tell the truth: did you turn your compost?
TELL THE TRUTH: Did you turn your heap before you piled on the fall’s bountiful offerings–before you cleaned up the tomato vines and the hostas, and raked all those precious leaves? Did you extract what was “finished” from down below, or–in a hurry–just cover it all up with incoming goodies? That’s my heap–30-plus feet long and about 6 wide right now and waist-high–and I confess, I was daunted. Next spring’s task will be even more heroic! A review of composting 101, with all your questions answered.
I NEVER turn my compost. It’s too back-breakingly laborious. I do, however WAIT. I have three compost piles. One to use for input (garbage in, compost out), one to leave alone, and the third to take compost from. It is at least a year before I use the compost in the 3rd bin. By the time I use the compost in the 3rd bin it is ready to become the the input bin. I do sift the finished compost most of the time to remove pits or twigs that have not finished composting. It’s as near effortless as I can get.. I do not compost tomato or squash vines as they get a late blight that I don’t want to propagate. Some Starbucks have “grounds for gardens” where they give you their used coffee grounds for free. Good for the compost. After having to keep warm using our fireplace during the post Sandy blackout I put the wood ashes in the compost too.
No, I haven’t yet,but thanks for the reminder.
As most of our leaves are of the large variety, we bought a shredder, and I now have a huge pile of what I call “leaf gold”.’ I layer it on my beds and round shrubs.
Brilliant, Tillie. My neighbor came down with his shredder to help me the other day — I was just overwhelmed! Shredded leaves are the very best ingredient, you are so right.
I’m with Rich–I never ever turn our compost. I also like to add coffee grounds to speed up the process. We did extract two wheelbarrow loads of wonderful black compost which we worked into the heavy clay while we were planting tulips a week or so ago. I just toss back into the bins whatever isn’t quite ready to be used. Eventually it’s all good–patience is rewarded.
Thinking back, I’m smiling as I remember asking our movers to move compost when we moved into our present house 21 years ago. They clearly thought we were nuts, but they did it anyway!
Yes, I turned my heap this year before adding leaves and leaves and leaves. I have 16 oak trees on my property in Wisconsin. I have a great arrangement with this leaf vacuum guy in our small town. He drives around all the streets with a large truck that has a powerful vacum attached. The leaves get sucked into a powerful shredder and then dumped into a large compartment where they are compacted. The leaf sucker guy stops by my house and dumps a large pile of the shredded leaves which I then add grass clipping and waste from the cleanup of my gardens. A little dirt from the forest behind my home which helps to create a darned good heap creation. I smile ear to ear when spring comes around.
Bob, I am impressed. I did manage to get my neighbor with the leaf vac to shred the incoming, but didn’t extract all the finished goodies first. Next spring!
I DID turn my compost, just after our first big rain. And oh boy, are the worms happy in there. My pile slows down some in the winter so this year I will cover it in black plastic, keep it turned and not too wet and I should have some good stuff come spring. I do already have some and that is what I mulch with…black gold.
I am not a compost turner; I am in the patiently waiting camp. I collect all kitchen compostables, including coffee grounds in a 50 gallon garbage can which I bury in spring and fall. We shred fall leaves and place in wire, open bins, 4 x 4 ft. I plan to eventually have the 3 bin system mentioned. By late summer, the previous fall leaves are composted enough to add to beds.
My leaves go on the beds. Shredded over the lilies to feed them, and whole where I want to smother weeds. I rake them off the walks and lawn, and pile them up between the shrubs and the fence. Anything that falls in the beds stays.
The only thing I compost is my chicken bedding. I have a two bins and a tumbler system. I need to compost that fairly quickly, because they keep producing more. It makes great mulch for everything except the lilies, which are supposed to resent animal maures.
I’m on a town lot in Montana, so we don’t have the bounty of leaves you all do back East — however, I never turn my compost — my chickens do! My compost bins are in the chicken enclosure — when I clean the coop out, all the litter goes right into the piles, and they turn, and turn, and turn. It’s so dry out here that I had real problems getting material to break down until I turned to the chooks for help.
Hi, Charlotte. I often dream of having chickens, but chickens here in the boonies are like hanging out a sign that says: FREE FOOD FOR THE KILLING. Ugh — so many predators, and each one so ingenious. But I am jealous.
Nope, and I don’t intend to. I am a lazy composter, with no apologies. I figured out that I get the same amount of compost over the year whether it decomposes fast or slow.
I raked off the top. Dug out the bottom. Piled it on the veggie beds. Pushed everything “new” into the hole and spread out what was left of the “in progress.” I let volunteer flowers grow in the area. Not really a pile. More like a space where I recycle plant debris and steal good soil when I want.
A fellow Aussie blogger who has a small allotment at a community farm told me about some AMAZING composting systems that a bright handyman came up with. He welded thick mesh that he had bent into a semicircle onto another large sheet of weldmesh and put a couple of circular pieces of the same weldmesh on either end to form a weldmesh cylinder. He then cut out a hole and welded on a door and catch. He made 4 of these enormous cylinders and garden refuse, lawn clippings and peoples imported green waste is tossed in and the entire system is just rolled over once a week by willing helpers! They are so big it takes 4 people to roll them but what a great idea! No more compost turning and all of the kids in the gardens are always putting up their hands to help :)
I shred leaves with our riding mower and blow many of them onto flower beds. The rest go around shrubs or into my 2 composters (which my husband stirs every month or so)
My compost pile is a little high tech; a plastic container with vents on the side and a top that self locks with one quarter turn. I pile on the fall leaves after I take a lawn tool and turn the pile in several locations in the container. The earth worms are partying down inside the pile, and occasionally they come out for a breather when the temperature goes up above freezing. I also take a pitchfork to turn the pile, but the earth worms do not like this and attempted to voice their displeasure on the outside of the compost container when migrating Robins put a quick end to their protest.
I’ve been raking my leaves and putting them on the garden, where I put about six or eight inches of mulch a couple of years ago which now has begin to turn into dirt. I bought a tumbling composter early this spring but haven’t had much luck with it yet. I think it was too moist at the beginning and had too many pine needles, and then it got dried out this summer. I must confess I got disgusted with it and quit paying attention to it after the first few months of no composting happening. I think if I start adding moisture and perhaps some compost-speeder-stuff, that it will take off. I also have a loose compost pile in a corner of the garden where I put stuff, coffee grounds and filters, plant clippings, veggie waste from the kitchen, compost stuff. And I did not turn that but did rake it up into a taller pile. I’m still holding out hope that my compost tumbler will take off one of these days and start producing like it was advertised to do.
I hear you, Sally — I hate all the gadgets and bins and tumblers and so on. All of them seem no more help than a plain old heap (and much more $$$$)!
I’m a lazy composter and just wait for it to be ready. I just emptied finished compost into the veggie beds this afternoon to make room for fall cleanup debris.
I keep worm bins in the basement and use them for kitchen scraps, and all the debris from the tender plants overwintering down there. Speaking of worm bins, it’s time to empty one of them into the garden so it can be put back to work again. When one’s full, I stack the second on top and wait for the worms to migrate up. Once they do I set the first bin aside to dry so it’s not heavy to haul upstairs and outdoors into the garden. Best thing about the worm bins besides the fantastic compost, is not having to go skating on the ice in winter to dump kitchen scraps outside! That, and it’s another lazy way to get terrific compost.
Multiple piles is the way to go, turning is a PITA, but I don’t have much room so I do have the three part stacking plastic bin setup (at least my city subsidised it). A friend had the cylinder you rotate with a handle like a bingo caller and hated it. My compost confession is that the first year we had it, in our new home, I saw a rat and grossed out and swore off composting. I don’t know what I did wrong – raw vegetative matter/kitchen scraps only and regular turning. Now I’ve set it up as far from the house as possible (sorry, neighbors) and am determined to try again. Maybe your Composting 101 will help me out – I did not think rats were supposed to be part of the deal.
My husband turns the compost piles for me – and there are several large ones. I just finished spreading the finished compost today and he immediately deposited the newly shredded leaves in its place.
We live in a warm climate, so composting is a year-round event. Lots of kitchen waste. This time of year when the neighbor’s trees start to drop their leaves in the street, it’s like money from heaven. I take the trash can and a rake up and and down the street, adding their leaves to mine.
Don’t turn any compost piles. I create a new one each year so usually I have 3; the oldest one used to amend the garden in the spring. Each fall some of the leaves are added to the vegetable garden and turned in so they won”t blow away. Many others are blown into the flower garden to amend the soil and hopefully kill weeds.
Dear Margaret, I just wanted to drop a line and say I have not turned my pile, but plan to do so. We have so far, mulch mowed all the leaves. We will be cleaning the beds however, and will at that time turn the whole thing. Ps. I am mostly fascinated by chickadees. Can’t resist them any time of the year. We do feed all year, either by actually putting food out, or planting “feed” for them. Connie
I have a pile of leaves/grass clippings from the mower in a big pile over the side of an embankmentl at the back of my property near woods that decomposes over the winter for use in the spring. Also a three bin wire composter with shredded leaves and soil mixed in from tossed out hanging/potted outdoor plants. Turn it when I think of it, which seems to work okay. Did not have time to shred remaining bags of leaves (about 30) hanging out in back with the compost. Also used the leaf vac this weekend and just put the shredded leaves back on the garden after cutting back perennials.
Hi, Michelle. I like the idea of putting the shredded leaves back on the garden…wish they would stay in place here in winter, but even shredded they seem to blow around.
Hello, Constance. I love chickadees, too — always talking, and always the first to investigate everything. Cheery and curious little birds.
See you both soon.
I have three compost bins made from shipping pallets. In warmer weather I turn them every week or so. And I have a fresh batch of black gold within three months. I stockpile chopped dried leaves in the fall and add a layer every time I put out kitchen scraps. When I start a new pile, I go to a local stable and get some fresh manure to mix with the leaves. That gives the pile a good kick start. My local coffee house includes the used filters with the grounds so I get a nice combo of browns and greens.
Sounds like you have it really nailed, Annette. I used to always get manure, and need to start again…thanks for the reminder!
We do not turn compost. The stack it deep, leave it be for a year system works great for us!
I have two compost areas: one a wire cage bin, that I use my little mantis tiller to churn up before usung, and i can shift the frame from one side to another, so two piles?, and one a low tech plastic tumbler on a cradle tha you use hand and foot grips to turn. it is closer to the house and I use it for kitchen waste all winter. It usually gets tumbled whenever I fill it and breaks down fast. I don’t put any weeds or plants subject to mildew or disease in my compost, but I empty my flower pots into the bin and add shredded leaves to both. Ash from the fireplace and small amounts of sawdust from my husband’s workshop go in too.
I just keep piling it on without turning. I use leaves to smother weeds, and I keep a pile for mulching next spring. I follow the lazy gardener plan, and as I get older, find new ways to save wear and tear on my back.