Compost ingredients?
 

At the time, which was a couple of years ago, I was interested in compost.
When I saw bones sticking out of several piles, I passed. Just couldn't
handle the idea of the neighborhood dogs digging for the bones in my
garden....;-)

Frogleg wrote in article
...
On 30 Jul 2003 23:56:52 GMT, "TomC" wrote:

A local dairy farmer sells compost and manure. Guess where his dead cows
go!

Not in the manure/bedding, unless he wants a lot of trouble from (at
least!) the local health department.

Compost ingredients?
 

On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 12:51:15 -0400, NC_FUBAR
wrote:

Have also read in several places that cooked meat, bones, and
human/pet manure should not be included in compost materials.
I put nothing I wouldn't eat in my pile, that includes ALL animal
products. For some of us organic meat is an oxymoron....
I don't mean to demean anyone that eats or uses animal products, just
happen to believe in "Diet for a Small Planet".

Compost ingredients?
 

Pat Meadows wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 21:53:41 -0600, John DeBoo
wrote:



Hmmm, I'm in the market to try one this fall myself and from what
I've read elsewhere one should turn the compose fairly often. How
does one do that if you make a round wire affair as suggested in
this FAQ?


Pull up the wire circle - pull it off the compost. Or
un-hitch it so it's not a circle anymore.

Move the wire circle to a new spot. Fork the compost into
the new spot.

We use a wire fencing circle for compost too, but we just
leave it, all this forking business is too much work - it
will slowly decompose all by itself. Slowly.

Pat
I knew that embarrassed. Is there a better structure in general
that would do a faster or better job than wire?

Compost ingredients?
 

Tom Jaszewski wrote in message . ..
On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 12:51:15 -0400, NC_FUBAR
wrote:

Have also read in several places that cooked meat, bones, and
human/pet manure should not be included in compost materials.
I put nothing I wouldn't eat in my pile, that includes ALL animal
products. For some of us organic meat is an oxymoron....

Well, now there's an interesting concept. I don't use any animal
products in my compost. I just use grass trimmings, leaves and
rotting hay. Not exactly
tasty stuff but it serves the purpose for me. My plants also seem to
like it.

I don't mean to demean anyone that eats or uses animal products, just
happen to believe in "Diet for a Small Planet".

Compost ingredients?
 

On 31 Jul 2003 19:19:03 -0700, (Lee Hall) wrote:

Tom Jaszewski wrote in message . ..
On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 12:51:15 -0400, NC_FUBAR
wrote:

Have also read in several places that cooked meat, bones, and
human/pet manure should not be included in compost materials.
I put nothing I wouldn't eat in my pile, that includes ALL animal
products. For some of us organic meat is an oxymoron....

Well, now there's an interesting concept. I don't use any animal
products in my compost. I just use grass trimmings, leaves and
rotting hay. Not exactly
tasty stuff but it serves the purpose for me. My plants also seem to
like it.

I don't mean to demean anyone that eats or uses animal products, just
happen to believe in "Diet for a Small Planet".
the only grass I have to compost is wheat grass and I juice it. I
let the leaves create a natural mulch under the parent tree and I've
no hay. :)

Compost ingredients?
 

On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 19:14:18 -0600, John DeBoo
wrote:



Pull up the wire circle - pull it off the compost. Or
un-hitch it so it's not a circle anymore.

Move the wire circle to a new spot. Fork the compost into
the new spot.

We use a wire fencing circle for compost too, but we just
leave it, all this forking business is too much work - it
will slowly decompose all by itself. Slowly.

Pat
I knew that embarrassed. Is there a better structure in general
that would do a faster or better job than wire?

I think it would be nice to have a compost heap made out of
pallets (or other wood).

I have usually seen them in the shape of a letter 'E' - so
that there are two compartments and you fork the compost
from one compartment to another.

This requires that you buy or find pallets or wood, however,
and do some basic carpentry.

I'll probably stick with the wire fencing, at least for now.
We have too many other projects with higher priority than
making a better compost container, unfortunately.

Pat

Compost ingredients?
 

On 31 Jul 2003 20:42:35 GMT, "TomC" wrote:

At the time, which was a couple of years ago, I was interested in compost.
When I saw bones sticking out of several piles, I passed. Just couldn't
handle the idea of the neighborhood dogs digging for the bones in my
garden....;-)

It seems fairly obvious that you need not put bones in
*your* compost pile, regardless of what others may do.

Pat

Compost ingredients?
 

Pat Meadows wrote:
On 31 Jul 2003 20:42:35 GMT, "TomC" wrote:


When I saw bones sticking out of several piles, I passed. Just couldn't
handle the idea of the neighborhood dogs digging for the bones in my
garden....;-)


I've thought of creating a separate compost pile for things that take a
longer time to break down than the usual things. Bones, eggshells, corn
cobs and the like. They can break down in their own time and not mess up
my other compost which will be ready in a couple of months.

Compost ingredients?
 

Oooooohhhhh, don't put any more oil, fat or meat trimmings into the compost
pile. It attracts animals (mice, rats, racoons etc...) and doesn't break
down. The rest of your kitchen scraps are okay to place in the compost:
eggshells, coffee grinds, tea bags, vegetable and fruit trimmings. Other
items that can be added to the compost are black/white newspaper (none of
those color advestising pages), grass clippings, pine needles, non-diseased
yard trimmings.

I avoid putting weeds or rotten vegetables such as tomatoes in my compost
after learning the hard way. My compost doesn't get hot enough to kill off
the weed seeds so now I have tomatoes and purslane growing wherever I put
the compost in my garden - I just love weeding (she said sarcastically).
I've also added small amounts of bone meal and blood meal to my compost
piles to help speed up the composting process. We also have a guinea pig so
the used bedding gets placed into the compost pile. We used to compost our
rabbit droppings too but we gave the rabbit back to the pet store because my
kids weren't taking very good care of it.

Of course, I'm no expert. These are just some tips that seem to work for me.

Take care,
Lynn Smythe
e-mail:
website: http://users.adelphia.net/~lynnsmythe

"Andrew McMichael" wrote in message
...

What do y'all put in your compost. Our pile is fairly far from the house,
and
we don't have a garbage disposal, so I put most everything in there--all
organics (veggie cuttings, scrapings from the plates, oils, meat
trimmings,
etc]. But I've heard that one should stick to vegetable material. Is this
so?
Why?


Andrew


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.504 / Virus Database: 302 - Release Date: 7/24/2003

Compost ingredients?
 

Pat Meadows wrote:


I think it would be nice to have a compost heap made out of
pallets (or other wood).


I've used pallets for years. I use those metal fence posts that cost about $3
at the hardware store to support them. Pallets can be found most anywhere, so
the entire set-up costs me no more than about $15.


Basically I stand a pallet on its end, and put the post down the middle. The
pallets aren't tied together in any way so there's no need for anything other
than a hammer, the pallets, and the posts. Takes about fifteen minutes to put
it all together.





Andrew

Compost ingredients?
 

Lynn Smythe wrote:

Oooooohhhhh, don't put any more oil, fat or meat trimmings into the compost
pile. It attracts animals (mice, rats, racoons etc...) and doesn't break
down. The rest of your kitchen scraps are okay to place in the compost:
eggshells, coffee grinds, tea bags, vegetable and fruit trimmings. Other
items that can be added to the compost are black/white newspaper (none of
those color advestising pages), grass clippings, pine needles, non-diseased
yard trimmings.


Also paper towels, paper napkins, and dryer lint. My compost gets pretty hot,
so I'm not al that worried about the other stuff.



Andrew

Compost ingredients?
 

On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 09:20:41 -0500, Andrew McMichael
wrote:

Pat Meadows wrote:


I think it would be nice to have a compost heap made out of
pallets (or other wood).


I've used pallets for years. I use those metal fence posts that cost about $3
at the hardware store to support them. Pallets can be found most anywhere, so
the entire set-up costs me no more than about $15.

This is really frustrating for me, as - look though we have
- we've NEVER found a free pallet.

I'd certainly like to have some. *Where* do you find them?

Pat

Compost ingredients?
 

Pat Meadows wrote:

This is really frustrating for me, as - look though we have
- we've NEVER found a free pallet.

I'd certainly like to have some. *Where* do you find them?


I was having the same problem. I was tooling down the boulevard here in
Connecticut and I spotted a bunch of nice pallets behind a Sears Tool
store. I inquired and they gave me all I could cart off in my pickup.
The Sears people were very nice and the pallets are all new and they
even match.

I have since noticed there aren't always pallets there. I think I just
got there on the right day.

Hope that helps.

Compost ingredients?
 

On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 11:16:14 -0400, WCD
wrote:

I was having the same problem. I was tooling down the boulevard here in
Connecticut and I spotted a bunch of nice pallets behind a Sears Tool
store. I inquired and they gave me all I could cart off in my pickup.
The Sears people were very nice and the pallets are all new and they
even match.

I have since noticed there aren't always pallets there. I think I just
got there on the right day.


I do too. If I ever see a stack like that, I'll surely ask.
Thanks.

Pat

Compost ingredients?
 

Pat Meadows wrote:

On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 09:20:41 -0500, Andrew McMichael
wrote:


Pat Meadows wrote:


I think it would be nice to have a compost heap made out of
pallets (or other wood).


I've used pallets for years. I use those metal fence posts that cost about $3
at the hardware store to support them. Pallets can be found most anywhere, so
the entire set-up costs me no more than about $15.


This is really frustrating for me, as - look though we have
- we've NEVER found a free pallet.

I'd certainly like to have some. *Where* do you find them?

Pat
I'll probably go the 'pallet' route as I can get several for free by
asking at Lowes or Home Depot, any of the lumber type stores.
Sometimes they are not the best but they'll work. I've gotten them
in the past for use under my firewood pile.