Hi composters! I just started composting and I have been adding and adding, and the pile in my bin never gets bigger (good, right?). I do have a couple of concerns...
Twigs -- I have put a great deal of these in (but I cut them down to about 1.5 inches each) -- in your experience will these be ready next year?
Used tissues -- can I throw them in?
I peeked in the bottom of my two month old compost and it was brown and slimy, is this right?
So far I am very encouraged by what I am not throwing in our garbage can. next year the city is starting green bins, so I'll be able to throw out even the stuff I can't into my own. That should leave me with very little garbage. That feels good!
Thanks for your answers!
Jo-Anne
__________________
Mom to four "little turkeys":
Craig 6, Taylor 4, Morgan 3, and Meghan 1.
Life is just the candle; the dream must give it flame.
Jo-Ann, I ended up with a few extra minutes as ds was not quite ready to go so I thought that I would take a peek at the questions.
Let's start with twigs. They are slow to decompose but if they are small enough they might be ready next year. Rather than add more right now, keep an eye on what you have in there already.
Tissues: Yes you can compost them but I tend not to. They often contain dyes or are bleached. You can shred black and white newspaper (not the circulars inside though) and add those.
Slime: The first question I have is how often are you turning your pile? The pile should be "stirred" or turned about once a week to facilitate decomposition. I use a pitch fork and simply turn it like I would my garden soil. There are fancy "stirrers" that you plunge down into the pile and twist but I can't justify buying something like that when my good old pitch fork will suffice. I bury new stuff and turn at the end of the week making sure nothing new ends up on top. Grass clippings usually get put on top once or twice a week until fall and then it is leaves.
The second question is how often and how much are you watering it? Just a sprinkle will do most of the time. I usually rinse my bucket a little and spread that water over it.
The third question is how much rain are you getting? If you live in a wet location, you might have to cover the pile with tarp to keep it from getting too wet or put it under a shelter of some sort.
In general, slime generally forms if the pile is not turned or "stirred" and/or if it stays too wet.
It is a great feeling to have very little garbage to put out. I like to think that we have had an impact on our neighbors. When our city started limiting homes to two very large cans (provided by the city), I was floored that there were people complaining. When we moved in, we had the city pick up our second can because we don't produce that much garbage. Instead we got a second recycling bin and fill both to the brim and usually have enough recycling to fill two more. The garbage can was less than one quarter filled yesterday. We have two children and a dog.
Enough. I will step off my soap box now. Ds is ready so I will scoot. I hope that this helped. Feel free to pm me and/or post here if you have more questions.
Take care.
Debbie
__________________ Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability. - Unknown.
It is important to follow our dreams as a tribute to those who were forbidden to follow theirs. - Unknown
Thanks so much for your information -- and you step right on that soap box, girl, its great to practice RRR!! I have been stirring the pile, but I couldn't get to the bottom too well (I was using a garden rake since I don't even have a good ole pitchfork), so I guess I will have to be more diligent -- get dh's big muscles in on it.
Our city went to two garbage bag limit as well, and many people complained, but I think it has done well overall (2 years later). I never had a problem, I was a big proponent of recycling (and started a program about 11 years ago in one of the schools I taught at). Sheesh, talk about someone up on a soapbox (me). We never had a problem with the limit, rarely go over one actually, even though I have had two kids in disposable diapers for many years (that's bad, I know, if I were to do it over again, I have learned much about the convenience of cloth diapers, I would have likely used them). I am composting myself for a couple of reasons -- one to relieve myself of the guilt of using disposables all these years, and two, I'd like to introduce the compost program in my kids' school -- just three or four bins in the back of the school (small school of 300). I could easily maintain and stir them a couple times a week because I make three runs to the school now anyway (one problem might be the "browns" because I don't think a school has too much yard waste) -- so I wonder how much SCHOOL type paper could be shredded and composted (maybe the bleached and dyed paper issue???). But I want to learn through doing first, to head off any opposition I may find along the way. If you have any suggestions regarding composting in the school, I'd be glad to hear it!
Anyway, I'm an enthusiastic listener, so go ahead and get up on that box!!
Jo-Anne
__________________
Mom to four "little turkeys":
Craig 6, Taylor 4, Morgan 3, and Meghan 1.
Life is just the candle; the dream must give it flame.
Last edited by housefullofturkeys; 06-16-2006 at 09:42 AM.
We have a passive pile of leaves, grass, some twigs, etc. It makes absolutely wonderful garden bed material, black gold. It was 6 feet high after 8 years. We made 9 new beds one year and got it down to shin level. Last year we turned it with a tiller and used it as a vine garden, pumpkins and melons (only the pumpkins survived the chipmunks and bunnies). We will till it over again this year. I keep throwing seeds in thinking some year when we don't plant intentionally we will have some great melon volunteers.
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Ellen in PA
"God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of love, power, and a sound mind."
JoAnn, I had a wonderful, long post that disappeared into cyber space. I will try to put it back together.
For the school, you might be surprised at how much there is to compost.
Take a walk around the campus. Are there any wooded areas? How is the lawn maintained? And the landscaping? Are there areas that could be converted into natural habitats?
Look at the surrounding neighborhood. Are the students required to do service hours? Are there parks or community areas around the school in which the students could perform those hours and collect yard wast to compost at the same time?
Take a walk through the school. Are there newspapers that are used in the classroom? Do the classes do fall projects with apples or pumpkins? Are tea and/or coffee commonly served? Can the bags and grounds be saved to compost?
I will try to post more tomorrow after I slept a little.
Take care.
Debbie
__________________ Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability. - Unknown.
It is important to follow our dreams as a tribute to those who were forbidden to follow theirs. - Unknown
Debbie, I loved you getting on your soap box! I get on the same one. We have a compost pile, 1 garbage can very seldom over 1/2 full and 2 very full recycling bins. I take the aluminum cans in for $. There are families with the same makeup as us and they have two overflowing garbage cans (here we have to buy any over the one free one from the city).
I have leaves, small twigs, and veggie scraps in mine. Sometimes I leave one side alone as the potatoes have grown and provided me some potatoes.
As we don't collect our lawn clippings we don't have that much green. I don't put any weeds in it as I don't want them coming back. Those and the big sticks I put out for our yard waste pickup and the city composts them.
Egg shells go around my plants to keep the slugs off of them.
My friends call me the Recycler as I tend to bring home any recyables from our Girl Scout meetings, etc. to throw into the bin rather than the garbage can.
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Post Card Angel
Children have never been very good at listening to their parents, but they have never failed to imitate them. Baldwin ~
I agree redcardinalbird! Recycling is important. It falls in the category, If EVERYBODY just threw one or two recyclables into the bin, what a difference it would make just in one day in our world!
Earth Day is approaching. We have community cleanup programs, but I think this year, I will do my yard and think again how to make our compost pile more active than passive. We have a willow tree which generates quite a bit of twigs, tough to decompose. And the lawn provides no clippings as we are all to use a mulching blade on our mowers.
I do have two old leaky trash barrels with oak bark leftovers from our wood pile that have been quietly sitting in the back yard for four years, so this year is the one I will dump them for mulch under those limbed up spruce in the back.
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Ellen in PA
"God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of love, power, and a sound mind."
Ellen -our Girl Scout Troop just earned their environmetal patch. We discused many things and even made a sculpture out of recyclables. It was very interesting with what the girls came up with. One group made a lake with amuzement rides, another a tower and the other a hodepodge.
As Earth Day approaches I am anxious to see what they suggest at school to do. The school does have bins for paper and tins cans. I think I am going to put a bug in the girls ears to recycle their plastic water bottles which a lot of them have for lunch.
__________________
Post Card Angel
Children have never been very good at listening to their parents, but they have never failed to imitate them. Baldwin ~
Last edited by redcardinalbird; 03-25-2007 at 08:34 PM.
Ellen in PA 
