Ideas for improving this second-generation home composting method

[Danny D]

My first composting method was a disaster but this second generation improved method seems to be working well enough to tell you what it is and to ask about suggestions for improvement.

1. A closeable container sits in the kitchen corner
2. Foodstuffs go into the container instead of in the trash
3. After about a week, we dump the food onto a fenced-in area
4. We chop the food into the soil for about a minute or so
5. This breaks large chunks into small pieces for faster breakdown
6. And it thoroughly 'infects' the foodstuff with soil bacteria
7. After a minute of chopping, the food is barely noticeable
8. Then we shovel a thin layer of soil on top to keep away birds
9. The fence & soil, we found, keeps cyotes & vultures away
10. We spray with water, often daily, to aid bacterial growth
11. We wash the plastic (and sometimes disinfect with chlorine)
12. And the cycle starts anew, with foodstuffs in the kitchen

We've found that we can't even find the food after just a few weeks, although before we fenced it in, the cyotes, vultures, or whatever would dig up the chicken bones, fish skins, etc.

Any ideas or suggestions or comments are welcome.

[harry]

You are a long way behind on the curve. You can start here.

[Danny D]

Reading that, I seem to be missing the mixing in a barrel. Also I seem to not be aiming for that 30:1 carbon:nitrogen mix. None of the composting ideas in that article appeared to be simply placed in the ground. I wonder why?

[Moe DeLoughan]

Space and ease of use, most probably. Most ground is already put to use so there's no free space to incorporate garden/kitchen waste. Also, adding it to a heap or barrel is less effort than digging it into the ground, and makes it less available for scavengers.

When I was a kid, our weekly kitchen waste removal chore involved digging a deepish hole in an open spot in the vegetable garden. Every evening the day's kitchen scraps got dumped in, followed by a shovelful of soil. At the end of the week the hole was filled in and a new hole started. But in those days gardening wasn't as space-intensive as it is nowadays. You'd be hard pressed to find much open space in most contemporary gardens.

[Alfred Fox]

Makes sense. Luckily I have plenty of space.

I was adding it to a square 18" high recycling bin prior - but that bin was too heavy to move after it got full of soil + compost.

Now, I just chop it into the ground; cover with soil; and water it, and it seems to work (although I have to keep animals away as I had found all the bones were dug up if I didn't).

Long term, I'll see how well it works over a year's span. I do realize I'm "breaking the rules" by adding everything (fish, chicken, beef, pork, bacon fat, eggshells, orange peels, banana peels, lettuce cores, avocado pits, stale bread and crackers, etc.) from the kitchen.

I never saw a good explanation of why not.

[Norminn]

"Attracting rodents" is reason #1, #2 and #3! Not to mention digging into a pocket of rotten meat if one turns the pile. Link here:

Someone who likes breeding worms explains how to (carefully) incorporate meat to a compost:

I just set up my new compost pile this morning...new home, doing lots of landscaping and planting veg. garden....I just melted some holes in a black plastic tub to keep out by the garden and koi pond. Can dump in kitchen stuff and algae from the pond if the koi don't eat it :o)

[Danny D]

To test whether the "diggers" were attracted to my compost, I left the fence open the past two days at my compost pile:

Checking this morning, I don't see evidence of animals digging up the salmon or steak bones yet ...

[dpb]

Keep it up and you can be sure rats and other _will_ find it. A day or two isn't long for new food sources to be discovered but rest assured it will be found if it's kept up.

--

[Dan Espen]

real compost pile:

fence is 6ft high. Last years leaves are compacted and partly broken down.

[Danny D]

The holes in the fencing are big enough for rats to get through, so, if/when they find the compost, I'll see some evidence of that, I hope.

[Danny D]

[Dan Espen]

Only if you really like exercise.

1 years leaves pile up much higher than that.

[Danny D]

I have a lot of Spanish & Scotch Broom, which I pull out (Scotch Broom) by the hundreds, and I cut & glyphosate (Spanish Broom) by the scores; but I don't want to compost that so I put them in the green recycling bins.

It takes a few months because each bin only holds about an hour's worth of cuttings; yet I generally cut for four or five hours at a time.

But, other than that, I don't have compost since I'm in a windy location exposed to the Pacific Ocean winds, which do all my leaf raking for me during the winter storms!

:)

Of course, it all ends up in the pool ... :(

[Higgs Boson]

Maybe I did the wrong thing...but...a few years ago I dismantled my compost= and sold it on Craigs List. I hadn't really been keeping it up properly anyway.= So when the City announced that they were now accepting food waste to inc= orporate into their (quarterly give-away compost events), I decided to go w= ith that. I was surprised when the hand-out said that meat,fat,bones, etc.= could be included, but when I called, they said that the compost was produ= ced at such high temperatures that the no-no stuff was rendered harmless. = =20

It's actually a nice community event; people line up in their cars with the= ir bags, pails, other containers. When you get to the head of the line, you= climb into a huge "bin" full of this lovely powdery compost, break out you= r shovel and load up.

[DirtBag]

Dan Espen said

Wow, the wife would never tolerate that pile. I had to pitch a fit to get two 4" square bins accepted. :-)

[Dan Espen]

The pile isn't visible from the rest of the yard.

You can't make compost in 4 inch bins. Well you can, but you can turn the compost over with a teaspoon.

[David Hare-Scott]

It wouldn't get very hot would it.

D

[songbird]

DirtBag wrote: ...

or use worms and let them take care of it. they do much better in the ground where temperatures are moderated the location can be less visible to "the management".

most scraps can simply be buried, if done deeply enough there's no smell or problem with vermin/bugs. leaves are also broken down more quickly if buried with some dirt mixed in instead of just left in a pile on the surface.

for bones it's much better if you can grind them (if you don't trust your meat source you may want to cook them well first) before composting, but in the end the earth's critters will take care of them one way or another.

i worm compost a great deal and study decomposition techniques. :) more fun than a mere human should ever be allowed...

songbird

[DirtBag]

David Hare-Scott said

Hmmmm, maybe that's my problem. Too small! :-) (oops)

[Danny D.]

I took all your advice to heart, and added two more steps to my composting sequence:

1. I now rake the compost over a larger area than before (in order to aerate it and allow bacteria their freedom). I disinfect the compost bin in the kitchen with chlorine (to keep the mold away, which has been happening lately). The wife has been complaining about the smell of the pool chlorine in the kitchen; so I have to clean it at night.