile of veggies in cooking.
Just be conscientious about tossing anything compostable in the container.
Sometimes--i empty mine twice a week. Depends on what, and if, i am cooking.
G.
My family bought me a nice-looking ceramic kitchen scrap container with a removable plastic pail and a lid, so it's really easy to save coffee grounds, egg shells and kitchen scraps. I wait until it's full, which can be up to a week, and then carry the pail up hill to my compost pile. ...or put it outside and forget to dump it, which is what I did today!
I unfortunately could not change his mind after we got fruit flies and he decided it was "gross" to keep the veggie scraps indoors, even for a few days. I have a small kitchen, so there isn't much space for a tabletop container. I'm thinking about reintroducing the idea at some point.
"We" are not fond of fruit flies in the house either. They come flitting by the computer screen...I have no cure for them, just diligence. Coffee grounds only might be safe?
I have a rollout trash can. And a bathroom size trash can with a rim, that just fits hanging sideways on the rim. so there is the compost in small trash can and garbage in regular.
I was tickled that DDs college has composting. They provide a small pail with lid and a sticker detailing dos and don't. Students take their pails to the compost area and dump. They have vegetable garden on campus.
freezing pre compost scraps eliminates fruitfly prob.
SSG you could always label your freezer container "Soup Stock" Come to think of it many kitchen trimmings we compost are great for homemade stock.......
City of Burlington, VT has curbside pick up of compostables from homes, businesses and restaurants that they combine with browns . cook, turn test and redistribute to gardens, CSA's and other food plots. Their waste stream has dwindled to a trickle. Seeing first hand all the waste along my paper route/neighborhood that is wasted makes me know we can do much better here.
Sally, it is curious why fruitflies like computer screens!
While I'm in a proactive mind set...
What if all of the plants and planting material that Gita and I have personally thrown into trash compacters over the years could have been used to create 'compost' (raised beds, school gardens, community plots, Harvest for the Hungry, etc) instead of becoming landfill fill? How many cubic yards do we never see or have use of again?
The Fruit Flies you all are talking about are NOT that.
They are Fungus Gnats..which do fly all over--at sources of light--
in your face (breath scent) when you are reading tha newspaper, etc...
But--mostly when any kind of food is around, especially tomatoes and Cantelope.
I have even had some try to fly up my nose...
You all have houseplants--and the soil is their "home base". That is where you need to
focus to eliminate--more like decrease--the flying Gnat problem.
We have discussed the many times here on DG.
basically--you need to find a way to deny them access to the soil, as they
NEED to go there to lay their eggs.
Keep plants drier....put a layer of sand over the soil of Diatomateous Earth.
Sprinkle Systemic granules over the soil.
Sticky cards work great too. You can get them from "Planet Natural" catalog.
They are a pain!!!! But--they are NOT fruit Flies.
Gita