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joepyeweed_gw

March 2012 What have you fed your compost today?

joepyeweed
12 years ago

I noticed some compost newbies asking questions about what can be composted. I know sometimes these threads may get old, but I think they are good for newbies, so I am starting another one. Looking back, it appears that November was the last today thread...

so today I fed my compost:

One week old pea soup

Leftover pasta

A dead mouse

shredded junk mail

a cotton rag soaked in dog urine

Comments (89)

  • victorine72
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Jurassic-era cereal
    Stale chocolate chips
    Banana peels
    Half of an out of control weigela (chipped first)
    Daffodil stalks
    Strained pot solids from a batch of soup stock
    Leftover fried rice
    Either a rabbit or a very moldy zucchini-- Hard to tell.

  • amoocow421
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ya'll crack me up! :)

    My poor compostwin...all it got were the outer parts of a pineapple and cantaloupe...poor thing!

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    two wheelbarrows full of grass
    a shredded pizza box
    banana peel
    a little onion

  • cindycarol12345
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    coffee grinds and filters, old cereal, potato, onion and carrot peelings,

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    strawberry tops, coffee grounds

  • norma_2006
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Good grief, I sure learned a lot tonight, thanks, all, I can't believe the stuff you all use, and what do you do without the room? Do you want it to heat up or do you need to keep it cool, i don't believe I could turn it over. My dad had a large pit he put the trash into, I am sitting here shaking my head, urine, newspaper, dead rats, feathers, I had no idea. Thanks

  • HIWTHI
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I can't believe the stuff y'all are putting in your compost pile. I'm another one that has only put paper, veggie scrapes, grass, coffee grounds, tea bags. I will definitely start adding fur from all my animals. I have a dog who expels about a pound a day with his double coat and this woarm climate. Thanks for the education.

  • tifbee
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    leftover cabbage
    lots of leaf mold
    allergy season used tissues
    coffee grounds and filters
    garden scraps from winter garden
    newspaper

    Do I dare put chickweed plants in my long-term slow cooking compost pile?!?

  • batyabeth
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Cooking marathon for Passover Seder.........insides of a lot of red peppers, all of the peelings, etc. from 2 kinds of soup, leaves from all of the roots, onion skins, trimmings from the veggie patties, strained soup veggies, UCG's as we need coffee breaks.
    Of course, cleaned out the fridge yesterday, too: beets gone bad, half a butternut squash, very old something...... stale tea, old dried fruit, nameless things in jars from way back in the cabinets, etc.
    The week before this holiday should be named "Feed Your Compost Week".

  • tinamib
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Vacuum contents
    Hair from comb/brushes
    Dryer lent
    veggie scraps
    unfinished cans of beer, soda, and juice
    coffee / coffee grinds with liner

  • beffy52
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I started composting a couple years ago, and I finally got one done successfully. So exciting! Pure black gold! I still have some questions, though. Is office paper OK to compost? I was wondering about the bleach they must use to make it white.

    The other thing I'm wondering is how much do all of you shred your ingredients? For instance do you put a whole banana peel in, or do you cut it up? What about used paper towels and tissues? Do you shred weeds and stalks, etc? I shred or cut up everything, but it's very time-consuming. I have a leaf shredder, so that is fairly easy, but everything else I do by hand. Makes composting quite a task. Just wondering how you all do it.

  • Laurel Zito
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I think plain paper is ok, but I think junk mail is not with those glossy photos or magazines. I read that glossy photo are toxic. But, I don't compost plain paper, I don't have a paper shredder. But, I give that my ok. I compost plain white paper towels for many years, no bad effect has been seen from the bleach, but I think natural brown ones would be better, but I can't find those in the stores. I like to use Bounty. I wish it came in unbleached brown.

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    you can compost glossy paper. Just don't use a lot of it and shred it.

    Today I added:
    bagels
    piece of pizza
    lettuce
    sweat generated while turning the pile
    cigar ashes from the cigar I smoked while turning the pile

  • scotty66
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I keep a 5 gallon bucket outside my backdoor, it hadn't been emptied in about 2 weeks. The bottom half was moldy, sticky and nasty smelling. Bucket was so full I couldn't put any more into it. It had apple cores, bannana peals, water melon rinds, other assorted veggie scraps, shredded paper, egg shells, cat hair, my hair and whatever was in the vacuum cleaner.
    I turned my pile and mixed it all in... when I sprayed out the bucket I poured the water on top of the compost. Mr. Compost Pile eats it all up.

  • scotty66
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    btw - I don't chop up my veggie waste (bannana peels, watermelon rinds, etc) only thing chopped or shredded is the paper (and that is long thin strands).
    I have noticed that the egg shells don't compost very well and have read that it is recommended to grind those up, but I haven't started doing that yet.

  • HIWTHI
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    egg shells, grass clippings, banana peels, lettuce leaves, apple cores, cucumber peelings, used paper towels, coffee ground. I'm afraid I just have boring things, nothing exciting here. Tomorrow I'm going to brodcast the alfalfa pellets everywhere. Oh, I have my first tomato's of the season on my sweet 100 plant. Very exciting.

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I finally started my second pile. Used straw as my brown and grass clippings for my green. Also added strawberries, egg shells, coffee grounds and tea leaves.

    The place I get my coffee every day offered to save coffee grounds and the tea leaves (the brew big batches of iced tea) in a 5-gallon bucket. SCORE

  • mosswitch
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Two dead voles (thanks, cat!)
    Big bucket of green weeds from the garden
    wastebasket full of used toilet paper (we have a septic tank so it doesn't all get flushed)
    Compost pail of kitchen scraps (coffee filters, orange peels, banana skins, egg shells, dead leftovers from the fridge, etc). I topped off the bucket with water so I don't have to hose it out. I empty it three times a week in the winter, once a day in the summer.
    couple of pots of used potting soil from last fall
    shredded junk mail
    Big bucket full of dead leaves

    Topped off with a few fork fulls of half-composted stuff from the other pile
    Half inch of rain

    It gets pretty hot!

    Sandy

  • rookie09
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yesterday I took the bottom part of the bin - mostly finished compost - and top dressed my beds. The robins were having a field day.

    I re-mixed the remaining contents and today will add:

    5-gallons of kitchen waste from my neighbor
    30-gallons of shredded paper waste from my brother-in-law
    Fresh grass clippings (if necessary)

    I don't worry about the ratios much because it is crawling with worms - mainly composting worms but earth worms as well.

  • groomie2
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    lots of flower petals that I swept off off my steps at work,shredded leaves, kitchen scraps, grass clippings,and some ripped up cardboard.

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    a wheelbarrow of freshly cut grass clippings into the new pile and a pitchfork full of steaming hot compost from the month-old pile just to start things moving a little faster.

    oh, and water.

  • katkni
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I fed my friend's compost the teabag from my travel mug. I had stopped by to drop off broccoli plants. My compost got the usual kitchen stuff.

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    5-10 pounds of coffee grounds. Leftovers from Easter dinner (corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls), other kitchen scraps.

  • elisa_z5
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Many buckets of wild mustard, dandelions, dock, and quack grass. (I say yes to the chickweed, as asked above. Even my slow cooking pile seems to kill weed seeds just fine.)

    some leftover squirrel from the freezer, which I had kept for a LONG time so that I could say to guests, "There's some leftover squirrel in the freezer if you want some."

  • Angeline84
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Today is turning day - which might be a challenge since we got so much snow this weekend, things will be very heavy! And I'll finally get a chance to mix in some flour that is full of little buggies and grossing me out. Everyone cross your fingers that I don't end up making compost dough!

  • Lloyd
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Is it still March??

    ;-)

    Lloyd

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    So meat products are OK to use in the pile? Someone had said to me that protein and meat were a no-no?

  • weedyseedy
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Will a lot of garlic mustard make something useable or might it have a bad chemical effect----like black walnut???????-----------------------------------Weedy

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I think small amounts of meat are fine. I certainly wouldn't add a small steer to a 4'x4' pile :-) But a little leftover hamburger (buried deep in the pile) probably won't cause any problems.

  • shells1
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have been reading some of the comments on this compost forum and there are a number of questions, hopefully I can answer.
    I have a compost that is 8ft by 10ft by 4 1/2 feet deep. I have it completely filled with beautiful black compost by each may and I have a garden which is 30ft. by 90ft., which includes 5 raised beds. I use all my compost each years, with just a little left over to inoculate the next year's pile. I have never had disease nor bad bugs that I couldn't get rid of and I beleive it is because of the composting, which inoculates the veggies against these things.
    suggestions;
    I bring black trash bags to feed stores near where I live and ask if I can rake up any extra alfalfa or straw that is left over after customers buy bales of it. I always get the reply of "absolutely", because they just throw it away anyway. I can usually scrape up 5-6 black trash bags so full that my husband has to help carry them to the truck. Both are fantastic for the compost. Alfalfa is a nitrogen and is "hot", really heating up the compost and straw is a carbon, when mixed with water and a nitrogen, rapidly decomposes and the crushed up leaves really start to decompose when these items are added to a pile.
    also, when you add fruit and veggies and starches...the more area to an item makes it break down faster. So, cut them up.
    I never add weeds, just in case that part of my pile doesn't heat up enough to kill the seeds.
    I turn it with a pitchfork about every two weeks...it takes a couple days and I call it my "gym membership".
    When I turn the pile, I add layers of nitrogen then carbon, then compost, and water each layer as I add them. If the compost isn't damp, then it can't heat up.
    The middle of a compost should get the hottest...up to 160 for a time of a few hours to a couple days, then it will start to cool somewhat. The outer part will not get that hot. This is why you turn your pile; to get the hottest part mixed with the cooler part. Worms play an integeral part of a compost pit or pile. They create worm castings, which are pure black gold. The worms live near the top and outer part of the pile. It you have many worms, you are doing great, if you have ants, you have a dry pile, which will never heat up!
    We live in a cold climate in AZ and in the snow, you can see the pile steaming. When i turn it, I feel like I am in a sauna. the other day, I put a thermometer 2 ft. in from the edge (towards the center) and 6 inches down (small thermometer) and it registered 140 degrees, so I figure the core must be around 160. that was 30 hours after I turned and watered it. I waited a week and turned the pile. It started heating up again, but you need to add fuel...such as carbon and nitrogen each time and wet them down. You don't need tons, but some to get it going again.
    Also, I stop at starbucks and get many, many bags of coffee grounds when I am in town. These are gold, as the worms love them, and they are high in nitrogen. I mix it together with leaves or straw.
    Also, my husband mows the leaves up to shred them, or we use the sucker or chipper to get them very small. Remember; more surface area, faster decomposition. My compost is steaming now, and it should snow this week. I cant wait to get that wonderful black gold on my garden! Interestingly, each year I do this but my garden never overflows with soil!!! Because...It continues to compost year after year, and makes the soil richer and richer!

  • Sid23
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This week I put in old broccoli, sugar snap peas, strawberries, egg shells, bad melon some old straw and about 20 worms I saved from drowning in the pond!

  • joule
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bread, lots of bread. :)

    I don't put meat or animal bones in my pile, too much wildlife that likes to pilfer.

    Metaxa used to talk about a digester for meat and bones. I don't know if he still reads here but if he does maybe he can tell us about it.

  • elisa_z5
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Very funny about the bread. Watch you don't start a brawl.

    shells1, thanks for the compost inspiration and ideas!

  • Molex 7a NYC
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    A bunch of pine & spruce tree trimmings from my neighbor
    Lemon grass plants and roots from last season
    2 dozen dead carpenter bees
    30 dozen egg shells crushed (snagged from school, Eggs Benedict demo)

  • jolj
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Peelings from Kitchen,tea & coffee waste.
    I always put egg shells in, so my compost will not get Bloom End Rot. :-)

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    my soul

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yeah I here ya

    Today I left some skin and blood on the side of the bin by accident. Sharp edges

    All chopped up:
    Pineapple rinds
    Banana peels
    Urine
    Coffee Grounds
    Corn Cobs
    Random Vegetable peels
    Napkins
    Wee bit a water

  • annpat
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    one pink cotton shirt with cat urine on it
    one feather pillow with cat urine on it
    one cat
    No, no, just kidding.

  • Molex 7a NYC
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    how do you chop up urine? do you freeze it first? ;p

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hmm MoleX that might be a good idea. I can save it for when I need it. Not like I cant make more when I want though..Lol

  • ernie85017, zn 9, phx
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Being out of the compost habit, I had to leave the thread mid-read to take things out of the trash!

  • Jada.kidney.dialysis
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This has always been one of my favorite threads. Don't let it die.

    Today I shredded tons of paper -- by hand with not the greatest scissors. I really need a paper shredder.

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    lots of fresh cut grass.

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Nice and hot today ... grass clippings are awesome! Added a banana, onion, avocado peel/pit ... not much

  • rott
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    ..
    Hair and nail clippings
    ..

  • jrmckins
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    mashed potatoes, corn, banana peel

  • dogwind
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    today I added some old soy flour

  • Jada.kidney.dialysis
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Today I added eggplant top and end scraps and two too toasted pitas. Not much but the composter appreciates every bite.

  • bahacca
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm new here, but I fed mine a half watermelon that went bad, canteloupe rinds, mango peels and strawberry tops today.

  • Jada.kidney.dialysis
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Today I added some lemon slices, some funky brown lettuce, some squishy grape tomatoes, and assorted shredded junk mail. Man is is hot outside!