Compost Pile Advice

When it moves it good. When it don't it backs up. Life moves.

Bill

Composting, I mean; not fetishizing it.

What? Is everyone gettin' turd of the banter already? :-)

Charlie

I perceive it empties into a descending colon...

Dark Energy

Not really - you've hit the nail on the head, as they say. Grass and leaves will EVENTUALLY rot up into humus. However, a compost pile works best if you have lots of active, hungry redworms, and you regularly go back and put apple cores, banana peels, etc. on it.

We have found a balance by using a 5 gallon bucket for our compost under the kitchen sink. 5 gallons is enough so that we don't have to make trips out to the compost pile more than once every 7 to 10 days. The lid fits tightly, so we rarely get unpleasant odors indoors.

It may help to have an actual enclosure for your compost. I used some wood pallets that a business had discarded, 4 to be exact. I then bought a half gallon of copper napthenate at Lowe's, and proceeded to use an old paint brush to treat all of the wood against rot and fungus. I let the wood air out in the sun for a week. Treating the wood allows the pallets to last for about 10 years instead of just 3 or 4.

Then I turned the pallets on their sides to form a simple box. Next I used wire to bind them together. You can put some chicken wire on the inside if you want. Today as a big bonus, we have lots of active redworms, so I can always get some free fishing bait, too.

----- Original Message ----- From: "OhioGuy" Newsgroups: rec.gardens Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 1:56 AM Subject: Re: Compost Pile Advice

actually, grass and leaves WILL be enough to get a compost pile started provided there is enough moisture in the pile (grass is green enough), there is a good quantity of both materials, & things are mixed together. This will heat the pile up nicely. When things cool down the worms will come. Kitchen waste is a very good addition to compost piles.

rob