On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 01:20:37 GMT, Phisherman wrote:

On 19 Feb 2003 17:04:42 -0800, (Josh Chessman)
wrote:

A question about composting. At present I am composting raw fruits
and vegetables, plus their peelings and the likes. However, I tend to
go through a fair amount of "other" foods (cooked vegies, pasta, etc.)
I know you are not supposed to compost those items with your regular
compost as it can cause disease amongst the plants and can be toxic to
us humans (or at least make the fruits of my garden toxic to me). I
was wondering if it was possible to have a separate compost pile away
from everything where I would compost those other items. The result
would not be used on plants, but basically left to fend for itself. I
know animals and bugs can be attracted to meats, so I would not place
those in this other pile. Can anyone enlighten me to the good or bads
of this?

Thanks!

Josh

There's nothing wrong with adding cooked vegetables, fruit, pasta or
breads to your regular compost. Grease, oils, meat, fungus-infected
plants, salt, BBQ briquettes or bones should not be added to a
compost. I do add egg shells, and these don't break down too well,
but eventually crumble into small pieces. There are "dont-s" than
"do-s" in composting.

I used to pour water over egg shells and let the good stuff leach into
the water. But the smell can be awful, so I gradually gave up, and
now smash them up as small as possible and add them to the compost.



--
Polar