So it takes months to make compost.... I am in trouble, LOL

[tomc]

So, I know newspaper is fine to compost, but I have a question.... is it a really good compost ingredient? I have about 50 pounds of it saved for weed blocking... I know not to over do the browns. Just curious about the quality. I also know not to use the shiny ads.

If your minimum criteria for additions to your compost bin is an utter certainty of the purity and absence of any possible contaminant...

Then no paper products (they still could contain pollutants. No hay or straw, (they will contain some residue of herbicides). No food item that ever touched a plastic item (it will contain residues of hormonal inhibitors). No grain or bean product because it will be made of GMO and will have fractions of tetracycline in it.

I'm making this rather grim assessment to make the point that 1. it is decay and fermentation your compost causes that reduces this environmental hazard. 2. Absolute perfection is not the usual starting point of any endeavor, it might be a goal, but it aint the first step.

[ElizabethB]

Composting, like most gardening endeavors, is an exercise in patience. Have you ever heard the expression "Be careful what you ask for"? I have often asked for patience and have been given things to try my patience and teach me to be patient.. Sigh - I am not the best student.

[toxcrusadr]

Paper is not a particularly rich ingredient in my opinion. It's wood with a lot of its contents removed leaving only fiber. Given the choice I would prefer wood chips, sawdust, shredded bark, etc. over paper. But it will make compost.

[Gardener123]

Composting, like most gardening endeavors, is an exercise in patience. Have you ever heard the expression "Be careful what you ask for"? I have often asked for patience and have been given things to try my patience and teach me to be patient.. Sigh - I am not the best student.

I hear you and everybody else. That is why I asked. So far I haven't used much of it. Yesterday I did come across, what I think should be a great addition to the compost pile ( can )...... Large amounts of brown pine needles. I also have looked at the treeline at the back of my property and there is still a reasonable amount of dead leaves and such.

I think I have too much newspaper for the amount of composting I plan to do this year, maybe even too much to use as a weed block. So, I guessit will just go in the recycle bin if that is the case.

TY all.

[rainbowgardener]

You can use up a lot of newspaper, using it as weed block/mulch...

Pine needles don't break down real well in compost pile; they are full of resins and such. They will compost eventually, but v e r y s l o w l y.
Don't put too much in. The fall leaves would be better. That's what I use for my main "brown" much of the year. If I run out of fall leaves in the summer, I buy a bale of straw, to use as mulch and to feed in to the compost pile. It doesn't break down as quickly as the fall leaves, but it does work.

[toxcrusadr]

>>Composting, like most gardening endeavors, is an exercise in patience.

A preacher I admired once said, "I don't pray for patience. I've realized that God has already given me far more patience than I am willing to use." He was from South Carolina and had that drawl, so the last word came out "yeuwwse."