SFG Journey= Yard waste

has55 9/3/2018, 5:05 pm

Question, Do you cover your vegetable food waste from the house to the compost pile each time you add to it or leave it open to air occasionally or frequently?

**sanderson** 9/4/2018, 4:22 am

I cover with leaves or chopped straw to reduce fly breeding and odors.

has55 9/4/2018, 8:36 am

sanderson wrote:I cover with leaves or chopped straw to reduce fly breeding and odors.

I'm doing the same thing with leaves but was wondering if it necessary.
Also, I found a way to annihilate those giant water bugs(roach) from the garden. I'm using boric acid mixed in egg or flour balls. It works. I Almost don't see any anymore. took about 2 weeks. I put the bait on paper plates and put milk crate over them to keep the animals out. several videos on youtube. Don't know which method is most successful, but it works.

OhioGardener 9/4/2018, 9:05 am

Since we have so much wildlife, I could not put any vegetable or kitchen waste in an open compost bin. I have two metal compost tumblers, each with 2 bins, and everything goes into them where not even the raccoons can get to it. The only thing that goes into the open compost bin is plant material from cleaning the gardens.

**sanderson** 9/5/2018, 1:34 am

Tumblers are good when there is wild life that can access the compost. My husband made a lift-up lid with hinges for the bin. The side plywood was for esthetics from the house view but I'm afraid that it may be creating a habitat for cockroaches (large garden type) and black widow spiders. It will come off.

OhioGardener 9/5/2018, 9:59 am

Yesterday I stopped in the local farm store to look at some fire rings they had on sale, and saw a flyer on this composter. I looked it up on the store site after I got home - It looks like a good concept for composting while keeping varmints out, but I think it could be built for a fraction of the cost of what they are charging for it.

Gronomics Large Solar Assist Composter

**sanderson** 9/5/2018, 10:28 am

I think the solar part defeats the natural microbial breakdown process. Heat is supposed to come from their activity, not from "solar assist".

**trolleydriver** 9/5/2018, 11:08 am

sanderson wrote: I think the solar part defeats the natural microbial breakdown process. Heat is supposed to come from their activity, not from "solar assist".

+1

As for kitchen scraps, I make a hole in the middle of my composting material, dump in the scraps, and cover up with what I removed from the hole.

SQWIB 9/5/2018, 12:27 pm

trolleydriver wrote:
sanderson wrote: I think the solar part defeats the natural microbial breakdown process. Heat is supposed to come from their activity, not from "solar assist".
+1

As for kitchen scraps, I make a hole in the middle of my composting material, dump in the scraps, and cover up with what I removed from the hole.

I also do this directly in my raised beds.

has55 9/5/2018, 7:52 pm

those are some great ideas. Thank you.

**jimmy cee** 9/7/2018, 10:07 pm

About the simplest, least expensive and very efficient compost bin I have ever made and used is a plain wired round tube.. I used 2 x 3 inch squares 3 to 5 feet high ( 3 feet hi is best in my opinion ) as round as you wish and sewn inside with weed barrier cloth to hold in material. Very customizable. Just lift it up when the need to turn it, move and toss material back in... These I am showing are remnants from our fence, instead to the trash were using them as composters.

**sanderson** 9/8/2018, 3:41 am

When I had the worm tubes in the beds, it was a great way to get rid of daily kitchen scraps. Jimmy's simple cages are another good way.

OhioGardener 9/8/2018, 8:25 am

Years ago, when I was living in southern Illinois, I used cages much like Jimmy's to grow tomatoes and it was unbelievable how those tomatoes grew! I made 6 wire cages like the ones in Jimmy's post - one was 30" diameter, and 5 were 20" diameter. I put the smaller one around the big one. I filled the middle one with compostable material, and planted a tomato in each of the other 5. I had 3 or 4 of those setups each year for 15 or 20 tomatoes. The compost kept moisture in the ground for the tomatoes and fed the plants, while the cages kept the tomatoes contained. One of my many "engineer experiments" as my wife refers to them... Very Happy

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