
Corn cobs take a while too and newspaper. I wonder if the browns just take longer than the greens and maybe we can tell what is brown by that?applestar wrote:Hmm. I just put in 3 or 4 heels (about fist sized) of homemade bread that had been forgotten in a bag and gone completely moldy (I mean completely![]()
) I'll let you know what I find when I turn the compost again in next few days -- I have a brown bag full of corn cobs (BROWN) and husks (GREEN) that has to go out but we've had some rain + heat = muggy + MOSQUITO HORDES = don't go out there (and laboriously turn over the compost pile no less) unless I want to get eaten alive!
I don’t think browns take any longer then greens to break down, by just being a brown. The C/N ratio is how I determine brown from green. I also personally believe more carbon/browns are necessary for speeding up the decomposing process in the compost.Diane wrote: Corn cobs take a while too and newspaper. I wonder if the browns just take longer than the greens and maybe we can tell what is brown by that?
We have hay from last winter that the cows pooped on and my husband pushed it around with some dirt and it is in a pile, will it be good as compost if I put it in the ground now?Charlie MV wrote:I'm a relatively new vegetable gardener and find myself constantly looking for elements to add to my pile. In the summertime I run out of brown in particular. It would be a great help to me and probably to other rookies here to have a list on the sight for compost ingredients when I run low. I'll list a few that I know and keep the greens and browns in separate lists for easy reference. Please post any ingredients you use and be sure to state whether they fall in the green or brown category because I wont know.If I put something on the wrong list, let me know and I'll edit the list. Thanks in advanvce for the help.
GREENS
grass clippings, corn husks, tea bags, old flowers, spent bedding plants, veg peelings, salad leaves, fruit scraps, annual weeds, rhubarb leaves.
BROWNS
sawdust, brown paper bags. toilet paper core, paper towel core, bottom (unprinted) half of paper egg carton [shredded],
leaves, corn stalks and cobs, shredded black and white newspaper [not the slick papered advertisements or color print], crushed eggshell, cereal boxes, ashes from wood, paper and charcoal, wood chip, string and cotton thread, feathers (huh!) , old natural fibre clothes, wool, straw , hay.
I can't add to the list, but I'm adding my "Huh" to the thing about feathers, and perhaps give bit of an answer to that question. There are quite a few Abenaki people near me (a native American tribe in this area) and many of them do craft work. One guy I know is constantly picking up roadkill birds if they're reasonably fresh, for the feathers.Jess wrote:Haha! Charlie I just noticed you added the 'Huh!' to your expanding list of greens and browns.
I had just not read the list and was a little surprised to see feathers listed, hence the "Huh!". Who has a pile of feathers to add to a compost on a regular basis?!(rhetorical!) I know someone who has chickens could but it just seemed a very strange thing to list.
Well not a bad idea on volunteers popping up if I had the space to transplant them since I have a small space for a garden. So far I've been shying away putting anything with seeds in my compost bin for this reason.rainbowgardener wrote:... The worst thing that will happen if you have melon or pepper seeds in your compost pile is that when you use your compost, you will get volunteer melons or peppers, and what is so bad about that?
We're slightly off topic but I don't have a bird feeder but I though about geting one to help with the insects. I don't want to get rid of the bees that are visiting my little garden.applestar wrote:If you wash and dry the seeds, you can put them in the birdfeeder.