Composting - help me get started

[jennipurrr]

I was just reading through Fidgegirl's thread about upping her efforts and this past weekend DH and I were talking about starting a compost pile. We were planting some tomato plants this weekend and I was thinking, it would be so nice to have our own compost. So...composting is on my mind right now. I searched here and found a past thread about it, so I've read a little there. On the net there seems to be multiple ways to do this!

Honestly, we likely won't follow through if its a lot of work. What is the easiest way to get started? I am leery spending $$$ on a bin, but if it makes the process a lot easier, then I may be up for it. I definitely want to do it in a way that helps insure success. I am kind of squeamish about rotting stuff too.

Does anyone have a good resource about beginning to compost? Also, what method would you recommend for someone like me? Tips for success?

[herbgeek]

The easiest (laziest) way to do this is just dig a hole and bury your food scraps right in your garden and then put the dirt back on top. Other ways are also effective, but require either more effort than this or more equipment. I have lots of earthworms. The only downside is that the neighbor's dog can smell onions or garlic even under a foot of dirt, but I've been trying to retrain him by having him come to me for cookies, instead of looking for his snack in the compost. I move the spot around in the garden so eventually it all gets food scraps.

[puglogic]

My very first compost "pile" when I was younger was a bunch of 4' tall welded wire (about 2"x4" holes) shaped into a circle and then attached with some clips from the hardware store. I also purchased a bale of straw from the feed store for about $6, and had a pile of dirt from excavating my garden beds nearby.

I got a basic feel for the "browns and greens" and how they played together, and then I just did my best. When I'd put in wet stuff from the kitchen, I'd immediately cover it with a big handful of straw (to where i couldn't see the kitchen scraps) and then a couple of shovelfulls of earth. Every eight weeks or so, if anything had built up, I'd unclip the wire, move the circle a few feet to the left or right, and then turn the pile into the cage, putting the top stuff on the bottom and the bottom stuff on the top. This was my rudimentary compost pile, and it kept the dogs out and kept everything neat.

I also second burying your scraps. As soon as we have the garden area fenced, I'll definitely be doing that again. So many worms that way!!!

There's a very cool book you can get at the library called "Let It Rot" that has a ton of different solutions with different levels of difficulty. I found that really helpful. I'm in training now to be a Master Composter (yes, another one of those weird certifications :) )

Good luck! Composting is awesome.

[Float On]

Our "batch" for the studio is delivered on pallets so I've used 5 in a I_I_I shape. I fill one - leave it alone for a year while I'm filling the other. I too add straw or pine chips or a shovel full of dirt every now and then. You've never seen so many worms as when you get down to the bottom of the compost. The chickens love it when I take my shovel over to the compost area since I allow them a few worm treats.
Since I'm adding stuff daily I've never noticed a smell.

[Zoebird]

I'd thought I'd answered this, but it must have gotten "eaten" by the forum gnomes.

Anyway, a lot of it depends upon your yard and the amount of space you have. Because we live close, have mice, cats, and dogs roaming around, and have no real open ground, we are going with a self-aerating compost bin ($150 new) and then bokashi bins for the bones which will ferment them as a pre-compost before putting them into the normal, cold-compost aerating compost bin.

I'll make my own bokashi starter (http://newspaperbokashi.wordpress.com/make-your-own-free-bokashi-starter/) as we already ferment a lot of stuff, so this would be no big deal. This will make it less expensive, too. My neighbor also does bokashi, so we'll be able to make the starter together and in larger lots.

For the brown material for the aerating bin, I'm planning on using cardboard, egg cartons (made of card board), and paper shreds that we recycle.

This should cut the trash down to very little (about a hand-full per week), and the recycling down to 10 plastic bags per week (tops).

If I can find a way to get rid of all of those plastic bags, I'll be a happy lady. So far, I just can't figure out how to get rid of them, without adding things that would increase my environmental load. It might just be what I have to live with -- 6-10 bags to recycling!

[lizii]

Zoe, why don't you buy or make a couple of cloth reusable bags to take with you to shop?

I hate plastic bags as much as you do, so this would solve your problems.

[Merski]

Your town's board of Health may have composters for sale.

[jennipurrr]

Thank you all for the replies! We have dogs and a cat who goes outside so I don't think burying will work...I am sure the critters will get curious.Thanks for the book recommendation and the experiences. I think this will be my project while I am taking a break from classes during May.

Also, thanks Merski for making that comment about the city. I went checking and they do not have composters, but we are getting our curbside recycling back in two weeks, woohoo!!!! My city's recycling facility and trucks were destroyed last year by a tornado and we have not had curbside since then. For a while we didn't have anything and then for the past few months we have been able to take recyclables to a few drop off places...which meant haphazard participation despite our best efforts. So, I am super happy about that!

[Float On]

I've never had problems with dogs/cats and other critters digging around in the compost. If you don't put meat/bread/bones in your compost they aren't going to be attracted to it.
I do have 4 turtles that visits - they like it when I put strawberries that have gone a little bad at the edge of the compost. And the coons are more interested in my chickens but they will pull watermelon out of the pile. And of course the chickens love scratching around but I consider that helping since they are poo'ing as well.

[Zoebird]

lizzii:

i have reusable bags for fresh produce. the plastic bags that I have are for frozen produce (berries, broccoli) and for the meats that we can't get without plastic (chickens), and then also for bulk nuts/etc (though for these, we are going to a bulk store soon, since we finally found one!).

I also do not have enough space to freeze my own, which everyone recommends. Essentially, i'd need a large enough freezer to both keep my frozen goods AND freeze the fresh goods, and then a large enough freezer to store about 40 kilos of berries and 80 kilos of broccoli from the fresh season in order to do that. That would take a HUGE freezer, and it's just not possible in my space (no space for such a freezer). It would also cost a small fortune to maintain (ie, power), and so it's just less expensive to actually buy the frozen foods and recycle the bags than it is to do the alternative.

Do the best you can, you know? :)

[lizii]

Doing our best is what we have to do. What bothers me in my apartment building is that we don't have any recycling. Everything is simply dumped into a large dumpster and taken to a dump somewhere. I've called the recycling station to ask why we can't have the various cans to dump our glass, cans, newspapers, cardboard, etc., and told that because we only have 10 apartments here we're not covered by the rules. Makes me mad as hell.

[Zoebird]

When I was in a similar situation, we actually would make weekly trips to the recycle center ourselves. In PA, we had curb side recycling, but not of everything that we could recycle. So, I would take those to the recycling center every 3rd or 4th week. Living in a condo with minimal storage made it tough to do this, but I did ok.

It's a pain, but some recycling centers will let you drop off your stuff. Ikea has nice bins that are easy to use (that's what we used -- i gave them to a friend before I left who continued the 'tradition' of collecting everyone's recyclables that wouldn't be taken curb side), and then you can just pop the bins into the car and head to the place on your own once a week or so. And with 10 apartments, you could probably get everyone to recycle in a central location, and perhaps put in a few $$$ for gas money or whatever for your hauling efforts.

[Mrs-M]

I second the idea of digging a hole in the garden and just filling it, but if you want a true honest-to-goodness compost bin, building one out of lumber is best. Scrap lumber is easily come-by, and building one (a compost box) is quite easy, albeit my husband built ours.

As for further details, it's a little challenging to offer any real concrete advice or direction to you, particularly not knowing what your method or system will be. Myself, I fancy having a formal compost box/bin. Having a special dedicated area for kitchen-waste keeps things simple, clean, easy, and organized.

[Gardenarian]

I have found worm composting to be the easiest for our family. We have one of those stacking worm composter bins - we are able to compost all of our kitchen waste with just one. Very easy to manage.

Here are instructions for making your own worm bin: http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/easywormbin.htm