Back to compost please

It's quite basic. MUCH easier than a greenhouse!

Here are the other three bins (the fourth on this side was removed to make room for the shed) and the black bags filled with grass. It may show the huge pile for chipping at the right side as well.

Thanks! I will show the hubby the pictures. We have enough wood so he CAN build one :-) In a couple of minutes I threw up a web page, so I don't have to keep posting here. I will work on the website and make it better. I will take pictures and put them on my website. For those of you that want to, you can follow the GH going up (hopefully this weekend - not including benches etc.) and my SPORADIC - gardening behavoir. I have also put this link on my profile page ( You will have to copy and paste the link to get there as I don't know how to put a url in here yet. This place is so fun, addictive and learning, I am overwhelmed. TY TY TY

http://www.geocities.com/schickenlady/

Schicken, Pirl's compost set up is lovely. I slum it with 2 chicken wire circles about 4' in diameter.

Dave - just to clarify, it's Mr. Pirl's compost bins.

Sure, leave it to the husband to take care of the rotting stuff while you get to plant the beauties!

Hey why not...it is the women who are the beautiful creatures, isn't it??? LOL

Pirl great job on the compost bins...I am so envious!

Hey Victor! I add to the compost with all my clean-up. I should take a shot of the pile I made for him to chip. It's huge and spilling over into our "Aster Hill".

Dawn - you're too funny! Jealous of our compost! One person just wrote to me and said she finds it difficult to believe we raise all of our vegetables without resorting to poisonous sprays. Never! If the plants can't survive, in good health, with all that good compost, then out they go.

Asparagus season will start in about two weeks! That's a celebration, for sure.

After a year I still don't have a compost bin but am pushing the subject with DH. How do you keep the skunks away?

We've never had a skunk visit that I'm aware of. If you don't tempt them they won't come.. Maybe someone who has skunks in the area can post if they've ever encountered one at their compost.

I just stumbled here and have not read the thread, so please forgive if there are redundancies. We compost up here in Cleveland, Georgia to reduce our garbage. there's not enough to use in our garden.

SKUNKS (I did that so "to whom it may concern" will notice) can be a problem if you compost the foods they like. They LOVE fish scraps. I thought I was letting a kitten into our vestibule one night. It was a young skunk coming in for the fish scraps in the compost bucket waiting to be buried. Egg shells will bring skunks and possums. If you don't care, shells are great composting materials. Don't use animal waste or anything you think might be diseased plant-wise if you plan to use the compost in your garden. We don't compost dairy because it will bring in rats and every other critter including bear. What you compost depends on where your compost is. Ours is a few hundred feet from the house and we don't want the critters here. If we carried it out acres away, I'd say anything degradable goes.

We never put bones, fish, meat, anything with a waxy coating (cucumbers, turnips, etc.), in our piles and simply haven't had a problem with any unwanted critters. Never put tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers into the compost!

Dear DG buddies,
I am perplexed, while I think I know how to get a compost pile going, I am in an apartment, but have a rather long balcony....See: LOOOOONG balcony. Is there something that can be used to compost that won't COMPLETELY stink up the place, or should I just buy some potting mix with organic compost in it, since that's all I can grow in at this second, window boxes and planters? I don't think my neighbors, in the sweltering heat of a Massachusetts August afternoon, will take kindly to the smell of what I remember compost to smell like! But, I'm open to any/all ideas and, if you can give me tips-like is using earthworms the least stinky way to keep up with produce cuttings and coffee ground, I might try it as I think that the soil-manure from the worms is so complete, nutritionally, for plants of any kind.
Also, are there particular items to add which are far less smelly as they break down-don't laugh me away-because I've heard the smell has to do with the ingredient types?

My particular patio favorites are...cherry and maybe one medium-sized variety of heirloom tomatoes, various colored bell peppers-purple, chocolate, white, yellow, red, orange, and green (though all start green as you all likely know!), some Tom Thumb Peas that grow in a 12-14" pot or even over the edge of the balcony which can be gently lifted for harvest, dwarf flower varieties; Liliput Zinnias-Mixes,
Dwarf Nasturtiums or all colors-especially the Glorious Glean Mix, Dwarf Marigolds-doubles, singles, small-flowered but bright varieties, hummingbird vine, and a few other worth contenders!

Thanks for your ideas!
Thor

We don't put any meat or fish in the compost, takes too long to degrade.pirl why not compost the waxies?

No waxy products because the wax coating prevents decomposition.

I don't smell the compost at all - not ever. I just used a big bucket of it on a newly planted area and there simply is no smell. Being in your situation I'd either ask a local farmer if you could buy some of his compost or buy the best product you can find.

Thanks to both of you, its such a welcome relief to talk to people who really seem to know their stuff...I might just see about the vermicomposting, especially since we have a large stream, well...one large enough for "sustainable fishing" as in, I only will eat what I catch. LOL
Thor