Simple Compost Happens Method

I have been making compost in two medium sized trash cans for the last year. I put a few holes in them but not many. The first can used kitchen scraps and dry materials. Since then I have also had chicken waste, hay and grass to use also. In the time I have had three finished cans of compost and I have used them almost immediately each time. The veggies love them. In the last year I have had three finished cans.

I do not measure. I just dump as things present themselves. I will occasionally turn the pile a bit by using a narrrow shovel and mixing. So, compost does happen. And it happens whether you overthink it or not. It amazes me every time.


Before:



After:

Ain't Nature wonderful, Chopper. Stuff happens.

Chopper, Hi, haven't heard from you for a while. Only the top half of each photo presented. Can you re-post the photos? Thanks

They showed up for me properly, just a couple minutes after Chopper posted. Must be that internet gremlin again!

sanderson wrote:Chopper,  Hi, haven't heard from you for a while.  Only the top half of each photo presented.  Can you re-post the photos?  Thanks

I thought the pictures were complete. I did not seem to be missing anything.

I see them now! Nice. How long did a garbage can take to compost?

I have not been in as much as I had before. Demands of life. I think I can safely say that I get about 3 of those cans a year in finished or finished enough compost. So one every 4 months. Most of the garden has a large percentage of compost now. Esp the buckets which are usually all compost.


Garlic



Garlic and lettuce - mostly compost


Cabbage - this bed did not do well the first year. I added a bunch of compost and it is doing MUCH better

Yesterday I moved most of my compost into the garden boxes.  This is the FIRST time I have had enough homemade compost to replenish all 6 of my current boxes!  (7th box is new compost pile).  I still have enough left to fill some new boxes I plan on making in the next few weeks.  I had started this pile as a Berkeley 18-Day fast compost pile, but life got the best of me last year and I didn't get past the 3rd turning. Well, that must have been enough to get it on its merry way, as after sitting all winter I had completely composted material!!!  The best looking stuff I have ever made!  I still have another partially composted pile from that area - stuff I was collecting in a barrel since I didn't want to add to the pile I was turning - and I think just a few more months and it will be ready for my fall additions to the boxes!  COMPOST HAPPENS!!!

Way to go, Goosegirl.

Goosegirl wrote:Yesterday I moved most of my compost into the garden boxes.  This is the FIRST time I have had enough homemade compost to replenish all 6 of my current boxes!  (7th box is new compost pile).  I still have enough left to fill some new boxes I plan on making in the next few weeks.  I had started this pile as a Berkeley 18-Day fast compost pile, but life got the best of me last year and I didn't get past the 3rd turning. Well, that must have been enough to get it on its merry way, as after sitting all winter I had completely composted material!!!  The best looking stuff I have ever made!  I still have another partially composted pile from that area - stuff I was collecting in a barrel since I didn't want to add to the pile I was turning - and I think just a few more months and it will be ready for my fall additions to the boxes!  COMPOST HAPPENS!!!

Love that!  I have two huge piles going that started out as hot piles but won't get turned much.  One is literally 8 or 9 feet wide, 7 or 8 feet long and 3 to 4 feet high.  It's been at 150 degrees for 2 weeks, 140 degrees for the last 2 weeks and slowly is dropping.  

I'll open up some holes and drop in coffee grounds to continue it cooking, then let it sit over the summer.  It will be ready for my fall gardens!

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:

Goosegirl wrote:Yesterday I moved most of my compost into the garden boxes.  This is the FIRST time I have had enough homemade compost to replenish all 6 of my current boxes!  ..............  COMPOST HAPPENS!!!

Love that!  I have two huge piles going that started out as hot piles but won't get turned much.  One is literally 8 or 9 feet wide, 7 or 8 feet long and 3 to 4 feet high.  It's been at 150 degrees for 2 weeks, 140 degrees for the last 2 weeks and slowly is dropping.  

I'll open up some holes and drop in coffee grounds to continue it cooking, then let it sit over the summer.  It will be ready for my fall gardens!

Oooooooooooooh!  I can only DREAM of a piles that big!

Goosegirl wrote:

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:

Goosegirl wrote:Yesterday I moved most of my compost into the garden boxes.  This is the FIRST time I have had enough homemade compost to replenish all 6 of my current boxes!  ..............  COMPOST HAPPENS!!!

Love that!  I have two huge piles going that started out as hot piles but won't get turned much.  One is literally 8 or 9 feet wide, 7 or 8 feet long and 3 to 4 feet high.  It's been at 150 degrees for 2 weeks, 140 degrees for the last 2 weeks and slowly is dropping.  

I'll open up some holes and drop in coffee grounds to continue it cooking, then let it sit over the summer.  It will be ready for my fall gardens!

Oooooooooooooh!  I can only DREAM of a piles that big!

We've spent all spring gathering the materials (I'm WHOOPED!!!!)  But it will be so worth it in the end :-)  Hubby feels so bad as he can't help physically, but he hitches up the trailer and hauls me anywhere we need to go gather "stuff"  

I have one more run to make and then I'm done for the summer.  That's for well-aged horse manure.

Just curious; what are you able to gather in such large quantities?

donnainzone10 wrote:Just curious; what are you able to gather in such large quantities?

We live in a very rural part of California.  On our property, we have a family that uses part of our acreage to graze cattle and hold them over the winter.  So we gather both manure and the left overs after they've eaten their hay.  Most of the seeds are gone, some sprout but it's not a big deal to pull those weeds so we either mix it in for our browns in a hot compost pile or spread it as a mulch.

We have a neighbor that has chickens and rabbits so we gather 5 gallon buckets from him a couple times a month.

We put a request out on a local Facebook page 2 months ago and have been gathering materials from neighbors since then.  

1 person had llamas and alpacas, so we cleaned their hillside grazing area and gathered the llama poo.  They had a pile of aged stuff that included poultry bedding, composted other bedding and some aged chicken manure.  

1 person had 3 years worth of left over hay that falls off of their bales and piles up in the storage area.  There was six to twelve inches thick of it to be gathered and it filled a 2 cu yard trailer.  There's still about the same left for us to go get later.  In this were bad alfafa cubes, alfalfa and hay straw all very fine sizes.  That's the bulk of what is in the HUGE pile.

We gather the coffee grounds from our church's coffee shop - that ends up being about 2 1/2 gallons per week.  

We add our own kitchen waste and the left over plants from the garden (if not diseased).

Tonight, in fact, we're gathering 3 year old aged horse manure from a lady down the street (our last scheduled pick up).

We have also gathered seaweed from the California coast when we've visited there, leaves where we can find them and chipped garden trimmings and tree branches.  These aren't in the current piles though, as we usually chip the branches in the fall.

We hit the mother lode of "black gold" as in fully composted about 5 years, animal bedding, goat, sheet, and horse manure.  A neighbor about 3 properties over has it.  

So, I guess it doesn't get any simpler than shoveling someone else's composted pile, LOL!  Now I have to unload the trailer.  There is a pile about 5 feet deep and 10 x 10 or so, so there will be a lot of goodness to bring home over time.  

Whoo hooo hoooo!

Even hitching up the trailer and going with you is a wonderful help!

That is so amazing your haul and future hauls! It is so amazing the quantity of ingredients you are able to get! Congratulations!

Audrey, Fantastic finds!

Wow, Audrey.Jeanne...  I'm impressed!!  And what a sweet DH to help you!

Wow, Audrey, what a great sounding compost pile you have.  I also live in a pretty rural area, but I'm so shy.  I don't think I could actually ask people for their animal poop, lol.  Good for you for reaching out!  What are you going to do with all that compost?  Sounds like you're going to have quite a bit!

Audrey, I forgot to ask if you are going to use some of the bounties on the wood chips and flower areas.