Composters and compost piles often become places of ill-repute, where food wastes rot instead of decompose, and insects hang out in dark alleys... You get the picture. If taking out the compost has become a nasty task no-one likes doing, grab that spade or sharp point object and aerate it! Then add 7 or 8 shovels of dry soil, leaves, or other "brown matter", to help kickstart the decomposing process again.
Good one, Randyn! Will give it a go down here in NZ.
in June
We just moved into a house with 4 full size compost bins. I was giddy (seriously) when I discovered them and have since started to get them stewing again.
I'm really glad to see this post and encouraged to keep after it. Nothing beats home-grown soil!
in June
Our Village has a shared composting program we participate in.
in July
I live very near to a coffee shop and as an experiment I decided to try to take all their grounds and vegetable peels. To my surprise the compost pile (3'x3'x6') hasn't been overwhelmed.
This is admittedly a bigger pile than most but it has kept up all spring and summer. The idea was to see just how much space a commercial outlet would need to compost themselves on or near site.
Given that I put hedge clippings etc in the bin with the coffee I think that a coffee shop could get away with a smaller bin. Possibly the bin will be overwhelmed in the winter when composting slows down. We'll see! The staff at the shop have kind of gotten into this experiment and I get some free coffees too!
in August
Nettles, comfrey and uringe are excellent activators as well, and collecting nettles is so exciting!
in August
Hello
Virtually all our organic waste goes into the compost pile. Leaves, egg shells, any uncooked vegetable waste goes in there. I have a pile for last year and one for this year, the last year pile will go into the garden beds each fall.
in August
Do you have a question, solution or thought on this?
Add a comment and help others!
in August
Nick Lewis 2480° pledged to do this 130 days ago
Andrew Hunt 82° pledged to do this 127 days ago
Gotthard K. 210° pledged to do this 110 days ago
John P. 150° pledged to do this 106 days ago
Christy D. 78° pledged to do this 84 days ago
Carlota Bindner 100° pledged to do this tomorrow
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