well the topsoil is sorta useless, as out of a bag it'll most likely be sterilized, and the only reason to add soil to a compost is for a "starter" of decomposer bacteria

overall, it should be "about as wet as a wrung out sponge", which doesn't tell you much, but moisture is something you have to develop a feeling for, it depends on the materials you use .... the food waste will be wetter than ideal by itself, the straw will be too dry, so how much you use can be "metered" by how much food waste is added

just keep mixing it up and keep the excitement happening and you'll get the hang of it in time, remembering that anything works really :)

Bill

Save your topsoil for the garden. It is not needed and will make the can heavier (but what you have already added is fine). If yours has a locking lid you can roll it around to help mix the contents. It may never heat up in the small space of a can but that is ok. Just have fun experimenting and messing around with it. Congratulations!

If you're looking for browns, you can use shredded paper that has been printed with soy-based ink. Typically, anything that was printed inexpensively is soy-based ink. I use shredded junk mail and newspapers.

Thanks!

It is funny, I followed the advise in Rodale's book of Composting, when I added topsoil. It just said soil OR finished compost. Adding straw was my own idea, to get more areation.

I will stop using topsoil and see how it goes with kitchen scraps and straw, and paper is a good idea, but I need a shredder. I wish I could shred used paper towels, but then I suspect I would need something other than a paper shredder because of the biological material on the paper towels.

Hilde

Just throw the paper towel in as-is. No need to shred it.

Just throw it in as-is? Cool, that will add a lot to my browns! We have twin toddlers and use at lot of Viva. :-)

Thanks!

Hilde

first off congratulations on joining the world of composting, there are a lot of products on the market touting that they will inoculate your compost or accelerate your compost or what ever. Please keep in mind that these are all marketing strategies to put your money in their pockets. if you have any general questions please feel free to ask, someone will be more than willing to give advice or point you in the relative right direction.

That being said, you can do a search on composting on these forums, such as "compost wacko", "leaf thief" etc.
there are also many links embedded in this thread that will provide a plethora of information such as how to ammend soils, what to do if your piles are not heating up or whats the quickest way to get your compost heated up in a jiffy!!
and a word of encouragement from me, is that in a few weeks when the weather warms up that is usually when compost piles start to really churn!!

happy composting and welcome to the forums.

The advice you got from the Rodale book is outdated. People used to think that it was necessary to add either soil or compost so the necessary microbes were there to start the composting process. However, the microbes needed to start the composting process are naturally in the air (otherwise we could leave food out and not worry that it would spoil). The reason behind adding the soil or compost was to add the microbes (which really isn't needed), and the bagged soil wouldn't be a good source, anyway.

Thanks ixnod and bpgreen! I feel so welcome, and there is so many knowlegdable composters here!

The Rodale book was the only one about composting they had at my local Barnes & Noble, and an employee said that Rodale was the best, so I bought it. It was published 15 years ago, so it is kind of old. Oh well!

I have seen that there seems to be a huge industry selling all kinds of equipment for composting, that will eventually make that compost very expensive. It is very tempting to buy these things that advertise that you can get great compost in 3 or so weeks. My garbage can compost in below 32F right now, will take a lot longer than that.

Thanks!

Hilde