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Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong Toplef10Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong 1zd3ho10

Hello Guest!
Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum.
There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.

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Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong

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Post  trolleydriver 6/1/2016, 12:33 pm

This guy is good and funny.


Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong: Mike McGrath at TEDxPhoenixville


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc
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Post  sfg4uKim 6/1/2016, 1:58 pm

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.

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Post  countrynaturals 6/1/2016, 2:15 pm

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
WOW! We've been doing something RIGHT!  Shocked Cool  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!  Everything You Know About Composting is Wrong 3170584802

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!  I love you
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Post  Kelejan 6/1/2016, 2:29 pm

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.
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Post  countrynaturals 6/1/2016, 2:46 pm

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! cheers
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Post  trolleydriver 6/1/2016, 3:53 pm

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.
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Post  CapeCoddess 6/1/2016, 4:01 pm

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.

funny post
rofl
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Post  countrynaturals 6/1/2016, 5:11 pm

trolleydriver wrote:(or is it a "Trump Tower") 

sanderson ... please delete the reference to the Tower if it is too political.
Too late! It's already been read.  lol! funny post rofl
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Post  Scorpio Rising 6/1/2016, 6:57 pm

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!
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Post  Kelejan 6/1/2016, 8:15 pm

TD, your reference to a Trump Tower made me laugh.  Whether or not it is PC I am not bothered.  Wink
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Post  CitizenKate 6/1/2016, 11:23 pm

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.
darn funny
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Post  sanderson 6/2/2016, 1:51 am

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Post  CitizenKate 6/2/2016, 10:13 am

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.
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Post  countrynaturals 6/2/2016, 12:55 pm

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. Cool
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Post  trolleydriver 6/2/2016, 1:09 pm

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.
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