Re: COMPOST 101

greatgranny 7/17/2014, 3:29 pm

All out of "browns" right now. Compost is sifted. Remaining "unfinished" is back in the compost bin. Only about 2 feet high - if even that. So, should I just leave it and wait until the season for more browns are available or should I keep adding my kitchen scraps anyway?

CapeCoddess 7/17/2014, 4:03 pm

greatgranny wrote:All out of "browns" right now.

I'm in the same boat. So what I'm doing is starting another pile of greens, then a thin layer from the remaining mostly finished compost, greens, thin finished and on like that. I'm scarfing up all the shredded office paper, newspapers & cardboard boxes I can get my hands on to put in there, too. This seems to be enuff to keep it from going anaerobic and stinking. Then once the leaves fall, I'll layer this 'rich' pile into the leaves.

I did this last year and the 'rich' pile was pretty much done by fall but I used it with the leaves anyway, and was able to add lots of new greens to the new pile.

CC

**camprn** 7/17/2014, 4:21 pm

greatgranny wrote:All out of "browns" right now. Compost is sifted. Remaining "unfinished" is back in the compost bin. Only about 2 feet high - if even that. So, should I just leave it and wait until the season for more browns are available or should I keep adding my kitchen scraps anyway?

I just keep adding kitchen and garden scraps and weeds to mine. It will all not eventually.

greatgranny 7/17/2014, 5:05 pm

Wow, I had tons of ant eggs and ants. Well, I do have a very large container of cinnamon, thank God. I think I'm just going to keep adding and when the leaves are ready to shred I will start a new pile. I have lots of green stuff in a holding bin just waiting for the day it can be used.

Thanks to both of you.

**jimmy cee** 7/17/2014, 5:06 pm

Last fall I gathered up 13 bags of leaves around the block.
Lats week I reaped the rewards by drying them in the sun and then shredding with my weed whacker.
All are now in a compost bin and working making heat...
My other pile I transferred the week before and had temps in the 150 deg range,
I also included about 400 lbs of coffee grinds
collected from Starbucks over the winter when no one else wanted them. COMPOST 101 - Page 11 Compos10

**Kelejan** 7/17/2014, 5:09 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:
greatgranny wrote:All out of "browns" right now.
I'm in the same boat. So what I'm doing is starting another pile of greens, then a thin layer from the remaining mostly finished compost, greens, thin finished and on like that. I'm scarfing up all the shredded office paper, newspapers & cardboard boxes I can get my hands on to put in there, too. This seems to be enuff to keep it from going anaerobic and stinking. Then once the leaves fall, I'll layer this 'rich' pile into the leaves.

I did this last year and the 'rich' pile was pretty much done by fall but I used it with the leaves anyway, and was able to add lots of new greens to the new pile.

CC

I do it like you do, greatgranny.

greatgranny 7/17/2014, 5:14 pm

jimmy cee wrote:Last fall I gathered up 13 bags of leaves around the block.
Lats week I reaped the rewards by drying them in the sun and then shredding with my weed whacker.
All are now in a compost bin and working making heat...
My other pile I transferred the week before and had temps in the 150 deg range,
I also included about 400 lbs of coffee grinds
collected from Starbucks over the winter when no one else wanted them.

That's a lot of coffee grounds.

**Kelejan** 7/17/2014, 5:18 pm

greatgranny wrote:Wow, I had tons of ant eggs and ants. Well, I do have a very large container of cinnamon, thank God. I think I'm just going to keep adding and when the leaves are ready to shred I will start a new pile. I have lots of green stuff in a holding bin just waiting for the day it can be used.

Thanks to both of you.

I find that greens are hard to save without going stinky. I sun-dry grass cuttings and weeds and freeze kitchen scraps until I collect enough browns to mix in. When I get a bag of shredded paper or cardboard I mix that in. Meanwhile I will wait until fall for this years leaves and start all over again.
At all times there is a shortage of either greens or browns depending on the time of year.
It is always a balancing act. I intend to collect more leaves this year as they are easier to store.

greatgranny 7/17/2014, 6:02 pm

Kelejan wrote:
greatgranny wrote:Wow, I had tons of ant eggs and ants. Well, I do have a very large container of cinnamon, thank God. I think I'm just going to keep adding and when the leaves are ready to shred I will start a new pile. I have lots of green stuff in a holding bin just waiting for the day it can be used.

Thanks to both of you.

I find that greens are hard to save without going stinky. I sun-dry grass cuttings and weeds and freeze kitchen scraps until I collect enough browns to mix in. When I get a bag of shredded paper or cardboard I mix that in. Meanwhile I will wait until fall for this years leaves and start all over again.
At all times there is a shortage of either greens or browns depending on the time of year.
It is always a balancing act. I intend to collect more leaves this year as they are easier to store.

I too dry the grass and weeds before adding them to my holding bin. If I had a large freezer I would also freeze the scraps but I just don't have the room for that. In the winter I just set the containers outside on the picnic table. That is my deep freeze for such things. Wink

**camprn** 7/18/2014, 8:10 am

I only mow and collect when we have dry conditions and then I store my grass clippings in a wire hoop that is mostly protected from rain. I typically don't have stinky anaerobic problems.

**jimmy cee** 7/18/2014, 5:06 pm

greatgranny wrote:
jimmy cee wrote:Last fall I gathered up 13 bags of leaves around the block.
Lats week I reaped the rewards by drying them in the sun and then shredding with my weed whacker.
All are now in a compost bin and working making heat...
My other pile I transferred the week before and had temps in the 150 deg range,
I also included about 400 lbs of coffee grinds
collected from Starbucks over the winter when no one else wanted them.
That's a lot of coffee grounds.

Our Starbucks packs them up in 10 lb bags, then places them in a basket on the floor for anyone who wants them.
I went in before Christmas, they told me to come back after and they would start saving for me.
Doesnt take long if your the only person collecting grinds...
I dumped 20 or so bags between my compost pile, early winter and a few weeks ago shoveled them into my compost pile, an unbelievable amount of worms were in it.

greatgranny 7/18/2014, 8:40 pm

jimmy cee wrote:
greatgranny wrote:
jimmy cee wrote:Last fall I gathered up 13 bags of leaves around the block.
Lats week I reaped the rewards by drying them in the sun and then shredding with my weed whacker.
All are now in a compost bin and working making heat...
My other pile I transferred the week before and had temps in the 150 deg range,
I also included about 400 lbs of coffee grinds
collected from Starbucks over the winter when no one else wanted them.
That's a lot of coffee grounds.
Our Starbucks packs them up in 10 lb bags, then places them in a basket on the floor for anyone who wants them.
I went in before Christmas, they told me to come back after and they would start saving for me.
Doesnt take long if your the only person collecting grinds...
I dumped 20 or so bags between my compost pile, early winter and a few weeks ago shoveled them into my compost pile, an unbelievable amount of worms were in it.

That is amazing. Shows how addicted we are to coffee too. Smile

**camprn** 7/18/2014, 8:45 pm

Worms love the coffee too.
hyper

greatgranny 7/18/2014, 9:27 pm

camprn wrote:Worms love the coffee too.

I'm with the worms. Yes, I'm hyper.

Windmere 7/19/2014, 11:05 am

greatgranny wrote:
jimmy cee wrote:
greatgranny wrote:
jimmy cee wrote:Last fall I gathered up 13 bags of leaves around the block.
Lats week I reaped the rewards by drying them in the sun and then shredding with my weed whacker.
All are now in a compost bin and working making heat...
My other pile I transferred the week before and had temps in the 150 deg range,
I also included about 400 lbs of coffee grinds
collected from Starbucks over the winter when no one else wanted them.
That's a lot of coffee grounds.
Our Starbucks packs them up in 10 lb bags, then places them in a basket on the floor for anyone who wants them.
I went in before Christmas, they told me to come back after and they would start saving for me.
Doesnt take long if your the only person collecting grinds...
I dumped 20 or so bags between my compost pile, early winter and a few weeks ago shoveled them into my compost pile, an unbelievable amount of worms were in it.
That is amazing. Shows how addicted we are to coffee too.

I live literally around the corner from a Starbucks. I just placed my order for coffee grounds. They will be ready of pick up in two days. Thanks everyone for this awesome suggestion!

P.S. camprn... I got a really good chuckle from the emoticon you used!

ktomchik 7/29/2014, 8:59 pm

I also am out of "browns" having used up all the leaves from last fall. As already mentioned lots of greens (vegetable scraps) are available this time of year. I can get shredded office paper but I wonder if the ink is something I do not want in my compost. I can also get plain white paper towels only used to dry just-washed hands. Will I need to shred the paper towels? My last plain white paper is "table paper" used to cover an exam table which is changed for each new patient. I presume this is also fine as it contains no ink. I currently take all of these to a paper recycling site. Are there chemicals in paper other than ink to be wary of? Thanks, Ken

**Kelejan** 7/30/2014, 12:15 am

Bleach, maybe?

**sanderson** 7/30/2014, 12:21 am

If you have an ag/feed store near you, a bale of bedding straw is a cheap source of browns.

Marc Iverson 7/30/2014, 1:45 am

Newspapers and magazines used to use lead ink and some still do, but soy-based inks are becoming much more common. Watch out for staples!

A lot of dollar stores and other places go through many cardboard boxes a week, and usually they're the good type of cardboard, not waxed. It's an incredibly time-consuming, and tough-on-the-hands process, to tear even a few of them up into small pieces, though. That said, they're not hard to get and everyone seems to say worms love them. Plus the corrugation many of them have will provide some useful air space.

They tend to be extremely slow to decompose unless torn up quite well, though.

**llama momma** 7/30/2014, 7:12 am

Marc
A neat trick for tearing up cardboard is put water in a wheelbarrow. Soak large pieces for a few minutes then it easily rips into smaller pieces.

**camprn** 7/30/2014, 9:50 am

Marc Iverson wrote:Newspapers and magazines used to use lead ink and some still do, but soy-based inks are becoming much more common.

Partially true. Newsprint inks are soy based and safe in the garden whether they are color or black. The glossy inserts should not be used in the garden as these inks are not soy based and may contain heavy metals, not just lead.

And then there's the paper...

http://www.hubergroup.info/lang/en/tipdf/49102E.PDF

http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/blog-latestposts.php?catid=104ould%3D

**Kelejan** 7/30/2014, 1:15 pm

camprn wrote:
Marc Iverson wrote:Newspapers and magazines used to use lead ink and some still do, but soy-based inks are becoming much more common.
Partially true. Newsprint inks are soy based and safe in the garden whether they are color or black. The glossy inserts should not be used in the garden as these inks are not soy based and may contain heavy metals, not just lead.

And then there's the paper...

http://www.hubergroup.info/lang/en/tipdf/49102E.PDF

http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/blog-latestposts.php?catid=104ould%3D

The City Food Growers article has given me some food for thought.

ktomchik 7/30/2014, 1:32 pm

Thanks to all of you! I will start using my white paper with no ink.
Ken

Marc Iverson 7/30/2014, 10:25 pm

llama momma wrote:Marc
A neat trick for tearing up cardboard is put water in a wheelbarrow. Soak large pieces for a few minutes then it easily rips into smaller pieces.

I never thought of that. Thanks for the tip! You just turned cardboard back into a usable material for me.

Marc Iverson 7/30/2014, 10:33 pm

Kelejan wrote:
http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/blog-latestposts.php?catid=104ould%3D

The City Food Growers article has given me some food for thought.[/quote]

Ditto. When our local paper said they used soy-based inks, I wasn't sure whether to trust them or not. The person answering the question sounded a little confused as to what I was even talking about, and like she just wanted to say something reassuring. Maybe I should err on the side of caution rather than trust.

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