My Compost Smells

[FarmI]

But if you look at it slightly differently, then putting in the sweat now could lead him to learn. It's usually our mistakes that make us start to think before we act.

[kate]

Adding leaves (and rarely straw) is actually what I do when I empty my inside compost bucket on top of the pile. I'm a lazy composter who only turns it once a year. The leaves cover the odor as far as my nose can tell. Come spring I turn the whole thing over and take from the bottom.

I used to love to use grass clippings but now I just leave them where they fall.

Someday it's going to warm up.....

[phorbin]

What do you mean by organic rubbish?

[phorbin]

Which is adding brown to green.

Brown + green in relatively good proportion equals no stench to speak of.

We do that too through snowless periods during the winter which serves double duty by keeping the kitchen compost hidden until things heat up.

[Wildbilly]

Probably autobiographical from someone who recommends growing tea but who doesn't, and doesn't even know the difference from herbal teas and tisanes. Then claims that he grows 400 olive trees, and wonders how to make them produce fruit year round. Who owns a pizza "hut" and wants to grow tomatoes year around for sauce.

Something definitely smells.

[phorbin]

Meat is where you're going far wrong. You've already noticed the stench.=20 It can and will attract scavengers, including rats (which may or may not=20 be a problem where you are).

These days the general rule is only vegetable matter goes into a compost=20 heap. If you want to process meat down to compost you use a digester.

[phorbin]

Maybe, but people do get into trouble by trying to realize an idea without understanding that there's more to know, doing any research or having knowledgeable help.

On this account and in this instance I'm willing to give a by because basic information is important enough to restate.

Everyone starts somewhere even if that somewhere amounts to putting your foot in it and losing a shoe the first time you discover the barnyard. (It's losing the shoe that make people remember the event. Who knew that a crusty, dusty cow patty could look like dirt?)

I'll await developments.

[kate]

Yup.

I guess I do sort of turn it in the warmer months by covering the kitchen by products with the unfinished compost.

I'm looking forward to be able to do more than converse about gardening...

[Gary Woods]

I think you've hit on why the conversations go so far afield. Cabin fever! Just got back from helping a neighbor get un-stuck in the 3+ feet of snow that have fallen (so far) after a very low-snow winter. (up 'til now!)

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G