compost heaps

[BozemanMT]

no, not the state of america today
real compost heaps for the garden.

I think it's working but I need a LOT of compost by next spring.

tips, tricks, thoughts?

BTW, it's very dry here and somewhat windy (even more dry) and I live on a river bottom so it's "well drained", so help me make it work right..

[Iain]

Take a look into what are referred to as compost recipes.

People have very specific ideas of the amount of green stuff to brown stuff and so on to generate the 'perfect' mix. This sort of thing for instance - http://www.cityfarmer.org/recipe.html

[lupinus]

I haven't had a garden in a few years but I did it a lot when I was younger and with my grandfather who shoulda been born a farmer.

Basically when I do a compost heap I throw any left over low acid food stuffs onto the pile.  If you need a lot of compost and don't make enough stuff to go into the compost try contacting the local greasy spoon and offering them a few bucks for their trouble if they would agree to seperate their garbage for you into another bin, offer them a trash can for any and all vegtable trimmings and things of that nature with the exception of lemons and what not.  Some will be willing, some wont and if you need a lot of compost getting them to seperate their garbage for you will get you a lot of stuff quickly.

Also a great way to get pig feed on the cheep

As for turning, dunno, I just do it when it feels like it needs to be done so I really can't tell ya much in that way of things.  Normally whenever I have a lot of new stuff on top.  Throwing a can of worms in there doesn't hurt either.

Also a good source of composting material can come in the form of the plants in your garden after the harvest.

[Fjolnirsson]

Anyone have good tips for problems with fruit flies??? This is my first time composting. I picked up a "earth machine" this year. It's cut down my garbage load tremendously, but I have a lot of gnats and such in the thing.... :/

[lupinus]

not really far as I know or remember

Bugs are one of the things that breaks biodegradable things down into dirt and in the more specific case compost.  Just kinda goes with the territory.

If you had a traditional heap and covered it with already decomposed stuff or turned it or whatever it would cut down on airborn bugs, same if you covered it with a tarp.

Not sure though about an earth machine.....unless I am having a brain fart which is possible

[Iain]

Yeah, it's just a case of covering it. I've got a couple of big plastic bins the local council gave out as incentive for us all to recycle (along with cutting rubbish collection from weekly to fortnightly - which is great fun in the summer) and even though they have lids I need to cover with brown stuff or soil after adding kitchen scraps.

[BozemanMT]

why only low acid foods?

[lupinus]

thats how I was tought to do it

Something about a lot of acidity will slow it down or some such but I could be wrong I just know I was always told to do it with low acid foods only.

[TMM]

some Starbucks stores have the used coffee grounds for free, in 5 pound bags. excellent for compost, and the worms love it. my grampa spreads lime [the powdery white stuff, not the citrus] on his pile to "sweeten" it and hasten decomposition. save all your kitchen scraps and grass clippings and put those on. if you have brush around, get a chipper and chip it up real fine and put that down too. behild my grampa's shed, we spread some woodchips down to make a nice surface, but it's always squishy because apparently the worms love it and there's always a LOT of "worm droppings" under the thin layer of remaining chips.

~tmm

[lupinus]

worms also love white bread

[ilbob]

I used to garden some.  

I found that composting worked but just taking and turning the organic matter into the garden soil in the fall seemed to work just as well.  Got to be careful not to get too much green matter into the soil though or you can get local hot spots. I would just toss the grass clippings into a pile until they dried out. There was probably some composting action going on. The bottom of the grass pile often got pretty warm and moldy.

I would take the grass clippings (I did not use leaves) and lay them out on the soil in the fall about an inch thick and then a week or so later turn it under with a spade or a fork. I did not have a large garden so a spade or fork was not too much work. By spring it was pretty well worked in.

I also used the drier grass clippings as mulch in between the rows of plants to keep the weeds down.

I had a raised bed garden perhaps 8'X8' and it did pretty good.

My biggest issue was loss of interest. By August, I was not much interested in weeding everyday. If you let it go, it gets away from you. So, I just did not plant one year, and never planted again.

[Larry Ashcraft]

When we had a smaller garden, I used compost bins I got from a local home center, maybe 3'x3' made of wire mesh.  Start the compost and then move it to the other one, and start some new in the first one.

Now I just have a giant pile.  Horse manure, grass clippings, weeds, household garbage, wood chips, dead rock squirrels (I'm still not kidding about this, I put one in there this afternoon), leaves - everything goes in there.  I turn it once in a while, whenever I have the loader running.

If you have fruit flies, cover up whatever is attracting them with some dry compost, dirt, or whatever.

Composting is done by aerobic bacteria.  If your compost pile smells, most likely anaerobic bacteria are at work and it needs to be turned.  Grass clippings alone are quickly taken over by anaerobic bacteria, causing the smell.  Mix in some "brown" stuff and it will work right.  By brown, I mean wood chips, straw, dry horse manure, anything to let the air in.

What ilbob is talking about is called "sheet composting".  It works fine, but uses more of the nitrates in the soil to make it work, which is fine also.  I use both methods.

Spoiled alfalfa hay is one of the BEST composting materials, so keep your eye out for this, if you can get it cheap or free (alfalfa is extremely high in nitrates).  Feathers work, as does hair.  In fact, almost any organic material will work, including shredded newspaper.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

ibob is right, the compost pile itself isn't necessary.  Just mix your material into your soil whenever it's convenient.  You'll get the same net result as if you'd let the stuff ripen on a pile all year, without all of the undue mess and smell and hard work.

Peat moss provides much the same benefit as compost, once it's mixed into the soil.  So do many good fertilizers.  If you're really in a hurry, perhaps you should just go down to the local garden store and write a check.

[K Frame]

My mother has had a large (6x6x4) compost pile for the past several years.

It doesn't smell.

If the pile smells, there's a serious neglect issue going on that has to be addressed.

An active, maintained compost pile should smell no worse than the dead leaves underfoot in the woods in spring.

More than once I've put a load of grass in the pile and overnight had the temperature go up as high as 145 deg. F.

[Lo.Com.Denom]

Well, nitrates being the name of the game, some hard-core gardeners urinate on their compost heaps. Of course, the super hard-core gardeners use their "other" bodily waste too... Many a prize-winning tomato has benefitted from that. Not sure I'd do either to be honest, but if you're living in a dry area, every little helps, I guess.

Then again, if it came to saving up wee, I'd only be thinking of making saltpetre rather than sweetcorn...

[280plus]

Of course, the super hard-core gardeners use their "other" bodily waste too...

"Welcome to Hard Times" E.L. Doctorow, through out the book there is reference to an Indian in town who was the only one who seemed to be able to get his garden to grow out there in the desert. Turned out he was using shhhh-having cream, be nice and clean...

Then there was the next door neighbors that used dog shhhh...

You get the picture. No lie...

[Iain]

My GCSE biology teacher was always on about weeing on compost heaps. Not an image that 16 year old particularly enjoyed.

Try persuading guests to wee into a bucket rather than into the toilet. I've tried.

[Azrael256]

Of course, the super hard-core gardeners use their "other" bodily waste too...

These people have never been abroad, I see.  Anybody remember the admonishment not to eat locally grown vegetables in any country that uses human waste for fertilizer?  Anybody?

[BozemanMT]

Ok, i'm getting a whole pickup load of dead thatch.  This guy wants to pay me to powerrake his lawn (yes, I know it's summer, i told him, he wants to do it, it's his money, what do I care?) and I figure i'll take all the extra stuff and throw it on my compost heap.

what do i add to balance it?
manuare?

[Peter Ratner]

Having the correct amount of moisture is important. The pile should have enough moisture in it to feel like a damp sponge. If the thatch you're getting is as dry as hay you will want to either wet it down as you go (which is effective but tiresome) or leave a sprinkler on it for a while (the time will of course be determined by the moisture content of the thatch), If you get it too wet you can turn and mix the pile (great exercise).
I would be hesitant about using uncomposted thatch otherwise in my garden - composting will kill weed and grass seed that may be in the thatch.
Here's a link to a fairly good site on composting http://vegweb.com/composting/how-to.shtml

[Shalako]

The compost works most efficiently with the proper mixture of nitrogen and carbon.
Nitrogen sources = green stuff, grass clippings, and store bought amendments (composted chicken manure is cheap and pure turbo for your mix)

Carbon sources are what the nitrogen will eat or act on. These include = dry leaves, straw, shredded paper, and sticks and twigs

You generally want about 1/3 nitrogen to 2/3 carbon by volume (unless you use a sprinkle of the composted chicken manure, that will make your pile perk like wildfire)

The more perk or nitrogen you have, the more often you have to stir the pile.

There is an optimal moisture content as well. Picture coffee grounds a half hour after brewing. Not dry, not soggy though.

You may want to avoid the excrement and urine, though, as those are sources of pathogens. All it takes is one to slip through and get on the outside of your tomato, and you're wearing Depends for life.

I use a compost ring. Its a 3 foot tall plastic ring with holes in it for aeration. You just pull the ring off and set it next to the original location then stir and re-fill. I try to stir about once a week when the temperature is hotter for maximum results. Maybe once a month in the colder months (less perk with lower temperature)

Once, I neglected to stir my pile for about two months. I was greeted by a fetid, putrid, stinking, seething mass of squirming grubs. It reeked! A quick trip to the grocery store procured me a couple pound box of diatomaceous earth. I sprinkled that on and stirred it in a bit. The next day the grubs were mostly dead, smelt better, and it was all organic.

Stirring is key.