Does Anyone Use a Composter??

What's the point of a compost if you aren't going to put food items in it? It will not be a well balanced compost. If only grass clippings and pine needles are used, you will end up with a 'hot' compost - more acidic and high in nitrogen. Don't put animal products in it - only veggies and fruits plus the grass etc.

Good luck!

Try Vermicomposting.
It is composting, with a special type of "earthworm."
It produces, great compost.
I've done that.
But then, my worms died or slinked away.
But it is GREAT.

We also had a composter. But it was a pain to maintain.

i've got the darth vader helmet too, and i love it. no handles or turning. if i weren't so lazy i'd get a shovel and mix it up from time to time, but i rarely do, yet have amazing kitchen compost.
mine is very secure and no varmints can get in. the top has a good locking twisty lid, and the bottom door (from where i pull the composted material) slides up and down firmly and won't let anything in.
i will never be without a composter again. between my kitchen composter and my manure pile (horse), i've got garden gold. i lasagna it with newspaper to prevent weeds, and have the biggest healthiest worms i've ever seen. gorgeous stuff.
why not food items? if you're just composting grass and pine needles, just make a pile. but i can't imagine why anyone DOESN'T compost food items. i put in coffee grinds, tea bags, eggshells (why wash them??), vegetable peelings, rinds, even stalks and deadheads from my houseplants. if it's not animal protein, in it goes!
khairete
S.

I would love to have a composter... I've seen the ones that are a barrel on a stand, and you turn a crank to rotate it, thus mixing the organic matter frequently.

That being said, we just have a large compost pile in our back yard. I put kitchen trimmings (vegetable trimmings, not dairy or meat), grass, leaves, and things left from the garden.

I don't turn it regularly.. I should, but that is a pretty big job. I should also water it more frequently, but again, I don't...

At any rate, it is a slow working compost pile, but still produces wonderful compost!

As far as grass clippings, if you have a good mix of green (clippings) and brown (leaves) you shouldn't have a problem with smell. The green clippings will help "heat" up the compost pile pretty quickly, helping the bacteria get to work decomposing the organic matter.

I have one that rotates. It has a wide enough door to throw in piles of leaves and stuff. The door has a clippy thing that you have to unhook, so clever little animals can't get it. I love it because I don't have to turn it by hand. That's a lot of work! The only thing I don't like about it (besides the smell) is that it sits above ground and obviously drips into puddles on the ground, instead of seeping right into the ground.

I had a compost mesh basket that sat on the ground, which I just mixed by hand every week or so, and it just didn't seem as messy. And I put all my organic food waste in it, and it still wasn't as messy as my rotator composter.

Either way, I love composting. I have a few fruit trees that bears awesome fruit and my garden is always awesome each year.

GL!

Mine looks like an oversized Darth Vader helmet. I use a shovel to turn it.

Don't overdo the grass clippings - they pack together and block air flow, and they produce ammonia when decomposing, which will throw off your pH balance.

I put all non-meat/non-bone/non-fat food scraps in mine and I don't wash them first. I have never had a problem with it attracting rodents.

On the first go round, my eyes read this as "Does anyone use a computer??" And I was like, what, really? Does anyone NOT?

I DO use a computer, but I have never used a composter. I've been curious about them for a while, so this is a timely question...will be reading all the answers.

We have a giant box hubby made in our yard. We don't do much, just dum stuff in it and wait. Hubby turns it every blue moon.

We have lots of fat squirrels and happy chipmunks. The Raccoon is too busy trying to get in the garbage can. He's figured out how to get the lid off, and he's eaten his way through one lid. But he ignores the compost box.

I'm going to miss my box when we move, and it will probably take hubby years to have the time to build a new one. :-(

I have three composters in my yard. They are very basic models, like a trash bin with ventilation and a trap door at the bottom. They are black and look sort of like Darth Vader. Mine do not have a handle or anything, I have a compost turner that I use to mix the compost every so often. I have found a mouse in my compost once, but it hasn't been a problem. All of my kitchen scraps (except meat and dairy) go into the compost. This would be coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, fruit and veggie peels, breads and grains. I have a stainless steel bucket with a lid in the kitchen to collect the scraps, and it is the kids job to empty the bucket into the bin outside. Yard waste such as grass clippings and dried leaves also go in. Go easy on the grass clippings, they are better left on the lawn to decompose. Stay away from pine needles, they will make your compost too acidic. I have been composting for years now. I empty the bins once a year.

We have a compost tumbler, the small green one that sits on your porch. We never have any problems with rodents or critters. It doesn't have a handle, but there are slots so you can grab it and spin it a few times now and then. We choose not to put meat or dairy in ours, but it works on the veggie material just fine. Since it is small, it can stay full all year vs big ones that need to be emptied. You'll need some "brown" and some "green" to make good compost. We found that we have a LOT less garbage for the collectors since we bought our composter. It's at least 5 yrs old now and could use being hosed off but other than that, it's still working great. No rust on the support frame or wheels. The garden LOVES the compost and occasionally we get volunteer plants, too.

We actually have a large compost pile in our backyard that makes great compost. We add almost anything to it, including yard clippings (but not grass) and compostables from our kitchen (no meat or dairy).

One of the things that makes our compost rich are worms. The worms eat the scraps we put in t he pile and their casings enrich the soil and add nutrients that help our plants grow. I suggest you add some dirt to your compost that have a few worms in them. Trust me, it's worth it!

We compost..have for years. We started with a simple trash can. We just drilled some holes for drainage. Once we were more committed to the idea, we bought a spinning bin. It does work a little faster. But it's harder to get things in and out of it. So we still use our trash can and just refill the spinning bin as we use the compost (I hope that makes sense).

We have never had any issue with rodents in the compost...ocassionally in our garden stealing veggies, never near the compost. If we don't have our browns and greens (a goggle search will be better than my lame attempt to explain) balanced we do sometimes get a bunch of fruit flies. BUt this is easily remedied.

Grass doesn't do well in compost, it blocks out air. We use ours mostly for fruit and veggie cores, peels, rinds and egg shells. You need to have a balance of what they call greens and browns, so we do add hedge clippings and leaves to balance things out.

We used one for years when we had a lot of trees (leaves).
Attracting animals was never a problem for us and we threw in everything except animal/skin bones (no dog/cat poop, but horse/cow/chicken manure is fine).
Veggie peelings, fruit skins/cores, tea bags/tea leaves, coffee grounds, wood chips (if you have a gerbil or hamster and you change out their wood chips/shavings the old bedding breaks down just fine), egg shells (you don't have to wash them - just let them dry then crush them up).
You want to keep your compost slightly moist but not soggy wet.
Turn it once a day (or every time you add something to it).
Once you have a batch that's finished (and you will every few weeks), then use it in your garden and dig it in to your soil.

http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.html

I've been doing this for years. I don't have the type you mention - I have a bin with a lid, and 2 side panels that can be raised up so the compost spills out and can be shoveled up into buckets or a wheelbarrow. I have a special tool that is like a spike on a handle, with 2 prongs on the bottom. They fold up when I put the spike down in, then they unfold when I lift it up and twist. That helps bring up the composted items as well as worms, and put them on top of the new material.

I compost food items except for meat and citrus. I'm not sure why you are avoiding food items. I chop up melon rinds and banana peels into squares, I use apple cores and other fruit/vegetable trimmings, stale bread & crackers, coffee grounds, and so on. Egg shells are great - but why are you saying you will used "washed" ones? You're adding it to dirt and leaves. Are you concerned that your eggs are coated with something? Then I wouldn't buy those eggs!

You have to wait a while for leaves to decompose, or you have to chop them up in a lawnmower to get smaller pieces, and you have to turn things more often. The key is not to have a huge layer of any one material (leaves, grass clippings, etc.) but to have a mix. Pine needles and pine cones make the mixture extremely acidic so you need to add lime to neutralize it. Where are you getting seaweed from? Are you buying it, or are you talking about leftover sushi? Don't buy stuff to add - that kind of defeats the purpose!

Definitely put it in some sun - the warmer it is, the faster stuff breaks down. If the mixture is extremely dry (as with leaves), then add water. I put in wet leaves and leftover vegetable gunk, and stick the hose in now and then. If it rains and the driveway is covered with earthworms, I scoop them up and add them in - they do an awesome job!

You don't want to bring the compost in the house to use with houseplants, but you can use it with any outdoor pots, gardens, etc.

If you keep the top layer of added materials from sitting there, you shouldn't have a rodent problem. I just add stuff, and every few days I "turn" it with my compost mixer tool - but in your case, you'll be turning it with a crank. Heat and liquid are the keys. But don't skimp on what you put in there! That's the point!

Let me know if you have any questions!

No grass as it won't decompose correctly. But any food besides meats can go in there left over fruits rind off of melons. All of that egg shells. No dairy or meat. No need to wash first either. Also if you or your husband is handy I suggest building your own. Go to a lumber yard and get sturdy wood and build it to the size you wabt.

All stuff can go in it that's plant, you don't have to wash stuff as far as I know. Several people around me have this style and they put all sorts of stuff in it I think. I'm no expert for sure.

We have and use it and love it. Ours came with instructions too. It likes a good mix of dead stuff and fresh stuff to turn out good compost quickly.

To Ally G - about the mess. We put a bucket under ours and collect that stuff. It's called compost tea and is very valuable and awesome!!!!!