I don't see anything wrong with the design of your compost bin. It looks like it should work fine.

Newspaper should work fine as a carbon source. It's best to shred it if you can.

Usually, though, cold compost isn't a sign of too little carbon.

Some things that cause the compost to stay too cool are too little N, not enough total compostables, not enough oxygen, too much or too little water.

Thanks for your reply bpgreen.

I've got a tonne of N in there I think.. and about a cubic yard of volume. I believe the wood slats on the side allow enough air. Water... I'll have to check that. For a time the compost had no roof on it, and was throuroughly waterlogged.... it now has a roof, and may be considered dry.

Another thought I had. I have the weed man take care of my lawn, and the clippings in the compost come from that lawn. I've called them and asked them to tell me what chemicals they've put on my lawn - they report the following:

Iron Sulphate (moss control)
Trillion-P (Broad Leaf weed control)
and a general 24-4-16 fert.

Do you think these chemicals on the clippings would halt any sort of composting action?

thanks!!

esobofh: Are you aerating the contents by flipping from bin 1 into bin 2? The pile does need oxygen. Moisture or lack thereof could also be the problem. It has to be added to each layer as you flip it.

Karen

Are you confusing carbohydrates (food energy from things like starches in grains, potatoes and such) with carbon (basically compost roughage from things like leaves, straw and paper)?
Iron Sulfate doesn't appear to be harmful, alot of people take it for anemia. Still if its bad for moss I can't see it being good for the microherd.
The MSDS for Trillion-P doesn't list anything obvious that would make it harmful to compost but that doesn't mean much.
The fertilizer were it getting into the compost should make it heat like crazy.

I might make some observations.
1. Your compost is probably too dry, it won't heat if its dry. Better too wet than too dry I think.
2. You might consider mulching your grass. Why spend money fertilizing the stuff only to cut it off and compost it? Why not just compost it on the ground? I've never understood the desire to pick grass clippings up and put them someplace else, then drag in fertilizer. Sorry, rant off.
3. While I couldn't find anything in the MSDS on Trillion-P about it being bad for compost it really isn't good for YOU. Its an irritant and is bad for people, pets, etc. I'm mildy surprised that somebody would go to such effort to build beautiful compost bins like yours and then poision them and everything around them.
Ach I see I violated my previous end of rant...
4. Karen is probably right about the pile needing air but if its almost all grass clippings the flipping probably won't help, it'll all mat back down quick. Try some newspaper, it probably won't hurt anything anyway.

You've got plenty of total volume for it to heat up, and plenty of N, as well.

In BC (well, western BC, anyway), you probably have to worry more about too much water than too little. If it got waterlogged, you also probably lost pretty much all of the air in the compost. The slats in the wood probably help with aeration, but if it got thoroughly soaked, you probably need to turn it to get more air into the middle of it. Adding some sort of browns will help. I collect bags of leaves from neighbors in the fall, but those are already all gone. I also use shredded office paper, and if I'm really low on browns, I'll sometimes pick up a bale of pine bedding at Wal Mart.

As an aside, what does the eso in your user name stand for?

What is the outside temperature there in your zone? Microbes need a certain temp. before they really start cooking a pile. If there was too much nitrogen in the pile you would have an odor from the pile. Sounds like it may be cool weather that has slowed the process...

Blutranes

Hey Kyle...went thru your pics, power tools, lumber, air compressor, air tools and beer, a man who truly knows what life is all about! :-)

I'm thinking your thought on not enough carbons is a good place to start. Paper should help but not a lot of nutrients in it. I would try the paper just to see if it helped, nothing ventured nothing gained, at least you will find out.

METAR CYVR 050300Z 30006KT 15SM FEW035 OVC065 07/05 A3020 RMK SC2SC6
SLP226=

For Blu, OAT +7 celsius

Love your bin.

Lloyd

coarse sawdust would be better than paper, provides more aeration, paper gets wet right away and compacts

after you get the first bin-full done [using generous amounts of sawdust], use it as the cover and carbon additive [which is, yes, carbohydrate for the microbes] when filling the 2nd bin, so less sawdust is required

once you get rolling, collect the leaves or whatever that are in short supply now to build up a stash for next winter, but sawdust is always useful

Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: my 3 bin setup on the Island

42 degrees F is a little low to expect a lot of action from a compost pile unless it is a large pile. Yes, the pile will still work, but not like it would were the temperature warmer. I second paper not having much nutritional value, however it is better than nothing.

My experience says warmer weather will get you the results you expect. Very nice looking bins too I must add...

Blutranes

Well thanks for all the positive comments (and the rants hah.. need those too!). I do mulch the grass in the lawn, but when there's alot of extra material I use it to augment the compost. The lot is 68x215 - so there's a lot to go around :) I called weedman yesterday and told them to switch me to their organics program. I intend to use this compost on my vegetables, and even though the msds (and weeedman themselves) say it's not going to affect my vegetables (or me). There's no sense in allowing dangerous chemicals into my yard.

I'm going to turn the one bin into another bin and see if I can't add some layers of material in between and get it moist throughout. The air temp now is about 0-14c, and it's shaping up to be a nice warm day today. Guess that means i oughta get out there and start up some projects!

bpgreen: eso = esoteric, BOFH = B*st*rd Operator From H*ll. An internet nickname I've been using since 94. My original nick was "esoteric" but that became too common place, so being a fan of Simon Travaglias BOFH comedy series, I merged the too and created unique nick I've yet to see duplicated!

esobofh: As you flip the contents to the next bin add a small amount of moisture at a time to the layers. That's hard to do with a garden hose so I usually just use a sprinking can.

Those bins are really nice and once you find exactly what works for you you should get lots of teriffic compost.

Karen