JoeSpareBedroom wrote

It's usually recommended that you not put any non-vegetable
matter in your compost because it can attract various critters
who have an excellent sense of smell. In some towns, this can
also attract the attention of whiners who'll call the property
upkeep police to annoy you.

=========================


I have never phoned the police over a neighbor's compost pile,
but I have complained a few times when moron's dump animal
products into their compost pile and/or they dump 90% lawn
clippings and fail to ever turn the pile. Fortunately, they have
all responded favorably to friendly requests.

Not everybody is so lucky.

One neighbor located a "compost pile" (aka, rotting garbage
pile) at the property line. They were too lazy or too dumb to
manage it properly. It was located upwind and 10' from the
closest edge of their next-door neighbor's patio. Like you, they
thought that the neighbors were "whiners." They failed to
comply with friendly requests to relocate the compost pile or
to maintain it better. They circumvented the eventual legal
requests as much as possible, with a moronic "it's our property"
attitude.

The resolution of the issue was ugly. After many years, the
offenders left for a week's vacation one summer and returned to
discover that a liberal dose of 2-4-D had been applied at 3:00am
to their entire veggie garden, plus their raspberry and blueberry
plants. The compost pile was moved shortly thereafter.

I don't approve of such vigilante actions, but I do believe that all
of us should respect the laws and civilities of the municipality
in which we live. If you don't like the rules, then work to change
them or move to an open area without zoning.

I enjoy our gardening and I'd have a difficult time living without
our compost piles. But I respect the rights of my neighbors
more. On the rare occasions when some of our compost gets
a bit "too ripe", I always apologize to the neighbors and reassure
them that I'm aware of the issue and working to mitigate any
smell ASAP. Nobody in an urban area should have to suffer due
to somebody else's hobbies.

Gideon