Well gatormom, I don't consider you a compost enthusiast so much for saving the homeless banana peel but I wonder, did you think someone was going to steal it whilst you were in the store? That's nuts!

And don't tell your kids that the poor banana peel is now suffering a painfull and lingering death being slowly consumed by hordes of ravenous microbes. Alas, I can almost sense the agonizing, woeful screams coming from somewhere in the depths of your compost pile.

Lloyd

P.S. We are all wingnuts here, so anything you say is just between us, right guys?

You newbie!

How about taking two 30 pound bags of leopard bananas home and keeping them in the trunk for a couple days until we could get around to processing them for the compost.

Good thing it was February and not July.
hee!

A few years ago, an urban myth was circulating that if you ate bananas while you got drunk, you wouldn't get a hangover, or some such thing. Since it is my habit to pick up beer and soda containers from the side of the road while out walking, that particular summer, I also harvested loads of roadside banana skins, too. I returned the containers for deposit and composted the banana skins.

My best " composting gift " was a huge industrtial size pan of baked beans from a picnic . They had been sitting out too long and were destined for the trash when I snagged them for my compost . That was some very happy compost and was it ever cooking ! Yee-haw !

I'm a compost nut too! LOL!!! I got like 14 bags of leaves in the backyard and more on the way!

I was explaining to my hubs, how the flowers that he gave me for valentines day are now in the compost and the love from the gift of flowers will be spread around the garden in perpetuity.

He complained today that I like the compost pile more than him.

I bring home newspapers to run through the shredder. Also, a bag of coffee grounds daily. I'm planning on making a separate compost bin for the apples from the apple trees to make apple compost for the corn patch; an experiment to see if it alters the flavor.

I have an oak leaf mold going. I'm scheming to rob the pine straw and spruce humus for the berry patches.

"He complained today that I like the compost pile more than him."

I know I talk about my compost more than my wife! :)

Idaho..what type of berries do you grow?

Lloyd

Well, I had 32 bags of leaves wintering over, although I spread a few in the last week on the lasagne beds. Love it when the bag of leaves gets all wet and gushy over the winter.

Also collect 10 gallons of coffee grounds a week. Those accumulated in a pile over the winter, but they're spread now (on the lasagne beds). Got a pile of cardboard from recycling outside, and a 4 foot pile of pizza boxes in the garage. And 2 LARGE piles of wood chips from tree work done in 05 and 07. The one that has aged 2 years is just perfect for spreading. Etc.

Hmmm...probably a compost nut, but it seems normal to me!

Lloyd (and all),

I got some raspberries from a friend; Heritage everbearing. I picked up some Northern Highbush Jersey blueberries from WalMart and I'll be getting some more blueberries from Lowes. And I ordered a variety of strawberries from Johnny's Seeds.

Soil pH here is high; 7.8. I'm hoping that I have some sour compost to help acidify the soil. That plus the pine straw/humus should help.

A nut? Well, every chance I've had this winter to visit our cabin in the Catskills, where my veggie garden and compost heaps live, I've been hauling 40+ gallons of used coffee grounds -- plus bins of kitchen scraps -- with me from Brooklyn. The cafe around the corner happily provides me with that many UCGs a week ... they're bummed when I'm not going upstate and can't take the grounds.

This weekend, I also had a major score from a friend down the valley from the cabin: bins upon bins upon bins of bunny manure. My friend has a bad back, and hadn't cleaned out her many rabbit cages in forever, so I spent much of Saturday scooping bunny poop and urine-soaked hay (happy Easter!), completely filling the back of my minivan three times. With all that high-nitrogen material around, I of course had to spend much of today raking up leaves to mix with all my new goodies, even though it was 14 degrees out when I woke up this morning.

Idaho--I'd post a separate question for your berry question since it doesn't really have a lot to do with being a compost nut and posting a new question with the right subject will likely get responses from people who know how to grow berries.

You might also want to post it to the Rocky Mountain Garden forum in case anybody there has had success with blueberries. I suspect that you're going to want to use a planter or pots for blueberries. Trying to bring the soil to neutral in the intermountain west is a challenge. Trying to get it acidic is much more difficult.

I believe we used to call ourselves Whacko's or wacko's, but surely not nuts, :)
Alberta

A few weeks ago, I had a discussion (mostly one-sided) with my son's new girlfriend about composting techniques. She feigned interest and later told my son I was "cute".

Alberta, I was just thinking that this thread reminded me of the
"Compost W(h)acko" threads!

ie, "You Might Be a Compost Wacko If..."

you salvage corncobs out of the trash at picnics,
you carry used coffee grounds on a plane,
you take home the paper napkins, tray liners, & left-overs at fast-food places...

sounds normal to me!

lesliek, how did your minivan smell after hauling that much bunnypoo???? I have to admit that stops me from picking up a lot of stuff. Oh, to have a small truck....

Dotty, I had all the bunny poop in closed bins, with a sheet of plastic underneath it all, so there really wasn't any lingering smell. But I too do wish I had a truck: oh, the loads I could haul!

Marjorie Harris is a well-known Canadian urban organic garden writer. I nominate her as an honourary compost wacko: she calls the composting area of her back yard the Jardin de Refuses. So elegant! I'm going to start calling our compost piles Les Mammouths Laineux (Woolly Mammoths).

Harris is one of the subjects of this great show about fabulous gardens and gardeners, most of them organic, the world over.

Here is a link that might be useful: Recreating Eden

This week my granddaughters, 13 & 14 have the week off for Easter. Tomorrow they are going to my neighbors to muck out their stables (5 horses)and dear neighbor will deliver it to my garden area. We did this last fall and I am about out of the good manure. It is so light & fluffy, I can use it as mulch. I rake out the "horse apples" and put them in my compost pile. After they have time in the compost to soften up, they really help. I know they don't have much nitrogen, but they sure help the soil. Last fall, my DGD also went over to the neighbors and raked up all their leaves for them to add to our compost pile. The neighbors are so grateful for the girls help, they give them free riding lessons. A great trade for all.

I have to admit I am sort of jealous. Bunny poo,40 gallons of coffe grounds.....such good stuff.I work in a small office and theres a small coffee container that a co-worker and myself fill up with scraps and I get scraps from my mom,she has a food ministry. I have been a little slack in getting her stuff.I need to do better.I save any scrap I can for composting.I started last year with a barrel,but have always composted leaves and straw.Of course,I have also covered peelings,apple cores and egg shells with straw in flower gardens every where I have lived.
I see I have a long way to go to be considered a nut or a "whacko",but I am well on my way. I LOVE compost!!!!

I just remebered a new coffee shop opened in my neighborhood.Maybe they would be willing to save the grounds for me. :)

With the return of spring, my composting tends to get kicked up a notch because of the influx of new materials - especially browns - that come around.

But yea, I'd have consider myself a composting/recycling nut. With my family of three, wifey, 9mos son and myself we manage to only have 1.5 bags of trash per week - the majority of that being diapers :sigh: - while the 50-gallon recycling bin overflowth each week.

Starting next week I'm going to start composting all the browns that had been going into the recycling so hopefully that will cut down on the amount that leaves the property.

My wife and I have just been through a good year of construction where we tore the roof off of the house and extended out the back on two level. The construction has pretty much destroyed the landscape in the back and in the front of our house. I have created sheet compost or lasagna gardens on the entire quarter acre. I think the composting thing becomes an obsession. Evidence:

1 I usually pick up all the leaves on the curb from neighbors and travel to different neighborhoods in search of leaves. I am always stuffing large bags of yard waste into the back of my Mercedes Wagon. Last Sunday I pulled up to several green plastic garbage bags while a guy was raking his yard. I opened the bag to see large load of grass clippings and I yelled yesss and began stuffing the bags into my car. I think the guy thought I was completely crazy, he quickly finished raking and went inside.

2 I find myself taking random trips to different Starbucks looking for coffee grounds. I have even began tipping the Starbucks employees per bag to encourage them to save more. I keep wondering if there is a better time to get the most grounds.

3 I get excited about weekly deliveries of composted horse manure (its only $40 per truckload). If it rains the guys wont deliver and that makes me sad. On Easter Saturday I was up at 8Am shoveling another load of manure. The guy said he could give me another load on Sunday and I was so tempted but I know my wife would have killed me (but I did seriously consider it).

4 On Tuesday trash day when I drive into work I see all the bags of yard waste and I become disappointed at all the stuff I missed.

5 I collect bags of stuff from people at work coffee grounds , tea bags, banana peals etc and haul all the stuff home to the garden. I am often wearing a nice suit and digging things out of the break room trash at work.

6 I am seriously considering getting a worm bin and placing it in one of my bedrooms.

Can you ever have too much compost?

I collect coffee grounds from a convenience store near where I work. I don't ask them to save the grounds for me. They allow me to come in and dump the baskets into my bucket myself. I make sure I have a clean bucket and I am careful to stay out of the way of customers. I buy all my gasoline there.

They have eight coffee makers all in a row. I can fill nearly 1/3 of a 5 gallon bucket in one trip. I try to make a run in the morning and again in the evening.

I am definitely not the weirdest person that comes in that store. They don't even bother to roll their eyes any more. (When I first asked, the guy said "Uh... I'd better get the manager...")

Does running a blog about compost make me a compost nut? If it does, it looks like I'll be in good company. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Compost Bin Blog

HA! Last Saturday I went to get a truckload of leaf mold from the municipal place in Winston. Part of it went in the compost bin, and today I went out there to dump the compost container, and boy is that thing SMOKIN'!!! I like to call folks over to see the compost in action, LOL. Fascinating!!!

L

It's GOOD to hear that I am not the only composting crazy person.

When we moved 3 states away, I carefully hid the worm poop (in plastic containers) among the boxes to go onto the moving van.

Then I stashed the worm bins in my van under loads of other stuff.

DH did not have a clue until months later.

I am a brand new compost nut! Will you accept me into your club! I love all the stories and will soon be submitting my own. First of all, I know I need a compost container....suggestions? I'm five foot tall, hundred and ten pounds. I have to start the lawnmower and weedeater for my husband - if that tells you anything....he is a wonderful man....a writer, teacher, can read two books a week, paints wonder pictures and cooks....I'm not complaining! Just any building - I would have to do myself - My truck is an old caddilac - I need your suggestions!

...compost enthusiast....and you have to know the secret handshake to get in...

PSST...(read this in a whisper)...sometime us guys act dumb so that the womenfolk do all the hard stuff for us whilst we read, cook and paint...I'm just saying...

As to your question bout composters, how big a yard, what might you be composting, are aesthetics important? If it's just for the ease of building, the wire bin guys swear by that method. I've built one, it is easy.

Lloyd

For the first time today, I pulled over on the way to work to stuff bagged leaves into my trunk. :)

Called the farmers co-op all excited about cover crops. "Do you carry red clover? Berseem clover? Sweet clover? Hairy vetch? What's that? What's 'common clover'? Do you have the innoculants for those?" The guy answered in a Nova Scotia drawl, which is not that different from Stanley's, on The Office, "Mostly we get those in closer to the time the ground's fit for planting." I.e a good month from now. We still have two feet of snow on the garden.

LOL...

If you want some real "creepier" sources for compostables, try these one for size - if you dare.

1. Coin Op Laundry Mats
Ask them for their lint trap cleanings. 90% of the "lint" caught by these things is going to be organic fibers and hair.

2. Hair Salons
Ask them for their floor sweepings of hair trimmings. Totally compostable and another great "brown".

----
Sometimes it's fun to see the looks on their faces when you ask. Although I suspect it would seem a lot less creepy if a woman was making these requests instead of a man, but who cares...

For me, greens are easy to come by, it's locating a steady supply of browns that are not "woody" is harder than anything for me.

Yay, stoloniferous!

Ain't it fun???

rujean, you don't even have to build anything;
just pile everything up, & it'll decompose.

If the materials are likely to blow away unless contained, get a roll of 3' or 4' high livestock wire, & wrap it around 4 stakes (wood, re-bar, t-posts, anything that comes to hand) that you've pounded into the ground.

I use 4' wire bins with one end open and they work very well. Do just like sylviatexas says to build. My Starbucks leaves bags of coffee ground right outside their front door. Those bags disappear quickly. As is my habit, I go to the drive up around 9:30, order a cup of black and ask sweetly, "Any UCG's?" "Ohhhh, for your garden." I almost always get a big bag.Most of the folks there know me now. Fun huh? I've enjoyed reading all you compost crazies.

Hi Sylvia! ItÂs so very fun! IÂm slowly building up a raised bed on top of excavated sand in our yard. I know itÂs going to take a long time to build up enough organic stuff to make a sufficient layer of good soil on top of the sand, but IÂm patient. I emptied my first scavenged bags of leaves on top of the area, along with some cardboard, and picked up a couple more bags of leaves this morning. My husband is worried that I might end up with pesticides in the pile, but IÂm willing to take the chance.

I need to put a tarp in my trunk before it becomes a rolling compost pile!

I guess I need to put one of those bumper stickers on that says "I brake for UCG's" This morning, on my usual trip to Starbucks, I found almost 100 pounds of UCG's. The bags were falling out of the little refuse can they use for storage. I usually find only one bag around 9 a.m. The gal said that no one came by to pick up last nights cleanup. OH JOY! Then when I went to the window to pick up my daily cup of coffee, that gal handed me another bag of UCG's and a blueberry muffin! MORE JOY! My old Blazer smells like a million bucks!!!

I feel SO much better . I see that I really need to step up my compost enthusiasm . I learned A LOT here . Thanks for sharing .

All last year I would stand in the doorway to make sure the neighbor's lawn service guy wouldn't blow their leaves and grass clippings into my yard. But that was before the compost bug bit.

This year when I opened the door and saw all the neigbor's leaves and grass clippings in my yard, I said to myself he better be glad I needed some browns.