I have three compost bins. I thought that I'd try that instead of always burning my leaves. The piles were warm for a while but now they are stone cold. I have shredded the leaves but I have no green stuff to add to the piles. Can I add something else to get it going? I have acess to lots of coffee grounds, would that help? There are plenty of worms in there. Also, where I had to put them was near a white pine tree so a fair amount of needles are in the mix. Could this be a problem? TIA
Dave
Add a little soil and water and stir it.
Add a little soil and water and stir it. The coffe grounds won't hurt either. Better if they're wet.
Add a little soil and water and stir it. The coffe grounds won't hurt either. Better if they're wet.
Add a little soil and water and stir it. The coffee grounds won't hurt either. Better if they're wet.
Coffee grounds are great.---they are considered a "green" amendment to compost. You can also spinkle grounds around your plants and they will decay in.
Do you know anyone who bags grass clippings?
Coffee grounds (without filters) are a 'green' (nitrogen source) in composting terms.
Other possibilities: fresh grass clippings, blood meal, rabbit food, alfalfa hay or pellets -- even straight urea -- can be used to add nitrogen and kick up composting process.
Worms are good. Pine needles will compost (eventually).
I can send you information on hot, batch composting if you email. See sig for correction.
Leaves, by themselves, don't contain enough nitrogen to keep a compost heap going. The bacteria which produce the "heat" require nitrogen to feed on. If you don't have a ready source of high nitrogen material available (grass clippings, manure, etc.) you can just mix in store bought fertilizer. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen, so if you can get enough of them by all means mix it in the pile. It is possible to get too much nitrogen. If the pile develops an ammonia smell, you have too much nitrogen or it is not mixed in well enough. Use caution if you use table scraps, because it attracts scavengers.
It's also best to keep the pile roughly 3 ft high by 3 ft wide and as long as you need. Keep the pile moist (but not soaking wet), and turn it periodically to speed up the process. If you've done these two things and the pile is not staying warm, you need to add more nitrogen.
Thanks for all the great advise. I thought that I could just use nitrogen fertizer but I wasn't sure. I'll start using some coffee also (even though I hate the smell). I mulch my grass and so does everyone around me so I have no help there. Hopefully I'll get these piles knocked down by the time fall gets here for a re-load. Thanks again all.
Dave
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