On 28 Oct 2006 18:21:06 -0700, Tater wrote:
Rather than wade through thousands of search results from google, can
somone point me to a composting site? cheap is good, simple is better,

Google hint: try restricting the search to .edu or .gov domains...
you'll typically find good how-tos from extension services that way.
The exact search I'd use for a first pass would be
"making compost" site:.edu

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The science and soforth behind composting:
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/science.html

Pretty good beginners guide:
http://gardening.wsu.edu/stewardship...p/yardcomp.htm
http://www.co.hennepin.mn.us/vgn/portal/internet/hcdet
ailmaster/0,2300,1273_1712_100292546,00.html

imho, the easiest way of dealing with smallish quantities of non-seedbearing
vegetable matter without plant diseases, is to simply dig a trench next to
a row of something or other in the vegetable garden -- corn is a good
"next to" crop for this. Throw waste vegetable matter into the trench,
cover with a little soil. Move on to the next section of the trench when
you've got the first section full and covered. When you run out of trench,
dig a new one.

Hot composting, where you build a big pile and let it rot quickly, requires
more work, as you need to keep it aerated. Compost tumblers or balls
are probably the easy way out here, but I've also built piles incorporating
pieces of perforated pvc pipe to get the air in to the pile with less work.

My usual method, however, is to get five pallets from the discard pile
and arrange them into an E, standing up on edge... two three-sided bins
separated by the center bar of the E. Build the pile in one bin. Every
few days pitchfork it over to the other bin to aerate and mix. Next time,
fork it back into the first bin, ad infinitum, till you've got finished
compost. The only purpose the bins serve is to keep things a little
tidier... you can just make a compost heap directly on the ground,
uncontained.


Pitching compost to turn it was what I did before my back decided it liked
less work. Now I mostly strip compost or slow compost -- perhaps not a
choice for someone with a very small property, for whom worm composting
or a compost tumbler is a better choice.

Rodale Book of Composting is probably the classic "every sort of composting"
exposition.

Kay