A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 How to make a compost bin II

I can see the "mud room" getting revamped before the kitchen if the obsession gets to out of hand lol.

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking! Though the kitchen is pretty close to done -- so it wouldn't be all that horrible if we changed focus now....would it?

You guys are all Awesome! I'm having a Hoot being 'Nutzoid' with you all. If it wasn't for all your earlier posts and lessons, I might not have jumped in and tried it myself. It hasn't even snowed yet and I'm sooooo anxious for the new growing season.

But what are we going to talk about over the winter though???? lol

Well, the way I figure it, we make it till february on house plants, and then talk seedlings from feb until we can get out and play again!

Are you making room in a sunny window or have a grow light for an indoor herb garden for Helen? You might get something better than hotdogs if you do lol. I am such a bad girl but I just had to tease.

If you decide you want a herb garden for inside let me know. I have some seeds that should get you started.

Well now that I've given my compost a cup of coffee do you think it will be addicted and start whining and crying for it every time I go down to check on it? lol

Ok that's enough of my sense of humor for today. See you in one of the other rooms.

May be if we get that going we'll graduate from hotdogs to 5 course meals. Then again a crock pot and grill has it's limits. Someday I dream of having a stove like the rest of the free world

This week I'm working on the grand plan to figure out where house-stuff is gonna fit...I will keep your seed offer in mind and hope I can find space to accept! My problem is lack of sun anywhere but in that built in porch area...

I understand completely. Keep the faith.

TK, my compost is addicted to coffee too. lol. I switched to caffeine free pepsi though and it didn't seem to notice. lol
Mary, so do you keep adding your greens all along until then, then? That's what I was wondering about. The greens broke down pretty quick in mine, and now that they're gone it's cooled off a lot. But there's still lots of straw to process.

Do you think I should go back to adding the greens to the first heap and let the next pile wait it's turn?

BTW, I left the corn in there. lol.

Yep Suze, that's pretty much the way I do it...I just dont have enough greens all at once to build a pile at once...and I gotta empty that kitchen canister every few days or it gets yucky stinky - so I keep adding greens until I see it's time to stop... you know it when you see it kind of thing. The greens are what will keep it cooking - you get poo in there and it will cook fast! I'm still jealous over that one. :p

Depends -- ya might go back to the first pile to speed it up a bit since I'm guessing you'll be hitting your first freeze before long there...but I dunno...

I'm not the best to advise on finishing up a pile. I do real good until after it's cooled down, and then my heap seems to come to a standstill...like it will cook down in 2 weeks or so, but then that final stage will take a month. Kind of frustrating. May be if I added greens and heated it up again, it'd finish completely. Or may be I need to sift like Weezie & T do. Yaknow, I think I'll give the adding more greens thing a try - thanks, Suze! I'll let ya know how it goes -- let me know how you do too, ok?

Hey all, the reserve pile got a big infusion of grass clippings today. So now it's about half green and half brown and twice as big as it was this morning. And I'm busy making another pot of coffee that I'm still not going to share with the compost. I know I'm a bad girl lol. I promise to give it a dose of sugar water this afternoon when I water everything else ok? lol.

My landlord tells me he is going to bring a big (1 cubic yard) bin of grass clippings for me tomorrow. I think I'm going to spread those all over the slope. I'm not sure yet. But I'll figure it out lol. I just love gardening. Who knew it would be this fascinating.

Well I need to skeeeedaddle and see what else is going on.

Getting rid of my home made bin and getting a new one yay!

Smith & Hawken Home Composter
Price: $19.00
The Smith & Hawken Home Composter is excellent for lower maintenance composting, and an excellent value at $19. Made from post-consumer recycled plastic, the bin features a locking lid and and 2 sliding doors for monitoring and harvesting compost...



I don't know if there is anyone from the SF bay area here that would like a discounted compost bin or worm bin but here's the addy in case. StopWaste.org

Wish I lived in your town,

Did you see the prices of those bins???

I'd be grabbin' a plethra of them,
and havin' a part~teeeeeeeee!!!

Look at the cost of that worm farm..
Holy cow, get 13 of them!!!!

My landlord brought me a few grass clippings. About 7 ft x 4 ft x 1 1/2 ft of grass clippings. His wife told him those were probably a few more than I needed. But he said I'd find a place for them lol. This is going to be comic I'm sure.

Tell your landlord he better start
bringing you some brown too...

If he can "bring you the green"
he had better bring the brown..

Tell him to find a saw mill or lumber mill
That has either saw dust of wood chips/shavings!!!

It's the least the guy could do for you,
since you're taking care of his grass..
**ask, just in passing what he did with
all his grass before you started composting...
bet it's a run longer to where he had to take
it than to you****

(don't get me wrong, it's good he brings it to
you, and you can definately use it... but if
he has you taking care of his clippings, you NEED
something to take care of the clippings WITH..)

Yes the prices of these bins are great! I only have room for one or I would have gotten maybe 2. They are trying to encourage recycling and bay friendly gardens here so.

Have you checked to see if your waste management/sanitary district is offering the same kind of thing for your area? It would be great if they all did.

I just asked...
I actually never asked before.
*I had previously bought 2,
then my hubby made 3 for me out of shipping
pallets, and my mom bought me one of those
double barreled compost tumblers..*
but hey, free or reduced price for bins
is great...

I'll let you know, I just wrote the guy
I keep in contact with from my local Co~operative Extention...

Don't have to worry about the brown Weezie his dad planted two of those tulip poplars and one maple about 30 years ago and we have those nasty mimosa trees taking over the area so I have plenty of brown. Oh did I mention the humungous tree in the neighbors yard it goes up forever. I don't have to ask him where he put the green before,... the dumpster is right behind the building I've seen him dump it there for years. This was a special delivery because he de-thatched his yard? Something to do with a power rake. I still don't know enough about gardening to understand exactly how all that works. But I have plenty of grass clippings to keep me busy probably all the way to hard frost so I think it is a good thing. Well everyone have a great night.

That's good to know Tammy....

Havin' a big pile of green sittin' around,...
get's to be a little you know what..
and it's hard to work the compost bins when
you have too much green and not enough browns..

I am in the thrawls of emptying them again..
and starting new one's...
My favoritest time of year to do them...

I looked in the compost bin today and it has compacted quite a bit. So I'll be out there tomorrow getting it turned. Today after I planted some crocus and daffodils I used the brown grass clippings to cover the bulbs. The directions I got said they like a heavy covering of mulch if it is going to get cold. And it's cold today in my opinion lol. although we haven't had a hard frost quite yet.

All summer I used an old barrel that the bottom was rusted out of to compost in. But after reading the posts about composting and things that could go into the pile, I went "NUTZ" there were three wooden posts in the ground where I had this bottomless barrel, I got hubby to put a fourth post in..And of course there were really huge rocks to dig out he worked hard...Then two days later I convinced him I needed some chicken wire around this area, three sides anyway, so with me doing manual labor part he put the wire up. I had piled alot of stuff in there, but now I am going to pull it all out and pile it in there right layer it and add all the stuff I have recover from my household trash that is compostable...My question is if there isn't enough warm weather left...will this pile start working in the spring?? Or will it be alright until spring???

I don't know the answer to your questions I'm sorry. I turned my compost bin today and only the very center had managed to get hot and it's not really that cold yet. So the heat thing may take a break over the winter. I don't know for sure. I'm kind of hopping not because I need a lot more potting soil for this winter for my winter sow and I don't want to have to buy it. I'm a cheap skate lol.

sure it will

I add things all winter.The bigger the pile in spring the better.

I can't plant tomatoes and peppers 'til May 1st.
I use the bottom of my pile then.It's not quite finished but the tomatoes and peppers love it,especially the broken up eggshells.

duckie

***"Movie saying, Build it and they will come.."***


~~~~~Weezie's saying, "Add compost and it will compost..."

ohhhhhhh yes, never too late to start..
Even if it froze tomorrow, it'd be sitting there, frozen, waiting to thaw and ready to go...
*in fact, once wet/frozen, and then starting to go from soaked to medium, it can be a little tricky, too wet some Springs are...but, be patient, turn it, add some more dirt/soil and give it a kick start... even a pepsi or a beer...
and it will slowly re~heat up!!!!

Thanks for responding...It rained all day today so as soon as it dries out alittle outdoors, I will probable spend several hours building the new pile, and adding all the stuff I have saved during the last several weeks. I'm also going to hunt some cardboard tomorrow while in town to place on the bottom of the pile, I just love cardboard...I use it in my veggie garden between the rows and have for years, there's nothing like seeing that cardboard disintegrate towards the end of the season.

Well the compost pile finally got a base of branches that will provide plenty of air circulation so that's a good thing. And ofcourse I had to turn it inorder to get the branches to the bottom so that's taken care of. There was some steaming but not a lot. I guess that's ok lol. The pile has strunk atleast by 3/4ths since the landlord for brought it. Some of that of course is me using it for the compost bin but the rest and 2/3 of the shrinkage has got to be due to the composting. It is very compacted compared to when it was first brought.