So, to Go With the Gardening, How About Composting?I'm Still

[janetupnorth]

Re: Composting...

That's a pretty big route!

He probably knows this guy whose truck hit 1M miles last year:

http://www.local2209.org/million/defaultmillion.asp

Of course, Frank delivers seafood, not milk...

 

[janetupnorth]

Re: Composting...

I wouldn't recommend using it as a compost chute.

That'd be a pretty crappy use of it...

 

[chefann]

Re: Composting...HA! And I didn't say they had the SAME milkman.

 

[buckeyefan08]

Re: Composting...

We compost. We use all of our left over vegetables, bread, nut shells, grass clippings, and paper without ink on it. We do not compost like garlic and onions due to the odor. We have a garbage can with an lid that we drilled holes in so the air can break down the stuff inside.

It is sort of neat that one week the can will be pretty full then a few weeks later the can will be down to a half.

This part sounds gross. Any time there are fruit flies or ants you need to add water to the top of the compost to get rid of these. They are not water lovers.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Do you have any holes drilled in the sides? How do you get the "stuff" out of the bottom of the can when it's ready? Do you stop for a while and then use it all at once or do you pull from the bottom?
I'm confused, can you tell?!:blushing:
I want to start doing this but I live in town so I need a bin to compost in. I looked at them on-line and they are kind of pricy. I don't want to spend $50-100 on a bin if I can just get a plain old garbage can.

 

[gailz2]

Re: Composting...I went to a seminar yesterday on composting by our local cooperative extension (I don't know if they are nationwide or just local to NYS). They had 3 different bins -- the black type you buy (if you use this, take the lid off in the summer), a large one made out of fencing (cover in the winter, at least for us in "snow country" and the third was three bins of wood (move compost from bin 1 to 2 to 3, etc. All 3 take about one year to compost down materials.They did say to crush egg shells. Basically in the layering of the piles (like lasagne they said) to use a 2 to 1 mixture. Always start with sticks on the bottom (for ventilation I guess), then layer food products (veggie cuttings, etc.) spread out with 2 times as much brown materials (wood chips, paper shreads, sticks, etc.). I know I'm not good at explaining all of this, but it seems pretty easy to do and you can pick a variation that fits your needs and neighborhood. They even showed us one type to keep under your sink with worms in it (covered). Yuck. I guess it is good for apartments they said. If you use a garbage can, I'd definitely put a lot of holes in t he sides and bottom for drainage. They said we do need the summer rains to help the process, but not to let too big a pile of snow accumulate.

 

[buckeyefan08]

Re: Composting...Thanks for the tips!