We like to be as Green as we can and my new town does not have a Greens Garbage Collection (Black is Garbage, Blue is Recycling and Greens were yard clippings and vegetable and fruit waste, wilted flowers, anything from nature that could go back to nature). Our new area collects basic yard clippings, grass, weeds, small branches with leaves, shoved into no more than 20 clear plastic bags, nothing more.
We have missed the Greens Collections and have tried to figure out how best to help, not hurt the earth. We do not garden yet, but hope to someday, so for now we really don't need the compost but we're considering it for food that doesn't go into the garbage disposal in the sink, artichoke leaves, watermelon rind, avocado pits, edamame skins, corn cobs and husks, etc. Costco is currently selling one that is two handled and seems like a large, good quality one, but we really have very little to judge if it's a good one or not.
So basically: Do You Compost? How do you like it? Which brand do you use? How often do you add things to it? How hard is it to utilize? Do you have any suggestions for newbie compost-ers?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
We have an old rubbermaid that is just a bin which works fine. We bought a tumbler last year from Costco, the brand is Lifetime. This year that have a double unit.
You may want to google composting because what you are talking about doesn't sound balanced. What you wil lend up with will not be compost but rotting food.
Composting is easy you just have to know what you are doing. :)
I LOVE our city's yard waste: all food waste (including meat and bones) AND food 'ruined/ aka can't be recycled' paper (paper plates, paper towels, napkins, Kleenex, pizza boxes, Chinese delivery, etc.)... In addition to standard yard waste. The City makes a KILLING on selling the resulting compost. So it may be something you can get some groups lobbying on.
But back to self composting (haven't since moving here)... 1 word
Worms.
Worm balls and some pre existing compost to be turning the new stuff into gets things going FAST. Do make sure it's kept moist (not a problem up here), and that it's turned regularly, and you're good to go.
Also keep it away from the house. Rats and mice love food waste... And in CA that means snakes follow the rats and mice. None of the above do you Want near your house/kids.
Which is a thing to consider.
ALSO that if it's plastic (or wood) it will get chewed through. We never had a tumbler, just a pit with scrap wood sides. Some friends used wine barrels on 2x4 'tracks' to roll them on. Eventually the wood breaks down, then just got some more.
We have for years...I am so trained (yes, by my husband the gardener) to put compostable items in our bin on the counter to take out as it fills...usually every other evening.
We have in the past just composted in a corner of the garden area. My husband mixes it and moves it around as needed...
However the composter you are speaking of at Costco just went on sale...my hubby has had his eye on it for a while. I bought him one and he just love love loves it. He wants a second one, as it works so much faster than the toss it in the corner of the garden method.
We put so many things in there, egg shells, coffee grounds, all vegetable and fruit matter, tea bags, bread crusts...
Hope this helps you out.
Our back yard is fenced in. We have a small corner in the back where we just make a large pile of grass clippings, leaves and our vegetable peels and let nature take over. We don't use the compost.
Last summer I dediced I wanted to have some compost to use in my garden so I took an old plastic garbage can with a lid and drilled lots of holes in it. I just dump the waste in and stir every few weeks. It does create a lot of bugs (fruit flies). I'm sure if I turned it more often and was more diligent about keeping the right balance of green/brown it would work much better.
We have a worm box.
Heres how to do it.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Own-Worm-Compost-System
How nice that you care! At my mom's we have a tiny tiny backyard. In one corner there is a small elevated flower bed surrounded by rocks. We throw all of our kitchen garbage, leaves, mowed grass etc back there. You really don't need a composting system. That way the birds and animals can access it and eat. If you don't throw meat out you don't have to worry about rats or anything, and you are providing living space for tiny critters, maybe even lizards and hedgehogs. My dad does the same thing and it works.
We don't use a composter. We just build a frame and compost in there. It's open to the air. (We don't use treated wood, and it does need to be replaces every few years. It's just the method we have grown to prefer.) Compost does not smell, when done right. We've been composting for years and years. To start at the beginning, we just do layers. We start with organic dirt, layer yard clippings, layer whatever other organic matter, and throw our food stuff in whenever. We turn it ever week, and make sure it's moist. (Not wet.) That's all. We have amazing compost. It has tons of worms and things. Our garden loves it. Composting is actually incredibly easy.
The things you mention take a lot longer to break down, but they will. It's a good idea to have compost "stations." We do this. We have two stations, and one is for the food that takes a long time to break down. That works as long as it needs to, while we actively use the compost from the other station.
Hi! Please don't use the garbage disposal, they add to the solid load at the wastewater treatment plant (costing time and money and added chemicals) and will wreck your septic system if you have one. Instead compost it all (no meat or dairy). If you have no use for it I'll bet there are lots of people who would happily take it. You can see there are lots of ways to compost but for what it's worth Costco items are always good quality so if you want it go for it. We have a pile and a rotating bin, they both work. We had worms, that worked great too until someone (not me, not a child) put the bin outside and forgot it and they drowned. I have a trash can at my mom's house. It lays on its side and we have tie-downs for the lid and add stuff to it and roll it around. We aren't there more than a few days a month. Eh, it works and it beats the heck out of having to bring it home with us. When people are staying there they are happy to do it too rather than carry their trash home or pay to throw. Now if only they would start packaging in compostable "plastic"!
Yes, religiously. I use NatureMill - it's a power (plug in) composter so that food is totally broken down into compost every couple weeks. A manual one can take a few months to break things down.
It's pricey at $300-$400 - but I've had mine 3 or 4 years and only had one issue with a power cord - which they promptly replaced for free.
Newbie advice - you need to keep it outdoors. You need to add more wood chips than you think. Let it "season" a few weeks before you add it to plants. Your dog might try to eat it.
ETA - everything you listed is pretty much the stuff that's super hard to compost or will take a long, long time.
I started with two large bins (the average size they sell at Walmart or Target, maybe 10 gallon bins). I put a bunch of stuff in one, and kept the other for when I wanted to let my compost sit and be usable. I had holes in the main one, for circulation, and would stir it up, but it was such a pain. I also added water every few days (it needs to be moist to compost, and it is super dry where I live). The nice thing is that it composts down fast, so you can fit a lot in there over a long period of time. I switched to a huge 80 or 100 gallon bin from Costco that easily rotates. I love it, so much easier to turn, and it fits so much more stuff. I am letting it do its thing right now, and putting new stuff in the old bins (I do mix the main one, and should be able to use my compost soon). I put stuff in (either way I was doing it) about every other day, just because I need to get it out of the house so it doesn't get to funky. It is super simple, whether you actually use it in the garden or not, and like I said, it gets smaller so you can keep going forever. Also, every once in a while I get some free coffee grounds from Starbucks to help speed up the composting process. It also makes it smell wonderful. Which reminds me, you know your compost is doing well when it smells really earthy like soil.
i compost just as you're describing and it works beautifully. i collect the rinds, pits, eggshells and coffee grounds in a covered bowl in the kitchen, and every day or so take it out to a good yard composter that completely prevents vermin from getting into it, and has a sliding door at the bottom for me to retrieve the 'gold' for my garden. i'm far too lazy to keep up with stirring or watering it, i just dump it and go. there are fruit flies in warm months, but absolutely no odor. sometimes the big things like watermelon rinds don't break down all the way by the time i use them, but that doesn't faze me either.
and despite how often i add to the bin, it never gets full.
if it weren't easy i wouldn't do it. go for it!
khairete
S.
I've composted in the past, cant do it now because of my current location.
What we always did was dig a large pit to throw our food waste in, we threw a bag of mulch in, and some earth worms (bought at a bait shop). and covered it with a thin piece of wood... The worms eat the food. You gently stir it about once a week with a round nosed shovel. It's the best planting soil ever once it gets going. You arent supposed to put meat into it, but veggie waste is perfect and the worms do great at making your own home grown fertilizer.
We have two worm boxes in the garage (we rotate them fron time to time). Trudi Jo posted a link below on how to make them.
I put vegetable peels into the box every evening. Very happy with them. Our family has only two to three small size bags of real (nonrecyclable) garbage a week.
