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Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
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Kelejan
countrynaturals
sfg4uKim
trolleydriver
8 posters
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Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
This guy is good and funny.
Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong: Mike McGrath at TEDxPhoenixville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc
Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong: Mike McGrath at TEDxPhoenixville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc
trolleydriver
Forum Moderator- Posts : 5395
Join date : 2015-05-04
Age : 76
Location : Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
One of my favorites!
I met Mike a few weeks ago. He was very good friends with Mel and I had the sad "duty" to inform him of Mel's passing.
I met Mike a few weeks ago. He was very good friends with Mel and I had the sad "duty" to inform him of Mel's passing.
I have seen women looking at jewelry ads with a misty eye and one hand resting on the heart, and I only know what they're feeling because that's how I read the seed catalogs in January - Barbara Kingsolver - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
sfg4u.com
FB: Square Foot Gardening 4 U
FB: Square Foot Gardening 4 U
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
WOW! We've been doing something RIGHT! Our property had no dirt -- just rocks and clay, so every fall we would design our garden beds for spring by making rings of large rocks and filling them with leaves. We did it out of necessity. We had nothing else and no money to buy anything else, so we accidentally did exactly the right thing. YEE-HAH!trolleydriver wrote:This guy is good and funny.
Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong: Mike McGrath at TEDxPhoenixville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc
Great video, but then I knew it would be -- it started with "TED." I've never been disappointed in a TED demonstration. Those folks are AWESOME!
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
trolleydriver wrote:This guy is good and funny.
Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong: Mike McGrath at TEDxPhoenixville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc
It is all so simple. It seems that we overthink things. I will make an even bigger effort this fall to collect leaves. Yes, he was funny and I enjoyed thsi video.
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
Daughter only composts leaves and she has the true green thumb in the family. I compost everything and don't do nearly as well. I will continue to compost kitchen waste, horse and chicken manure, however, cuz I certainly don't want to pay to get rid of it, but leaf mulch is definitely awesome!
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
Now if only Mrs TD would allow me to have a "Wiggler Hilton" (or is it a "Trump Tower") to take care of the kitchen scraps.
sanderson ... please delete the reference to the Tower if it is too political.
sanderson ... please delete the reference to the Tower if it is too political.
trolleydriver
Forum Moderator- Posts : 5395
Join date : 2015-05-04
Age : 76
Location : Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
trolleydriver wrote:Now if only Mrs TD would allow me to have a "Wiggler Hilton" (or is it a "Trump Tower") to take care of the kitchen scraps.
sanderson ... please delete the reference to the Tower if it is too political.
CapeCoddess- Posts : 6824
Join date : 2012-05-20
Age : 68
Location : elbow of the Cape, MA, Zone 6b/7a
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
Too late! It's already been read.trolleydriver wrote:(or is it a "Trump Tower")
sanderson ... please delete the reference to the Tower if it is too political.
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
I definitely see the point he makes, and recognize that now since I am in town my pile has less bulk (leaves) and has been not so great....compared to my country piles which were more browns. I have a ton of trees. I have no way to chop them up. My blower is old and a hand me down from my bro.
Enjoyable, informative, thought provoking video! Thanks TD!
Enjoyable, informative, thought provoking video! Thanks TD!
Scorpio Rising- Posts : 8687
Join date : 2015-06-12
Age : 62
Location : Ada, Ohio
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
TD, your reference to a Trump Tower made me laugh. Whether or not it is PC I am not bothered.
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
trolleydriver wrote:Now if only Mrs TD would allow me to have a "Wiggler Hilton" (or is it a "Trump Tower") to take care of the kitchen scraps.
CitizenKate- Posts : 844
Join date : 2015-03-20
Location : Northeast KS, USA; Zone 6a
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
I'm not an expert on composting. I just tried it for the first time in January of 2015. That said, there are a couple of things I'm wondering about as I watch the video...
1. When he says kitchen garbage does not improve in quality, in any way, I'm not sure what he means by that. Is he saying it doesn't decompose? And I'm not sure what he's referring to specifically when he says "kitchen garbage", because there is definitely some kitchen garbage that should not be included in an aerobic composting operation, such as anything with meat, fat, bones, etc. Or is he talking about the anaerobic composters?
The only kitchen garbage I use is used coffee grinds (which he later highly endorses), used coffee filters, and certain vegetable scraps, such as lettuce, cabbage, carrots, banana peels, etc. And yes, also lots of dead leaves. I waited until this spring to use it, and it truly looked, smelled, and felt like the "black gold" we often refer to it as. Everything in it was fully decomposed. But when in doubt, ask the plants. The plants growing in the MM I made with it are doing fantastically well.
Is he really saying not to use any kitchen waste? Based on the results I got, I plan to continue using what I have been using.
2. I've heard elsewhere that compost should contain no more than about 20% used coffee grinds. My compost contains quite a bit more than that, because we drink a lot of coffee and I occasionally see bags of them available at local coffee shops. I'd say the "green" portion of my composted matter is probably trending towards around 80% used coffee grinds.
Anyone have any thoughts about that? I was glad to hear someone say, "Use all the coffee grinds you can get!"
3. This finally gave me enough of an excuse to get a leaf blower/sucker-shredder. I never knew they had the vacuuming/shredding feature. This would be much easier than the way I've been doing it.
1. When he says kitchen garbage does not improve in quality, in any way, I'm not sure what he means by that. Is he saying it doesn't decompose? And I'm not sure what he's referring to specifically when he says "kitchen garbage", because there is definitely some kitchen garbage that should not be included in an aerobic composting operation, such as anything with meat, fat, bones, etc. Or is he talking about the anaerobic composters?
The only kitchen garbage I use is used coffee grinds (which he later highly endorses), used coffee filters, and certain vegetable scraps, such as lettuce, cabbage, carrots, banana peels, etc. And yes, also lots of dead leaves. I waited until this spring to use it, and it truly looked, smelled, and felt like the "black gold" we often refer to it as. Everything in it was fully decomposed. But when in doubt, ask the plants. The plants growing in the MM I made with it are doing fantastically well.
Is he really saying not to use any kitchen waste? Based on the results I got, I plan to continue using what I have been using.
2. I've heard elsewhere that compost should contain no more than about 20% used coffee grinds. My compost contains quite a bit more than that, because we drink a lot of coffee and I occasionally see bags of them available at local coffee shops. I'd say the "green" portion of my composted matter is probably trending towards around 80% used coffee grinds.
Anyone have any thoughts about that? I was glad to hear someone say, "Use all the coffee grinds you can get!"
3. This finally gave me enough of an excuse to get a leaf blower/sucker-shredder. I never knew they had the vacuuming/shredding feature. This would be much easier than the way I've been doing it.
CitizenKate- Posts : 844
Join date : 2015-03-20
Location : Northeast KS, USA; Zone 6a
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
Kate, since we can't ask him all those questions, my take-away is to continue what I'm doing, but also compost my leaves, separately. I can definitely testify that Katie's pure leaf compost is the best stuff I've ever used on a plant.
Re: Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong
Concerning kitchen scraps, maybe the point is that they will not add much to the regular leaf & coffee grounds compost. But worms can quickly turn those scraps into really good stuff. Personally, I throw the kitchen scraps into the regular composter and will continue to do so until Mrs TD allows me to have a worm bin. Basically do whatever works best for you.
trolleydriver
Forum Moderator- Posts : 5395
Join date : 2015-05-04
Age : 76
Location : Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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