Compost, how do you do it?

[Bettacreek]

I know, I sound like an idiot because I'm asking how to compost. I know that you shouldn't put oils or really any meat products (unless using the BSFL) and probably some other things that I already forget. But, how do you go about getting a compost pile started? Can I just start dumping it over the small bank in the back yard away from everything else? What else do I need to do? I plan to compost whatever leftover food items that the chickens/ducks don't eat and probably duck/chicken poo, and whatever else we have that can be composted.

 

[Bettacreek]

Oh, if I build a worm bed, can I just compost in that? Sorry for the million questions!

 

[VickiLynn]

I use a big Rubbermaid garbage can. DH Drilled holes in it for air and drainage. We just throw all the scraps in there. We take the hose to it every once-in-a-while to keep the compost moist, and (after making sure the cover is on tight) we lay it on its side and give it a roll whenever we think of it.

 

[Ldychef2k]

I have a wooden shipping crate that I toss all veggies in, and a separate pile for lawn clippings. I watered them and kept them covered with black plastic for a couple of months to get them cooking, and now the plastic is off and I have a little round sprinkler sitting on top of the crate that I turn on a few times a month. I don't turn it.

In the 100 degrees plus that we get in the summer, I hope to really cook it by watering and covering it again.

I have no idea if this will work !!! Nothing ventured nothing gained. Different things work for different people, I guess. It can get a little overwhelming sometimes.

 

[freemotion]

It depends in part on how much stuff you can get your hands on to compost. Get as much as you possibly can! Then plan a pile that is at least 3x3x3 feet, in order to get it to heat up.

Leaves, grass clippings, garden weedings, anything you can get your neighbors to give you, too. I have mine trained to dump their grass clippings over my fence, then I wheelbarrow them over to the compost pile. Or use them to mulch rows in the garden, where I didn't plant clover, like in my perennial flower beds.

If you can get enough stuff throughout the year, it will be worth building something to contain it where your chickens will have access to it. They will turn it and keep it bug-free. You can make something as simple as a bin made from pallets, with extra boards filling the open spaces. The chickens will scatter the compost outside of the bin unless you keep the spaces tiny.

Chickens are AMAZING composters! And you can throw your scraps right on top without sorting them and the hens will sort them for you.

 

[SKR8PN]

See that pile just to the right of the little shed?
THAT is our compost pile. Mostly leaves and grass clippings from the previous fall, with a few kitchen scraps tossed in for good measure. I let it set all winter, then in the spring I use a little off the top of the pile as mulch around some of the garden plants. What is left over gets turned, then spread on the garden every fall, just before it is time to suck up the leaves and start all over again.

 

[Icu4dzs]

I was taught to compost by an old gardener who had the largest and most beautiful garden I had ever seen. It was over an acre in size.
His technique was simple. He did everything that you are always taught about composting...leaves, grass clippings, things from the table etc. and wet it and turned it frequently. The one thing that he did that was rather unique was that he kept it under a large plastic tarp (clear was best to him) and used that to "cook" the compost. When I met him and we began to talk about gardening, he told me he could produce compost in 2 weeks. Of course, that seemed a bit of a "tall tale" to me at the time, but after I saw what he did, and the simplicity of it, there was beauty to be seen in that pile of rich black compost.
I also get a magazine called "Farm Show" which should be the self-sufficient persons ready reference. It is a magazine about how folks "made it myself" One of the articles that I found most intesting was a woman who heated her green house by putting a barrel of water in the middle of her large compost pile, and pumped the water through the coils in her green house. The heat generated by the compost process kept her green house very nicely warmed. That magazine if full of ideas from folks who "think for themselves" such as all self-sufficient disciples are prone to do.
Good luck with composting. It is cheap, easy and yields a wonderful rich amendment to your soil that can't be matched by anything in the world. Of course if you have cows, a little of their dried (and very old) manure added to the compost or just to the soil, does a world of good to your vegetables.

 

[kcsunshine]

Our compost pile is so big, hubby turns it with his tiller and even drives his big tractor with the tiller attached over it. He composts in a big way, making 50 or 60 trips each fall to pick up leaves people put beside the road for the city to pick up. We have friends who let us know when they start putting them out. Our neighbor who has a huge yard, dumps her grass clippings over by our compost pile. I save all sorts of scraps including egg shells and coffee grounds and that all goes on. He puts leaves under the rabbit cages and let them fertilize the leaves - we've found this also creates heat for the bunnies in the winter. Now he has a dump truck and has started hauling horse manure (free for the taking). All this gets worked in, churned with the tiller and covered in the winter with heavy black plastic. Mmmmm black gold.

Oh one thing I forgot - you have to have the right ratio of brown matter to green matter or it will smell bad. If it starts smelling, back off on the green and increase the brown.

In addition to keeping it in a container and rolling around, you can fill a black plastic garbage bags about half full, wet the contents lightly (too much water and it gets slimy) and just flip the bags over every once in a while (great project for the kids). Heavy duty bags work best.

 

[Oberhaslikid]

If you have a big pile of green and brown matter the green should start it to heating. If not you can add Comfrey to it or I just use a can of Coke.Cheap cola. Not diet .Micros love it.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

We're still improving our soil & building raised beds, so I compost where I want a bed in 2 different ways.

1, I drive 4 sticks in a rectangular shape the size of my future bed & wrap chicken wire (or any other wire I have on hand) around it. Then I start piling in my materials.
When it's time to turn it, I pull the sticks, remove the wire & put them back up in the next spot (about 2' away) Then I shovel all the material into the new spot. I usually leave any finished compost in the first spot.

2, We build the bed (got a variety of types, railroad ties, logs, spare lengths of wood) then toss all the goodies inside. I spread them out so there isn't too much of one thing in one spot. Sort of a gradual lasagna bed. Then I surround the bed with short chicken wire. I have 3 lengths I've been using since last year.
The chickens hop over into the bed & scratch it up & add their own fertilizer.