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michellenicole10

composters

michellenicole10
16 years ago

i have 2 composters in my yard at this new house i just bought, they are black and i have no clue how to use them. Do i want them? are they that useful? dont laugh..i really am just learning....hehe

Michelle

Comments (3)

  • gabriella_gurl
    16 years ago

    Lucky girl!!!
    Yes you want those, they are great, just google composting and you'll find all the info plus some to get you going.

  • ianna
    16 years ago

    Start dumping your kitchen refuse and garden clippings in them. Add a small layer of garden soil which contains bacteria necessry to break down the materials. Do a brown, and green layering and periodically wet and turn them (with a garden fork or a shovel). Use one compost first and then when a full year is over. Remove the material, use a screen to get the larger materials (which is placed back in the compost pile) and use the composted material in your yard. Place the larger materials into the next composter and begin adding new garden clippings to that composter.

    Ianna

  • bonniepunch
    16 years ago

    Compost is often referred to as black gold because of its value to a garden. There is no better fertilizer.

    To get finished compost all you need is browns, greens, water and air.

    Composting can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. The more you turn and balance your compost the faster it'll be done and the less it'll smell. Some people claim to be able to get finished compost in three weeks with frequent turning and careful layering and balancing. Compost done like that never smells bad. I'm lazy about my compost so I don't turn it or make any effort to layer things. I just toss stuff in and the next year it's ready. That's good enough for me :-). I can occasionally smell my compost when I'm a couple of feet away, and it's been a particularly hot few days, and I've tossed something smelly like melon rinds or banana peels on top, but for the most part it doesn't smell. I do however have lots of ventilation holes so that the air can get to it. When it does get smelly I will give it a little stir and toss a thin layer of soil in on top.

    People talk about greens and browns a lot with compost. Greens are your kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, lawn clippings, weeds and stuff like that (things high in nitrogen). Browns are shredded newspapers, dead leaves, hay, twigs and stuff like that (things high in carbon). If you're going for the 'proper' balance ideally you want about two to four times the amount of browns as you have greens. My pile isn't properly balanced, it has more greens than browns, but it breaks down all the same - it just takes longer.

    The browns provide the fuel for the bacteria that will break down your greens into that black gold. The air and water are necessary for that process as well

    If you have an ammonia like smell coming from your pile you need to add more browns, and some air. Some shredded newspaper stirred in will work just fine. If your pile isn't breaking down despite you turning it, you need to add more greens. Water needs to be added if it dries out too much, but that never happens for me - compost bins in the sun might have this problem. The compost should be damp, like a sponge. That's it for the big problems.

    BP

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