Compost ratio

[cl999]

I'm starting trying start my first compost. I keep seeing a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 30:1. Is that by weight or volume? Most kitchen scrap is nitrogen so that's the one I have plenty of but that's the low part of the 30:1 ratio. Winter just thawed out and I have bunch of dried grass on my lawn. Grass clipping is considered green, but is dried grass considered brown (besides the fact that it looks brown)? Can I dry "green" things out and it turns to brown material? Seems like brown is harder to generate in that quantity than green material since lawn is mulched, but is needed in vastly greater quantities. Even using newspaper, that's a lot of newspaper compared to how much kitchen scrap is generated daily. There's no way I can compost all my kitchen scrap. I know people talk about straw and hay, but those things are bulky and I don't have room to store a bale of hay until kitchen scrap catches up nor do I have a compost bin large enough for that much hay. What are people using for brown material? Maybe I could start spread chopped up kitchen scraps on my lawn and let it do its thing. I kid.

[Val]

I can't believe you said that!

I had a neighborhood cafe that saved their salad/veggie scraps for me, I picked up one or two 5 gallon buckets every night on my way home from work. I dumped this on my compost piles along with my kitchen scraps, it wasn't "too much". I had 3 compost bins; one by the back kitchen door, one in the veggie garden and one behind the garage. They got whatever was at hand in the close proximity tossed on them while I worked in the garden. Just depended on what time of the year it was as to what was tossed on. The only thing I didn't use were lawn clippings. I had eliminated every blade of grass on my property, I personally see no reason for 30 gazillion little high maintenence plants that all look the same, I don't DO lawn. Kitchen scraps, trimmings, prunings, the rubble from garden grooming, leaves, fireplace ash, all tossed on in the random order of appearance, a son occasionally "dampening the pile" (Don't you dare walk through the house with those dirty shoes!) while out doing garden chores, it worked. No recipes, no weights and measures, none of them stunk, they all produced fine garden gold.

Find somebody with a good old compost pile and wheedle a shovelful from that pile and toss it on yours, that will help start yours up. Toss on all those scraps and once in a while sprinkle a shovelful of garden soil over yours if you think it's getting mucky. When you are working in your garden walk over with a pitchfork and give it a few jabs and twists to stir things up a bit and give it a breath of air. Maybe shred up that precise recipe for compost while you're at it and toss that into the pile as well. Loosen up your anally engineered sphincter, man. You said it...this isn't really rocket science. If you really want *immediate* compost go buy a bag and then use what you're making when it's ready. Otherwise just kick back and let it rot, have a beer, relax. A compost pile is never 'done', you just eventually harvest what's ripe and it continues on doing what it's supposed to do. It's alive, it rots, it's compost.

Val

[cl999]

That was under the assumption that I needed 30 times the brown material for my kitchen scrap. I have since learned that it is not true. I'm just trying to learn. It might be easy for you because you know how to do it. Last time I tried I thought I could just throw kitchen scrap in a bin outsife. Well, it turned out to be a giant pile of rotten garbage. I guess it was still technically a compost heap, but it's not the way I (or my neighbors) preferred to do it.I didn't know about brown and green or carbon and nitrogen. Even those the composting process is very forgiving and no right or wrong way, there's still good ways and bad ways of doing it.

really rocket

Wouldn't have my sphincter engineered any other way. That part works just fine, unlike my previous attempt at composting.

None of the web sites said anything about beer being part of composting. I like your method much better!

[Charlie]

really rocket

Beer is good for compost, just make sure it goes thru you first!

[Persephone]

really rocket

What about female urine, which can contain the chemicals -- hormones; birth control pills; other "products" excreted by many females -- that are now said to be causing distorted development among marine mammals and fish who live in waters that have received these toilet flushings

Straight question.

Persephone

[Charlie]

Good point. Dammit, I know about the situation with excreted drugs in water supplies,, but didn't *even* extrapolate that to direct application in the garden.

My only excuse was thinking of myself personally and knowing that my urine doesn't contain any drugs, other than herbals. And I guess whatever toxins I unknowingly or unavoidably ingest.

Thanks. Seriously. Your point is a damn good one.

Charlie

[Persephone]

Well, if your cauliflower grows four heads... and your tomatoes are a ghastly white and your green onions are short and purple (etc) ....you have been warned!

Persephone

Persephone

[Charlie]

Oh crap, some of my maters were white last year!!!

Oh, wait.....they were White Tomasils...hehehehe.