Another newbie to composting question
Last year, I started 2 compost bins. The black circular one with holes in them. I'm not sure if I filled them up to quickly but I could not turn them with a pitchfork. I also had a friend dump a truck load of leaves on the garden. Needless to say, I gave up. I just purchased a compost tumbler. Can I use the old grass and leaves to compost? I was also told that it's not good to spread just leaves on the garden. Can I add earthworms to the tumbler? I imagine once I remove grass from old bins to new one, it may be loaded.
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rot
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- Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:15 am
- Location: Ventura County, CA, Sunset 23
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I started out with those black circular things with holes myself. I still use them. Filled, they represent 17 cu ft approximately. My fist attempt did a whole lot of nothing.
When composting, you can't have a major disaster.
So let’s go through the questions and issues one by one.
1. I'm not sure if I filled them up to quickly but I could not turn them with a pitchfork.
First, filling them up all at once is better if you're going to do the hot compost thing where you get the pile to heat up and kill off seeds and pathogens and stuff. Not a requirement to do things that way but a non-issue here. What we don't know from this end is what did you put in the bins exactly. Was there any moisture? Too much moisture? If you just filled one thing in the bin, just grass clippings or just leaves maybe, the whole thing is just going to wad up into a single mess. Make sure you have a mix of things to balance things out grass clippings for your wet nitrogen type stuff and leaves for your dry carbon stuff. Some people like to do it in layers but I find it works better if you mix it up a bit more like a stew than a layered lasagna. The different ingredients mixed together will negate the matting effects plus, the fun happy bacteria doing all the composting for you need both the nitrogens and the carbons to do their stuff.
Rough it up too. Shredded stuff works far better than whole parts. Too much water and it will stink and smother all the air out. Not enough water and it just sits there and does nothing. If there isn’t a lot of moisture and the volume isn’t reducing in a week beyond just settling, stir it up and add some water. If it's soggy enough already, stop adding water and stir it up when you can.
2. Needless to say, I gave up. I just purchased a compost tumbler.
Some folks like their tumblers but I don't hear a lot of great things about them. More often I hear of them being abandoned. The logistics of doing things in batches are a bit different and I don't think you're going to get finished compost in two weeks. I just haven't heard of it happening. I don't have a tumbler so I can't say much but from what I've heard. It seems it's easy to add too much moisture. I don't think you're going to want to add worms because any kind of success in a tumbler means enough heat to kill the worms. Maybe after you spill out a batch and let it cure you can worms to that. Give it a shot. Maybe that’ll work best for you. What works best is what works for you and not the other way around.
3. Can I use the old grass and leaves to compost?
Yes. Fresh grass and leaves assembled in a bin or a pile all at once will heat up better and quicker but the old stuff will compost too. How soon are you expecting results anyway? I worked real hard once and got everything just right and the gods looked kindly on me and got a great batch in two months using those black cylindrical things with holes in them. Once. Three months is more like what you can count on. Planning when you're just starting out, you might want to allow for more than that.
4.. I was also told that it's not good to spread just leaves on the garden.
That depends. I've got avocado leaves out back around some trees. they're large leaves fully intact and don't break down too rapidly so they block the weeds just great. Nothing much else comes up either. Out front the little leaves from the Chinese elm are covering the bare earth in the flower beds and I'm still getting poppies sprouting. Certain leaves like eucalyptus are allelopathic or something like that and they leach out toxins to prevent other plants from growing so you want to avoid those. I hear black walnut is bad news too. In a vegetable garden where you need things to sprout and the water to get through, You'll want to shred the leaves first. They’ll break down faster but will feed the soil in the process. Other problem with leaf mulch and wind. Leaf mulch works best in wind protected areas. If you've got stuff open to the wind, try grass clippings. They tend to stay in place.
A good easy to follow collection of basic information on all aspects can be found at:
https://www.compostinfo.com/
More than I want to know:
https://compost.css.cornell.edu/Composting_homepage.html
A handy dandy list of ingredients and their values:
https://compost.css.cornell.edu/OnFarmHandbook/apa.taba1.html
Try a few different things. Observe and adjust as you go along. Notice what works easy for you and go in that direction. don't go turning your whole lifestyle around trying to make the compost work. The compost works for you. Maybe it will just take longer. Maybe You'll like it better turning it into a science project. Maybe what You'll need to do is to go large scale and use power tools. What works best is what works for you.
Oh, and don't stress over it.
to sense
..
I started out with those black circular things with holes myself. I still use them. Filled, they represent 17 cu ft approximately. My fist attempt did a whole lot of nothing.
When composting, you can't have a major disaster.
So let’s go through the questions and issues one by one.
1. I'm not sure if I filled them up to quickly but I could not turn them with a pitchfork.
First, filling them up all at once is better if you're going to do the hot compost thing where you get the pile to heat up and kill off seeds and pathogens and stuff. Not a requirement to do things that way but a non-issue here. What we don't know from this end is what did you put in the bins exactly. Was there any moisture? Too much moisture? If you just filled one thing in the bin, just grass clippings or just leaves maybe, the whole thing is just going to wad up into a single mess. Make sure you have a mix of things to balance things out grass clippings for your wet nitrogen type stuff and leaves for your dry carbon stuff. Some people like to do it in layers but I find it works better if you mix it up a bit more like a stew than a layered lasagna. The different ingredients mixed together will negate the matting effects plus, the fun happy bacteria doing all the composting for you need both the nitrogens and the carbons to do their stuff.
Rough it up too. Shredded stuff works far better than whole parts. Too much water and it will stink and smother all the air out. Not enough water and it just sits there and does nothing. If there isn’t a lot of moisture and the volume isn’t reducing in a week beyond just settling, stir it up and add some water. If it's soggy enough already, stop adding water and stir it up when you can.
2. Needless to say, I gave up. I just purchased a compost tumbler.
Some folks like their tumblers but I don't hear a lot of great things about them. More often I hear of them being abandoned. The logistics of doing things in batches are a bit different and I don't think you're going to get finished compost in two weeks. I just haven't heard of it happening. I don't have a tumbler so I can't say much but from what I've heard. It seems it's easy to add too much moisture. I don't think you're going to want to add worms because any kind of success in a tumbler means enough heat to kill the worms. Maybe after you spill out a batch and let it cure you can worms to that. Give it a shot. Maybe that’ll work best for you. What works best is what works for you and not the other way around.
3. Can I use the old grass and leaves to compost?
Yes. Fresh grass and leaves assembled in a bin or a pile all at once will heat up better and quicker but the old stuff will compost too. How soon are you expecting results anyway? I worked real hard once and got everything just right and the gods looked kindly on me and got a great batch in two months using those black cylindrical things with holes in them. Once. Three months is more like what you can count on. Planning when you're just starting out, you might want to allow for more than that.
4.. I was also told that it's not good to spread just leaves on the garden.
That depends. I've got avocado leaves out back around some trees. they're large leaves fully intact and don't break down too rapidly so they block the weeds just great. Nothing much else comes up either. Out front the little leaves from the Chinese elm are covering the bare earth in the flower beds and I'm still getting poppies sprouting. Certain leaves like eucalyptus are allelopathic or something like that and they leach out toxins to prevent other plants from growing so you want to avoid those. I hear black walnut is bad news too. In a vegetable garden where you need things to sprout and the water to get through, You'll want to shred the leaves first. They’ll break down faster but will feed the soil in the process. Other problem with leaf mulch and wind. Leaf mulch works best in wind protected areas. If you've got stuff open to the wind, try grass clippings. They tend to stay in place.
A good easy to follow collection of basic information on all aspects can be found at:
https://www.compostinfo.com/
More than I want to know:
https://compost.css.cornell.edu/Composting_homepage.html
A handy dandy list of ingredients and their values:
https://compost.css.cornell.edu/OnFarmHandbook/apa.taba1.html
Try a few different things. Observe and adjust as you go along. Notice what works easy for you and go in that direction. don't go turning your whole lifestyle around trying to make the compost work. The compost works for you. Maybe it will just take longer. Maybe You'll like it better turning it into a science project. Maybe what You'll need to do is to go large scale and use power tools. What works best is what works for you.
Oh, and don't stress over it.
to sense
..
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toxcrusadr
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 970
- Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 4:50 pm
- Location: MO
One thing I can add to rot's excellent post is an easy way to turn the contents of those bins. Remove the bin from the outside of the pile either by pulling it off from the top or unhitching it at the sides so it comes off in two halves (depending on what type you have). Set it up next to the pile. Fork material off the top of your pile back into the bin. When you get to where there's good compost, use it!