On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 00:29:47 GMT, (dstvns) wrote:

Hi,

As of this month I've been composting kitchen scraps and brown paper
products for roughly 4 years. At an average of 500 lbs per year I've
saved over one ton of trash from being wasted in the landfill I
hope everyone else is having as much success.

Dan
That IS a milestone!!! So how has your shredding brown paper products
been incorporated into the kitchen scraps worked out for brown
material for the layering? Has it broken down adequately? And when
do you have finished compost for your garden to use?

I've often thought of getting a little cheap shredder at Wally world
to shred the paper that is generated here at the house to use as my
compost heap's dry product. And even more so this year since I
haven't gone scrounging for bags of leaves. I finally tackled the
pile of paperwork on my computer desk and was shocked at the amount of
paper that had accumulated and kept kicking myself at the idea of how
much shredded dry stuff this would have provided my pile. (I am not
growing vegetables so the flowers wouldn't be affected by inks or
dyes)

This year in my original compost pile I have done an experiment with
the grassy stuff that overgrew in the back of my house. It pulled up
so easily that I just jumped in and ripped it up since raking it was a
bit too much and I wound up having two piles over three foot deep.
Once I got it into a wad, I threw the whole thing into the older
compost pile and watered it down some. Now the kitchen scraps wind up
on top (I do a very lazy pile. I alternate the green with whatever I
have handy and I have never turned it. I let it take it's time
breaking down) and I'll hopefully have almost finished compost by late
spring to steal and distribute. So you've been doing this for four
years? Or have you been composting for longer? I've insisted on
saving compostable things now for so long I've "ruined" Squire. When
he was out on the road he called one night to tell me I'd completely
messed him up. He was up that morning making coffee in the hotel room
coffee pot and was looking for the compost can to put the grounds and
filter...LOL

madgardener up on the ridge, back in a rather cold and windy fairy
holler, overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7,
Sunset zone 36 where the wind chills tonight are promising to be at
least zero!