Composting

“Bought a Composting bin over the weekend.
very cool. looking forward to all that Black Gold
LOL”

“Composting ended my mother's second marriage. But good luck and all that.”

“umm ok

she tried to plant him?”

“Why does the movie Fargo come to mind?”

“No, my stepfather always had a bowl of rotting garbage next to the sink. It usually took a couple of days to fill it, then he would take it out to the compost pile.

Do be sure you turn your compost every couple of days, especially if it gets dry. It can get hot enough in the middle of the pile to combust spontaneously.”

“i have the greens (from the house) and will mix with my browns (leaves ect..)”

“We got our new composter thru the city for $10 this spring...I had wanted a real unit for a long time!!”

“i've got a pile of horse poop and shavings.

does that count?”

“Horse shavings?”

“wood shavings from their stalls”

“hey we also got ours from the city
but we paid $20.00

[url]
http://www.planetnatural.com/site/garden-gourmet-composter.html?id=fNHqIHsZ:67.106.158.99[/url]”

“nope sorry
no poop is good poop

:D”

“I dunno about the shavings, but I think horse poop can be used directly. What kind of wood? It's probably all full of good nitrogen compounds from their urine.”

“i'm guessing pine shavings.

i think the poop is ok so long as it sits for a little while. i think fresh poop is too strong and burns up the grass.”

“but you can not put them into your composting bin

the break down of wood will take a few years
no meats, bones, scat.

they will bring insects and vermons. AKA rats”

“i see people put wood shavings/mulch around the base of trees all the time”

“You might try (and this is a guess; I've never tried this) soaking the shavings in water for a few days, and using the soak water, which will then have a lot of nitrogen compounds in it. Also, it may have potassium nitrate crystals in it as well, for those of you who like to make your own homemade gunpowder.”

“sounds like too much work to me.

i think we'll just keep pilin up the poop and shavings, then we spread and till it in our garden after it's been sittin out a little while.”

“That'll work.”

“I have only used shaving from trees at the start of fall.

never heard of putting woods chips in a garden.”

“SACCO PLAYS WITH POOP!
8D”

“woodchips are much thicker and do take a while to decompose.

woodshavings are sorta in between sawdust and chips.”

“good god-fearin' poop!”

“now you can mix your greens with saw dust. to help it break down and prevent it from getting to moist and not smell.
=”

“i like greens. 'specially with lotsa cheese.

lunch time!”

“dog feces
Don't put in compost pile. There is disgreement over whether or not you should use dog feces in your compost pile. Some authors say "Of course you can" and others say "No, never!". As near as I can figure out, the concern is this: Although I have not heard specific parasites mentioned, dog feces may in fact carry parasites, bacteria, germs, pathogens and viruses that are harmful to humans. These may be picked up, for instance, if a diseased bird flies into your yard and your dog catches it and eats it. I read one author who stated that the hot compost pile would kill these parasites. However, you would have to closely monitor the part of the pile that the feces were in to be sure it reached the maximum temperature. Because we put safety and health at the top of our priority list, we recommend that you do not put these in your pile.
Other options I have read include: Flush down the toilet. Bury in the ornamental section of your landscaping as long as it is not within 100 feet of a domestic water well, lake, or stream, and somewhere that it will not be disturbed for two years.

Other cautions: Handle as little as possible, preferably wear gloves. Children and pregnant women should not handle at all.

I am often asked why the same cautions are not applied to other animals such as rabbits, chickens, geese, cattle, etc. Animals that eat vegetative matter are not as likely to pick up and pass on diseases that are harmful to humans as are meat-eating animals. Either a dog or cat may chew on a dead bird or squirrel that died of a disease, has rabies, etc. Harmful bacteria and pathogens may be passed through to feces, which may or may not be destroyed by composting. Then children, pregnant women or other humans are exposed to the disease while out in the yard or garden.”

“Our solution to the "rotting garbage next to the sink" is an air-tight container. No stink, and its out-of-sight. That gets dumped every couple of days.

I need to build a composting bin this summer. Its on my to-do list, but it keeps getting shoved to the end of the list.”

“Horse poop goes directly into the garden once it's dried--decomposed a bit, then till it in. Great to break up the soil and fertilize. I did that for years. 'Fresh' horse poop will burn the plants. (Grew up with my sisters' each had a horse, and my parents had large gardens and compose piles.)

Dog poop is a no-no for human food gardens.”

“what about earthworms?

aren't they great for gardens?

i'd like to get a bunch but i don't feel like raising my own or buying them from a baitshop a dozen at a time.

any ideas?”

“If you are doing regular composting, not vermicomposting, worms are not a necessary part of the process and if the pile is built right and heats up any worms you put in will simply leave anyway. If there are no worms to be found in your soil there will most likely be eggs laying there awaiting the right conditions to hatch, so feed you soil compost and other forms of organic matte and the worms will magically appear without you going out and buying them.

bottom line, you dont need them. wait a few weeks and see what happens”

“We had horses when I was growing up.

Horse poop and shavings (after a little composting) make great ammendments. My pumpkin grown in the spot where it sat for a few years won the state fair (for size).”

“Thinkbubelz & I have one of those black bins... It works pretty well... If it looks a little dry, we add some water.... Ours has a little door on the bottom where you take out the compost after it's been there for a while.

We also have a compost pile made up of 4 pallets stacked against each other in a square....

Funny thing-- He kept dumping old leaves and grass clippings in there for years, but we didn't do any turning of the compost...

One day, after about 6 or 7 years of doing this, we happened to open the pallets... There was about 3 feet of composted "soil".... Pretty awesome.. and great for our garden!”

“I have about 8 bins very cheaply made out of old fence wire -when I want to turn the pile I just undue the wire holding it together makes it easy to turn the piles- I use mostly last falls leaves mixed in with this springs grass clippings - with garbage mixed in-I turn it a couple of times and by fall I have compost I spread in the garden for next year-the soil has improved greatly over the past few years--”

“I was thinking of adding compost worms. anyone ever buy them?

if so, where? and can I get arrested?

haha”

“Purchasing composting worms is legal in most states under two conditions. It has to be for personal use, and you can't mention in the store what you're buying them for. If you do, then, by law, the clerk cannot sell you the worms.”

“just lie and tell her you needed more worms for the tequilla... works for me all of the time..

'fool”

“I justdumped left over fishing worms in mine.”

“pathman, I can just use night crawlers?

wait, that means I have to dig them up...

next...”

“You mean you don't have worms in your compost pile? We used to raid my dads to get worms for fishing....they were everywhere...”

“vermicompost is usually done with Red Wigglers or a similar species. Night crawlers like lower temps than the red worm which slows down the composting and makes it difficult to achieve. There are a myriad of vermiculture sites on the web. If you are looking at a self contained vermicompost container they can be quite elaborate. If you are just gonna dump some worms on your compost pile in the back yard, don't bother... if you manage the pile correctly you will attract them.”

“it's illegal??!!!...why!!???

i've started a compost pile but i think i'm gonna have to attach my tarp a little more securely...one of my dogs thinks it's her snack bin”

“what rev said...

Coffee grounds are a compost piles best friend....”

“In the winter I have a worm bin, in the summer it becomes a traditional compost bin. That's kind of a joke - I am just a lazy composter. If you have worms in your compost bin it is too cold to kill weed seeds.

If you want a worm bin it doesn't have to be "quite elaborate". I just took a Rubbermaid tote (maybe 2'X 1'X 2' high), drilled holes in the top and sides, shreaded a bunch of newspaper and got it wet (like a damp sponge), added worms and started putting in veggie scraps. It takes them a while to get going but once they do it is amazing how much they can break down in short order. They took care of a large watermelon rind in 2 days. Every once in a while you need to separate the worms from the poop, use the poop in your garden, add more newspaper and off you go.”

“mine is going pretty good.

I guess I would like it to go a tad faster. so i was thinking "let the worms do the job"

so where do I find these,
Red Wigglers? fishing store? pet store?

mail?”

“Red Wigglers
The Cadillac of Worms”

“umm your telling me I have to clean my compost of worm poop?


oh lord, and just what does worm poop look like

LOL”

“you can buy them on-line. Bait shops will also sell them but they can be pricey that way. There are formulas for figuring out how many worms you need for a given food load. It can run into the 100's and sometimes 1000's. Buying from a bait shop at 2 dozen in a foam cup can get pricey. I tried to set up a vermiculture compost container. It was not very successful.. but I didn't do it right either... so there you go.”

“ummm hang now.... what do you think "worm poop" is? It's called "dirt"”

“pepperdog.... I tried the rubbermaid bin.... but it did not work all that well. I never really got back into the process as my wife kind of nixed it. There are soe wildly elborate setup with temp controls and the whoile nine yards... but yeah... they can be pretty simple too if you have the right place to put it.”

“Wowza. It was just a couple days ago that Rev told me I don't have a life .....”