How wet is it? It should be definitely damp, like a wrung-out sponge.

If it's not wet enough, decomposing will be slow.

Sounds like you have a lot of carbon in your compost. Lazygardens is right about the moisture. The three things to consider are carbon, nitrogen, aeration, and water. How about turning the pile and adding a heavy nitrogen source; blood meal if you are an organic person, urea (46-0-0) if you are a non-organic person. The nitrogen, moisture and aeration will help drop the pile.
hortster

Perhaps your friend meant cottonseed meal? You can do a search, it has been mentioned from time to time. Personally, I wouldn't know it if it bit me in the leg.

Lloyd

P.S. Hortster, three things? ;-)

Lloyd...You kill me man ;-)

slystr,
Get lots of grass clippings and other FREE green stuff and mix it all in...

It does not pay to buy stuff for the compost pile...
Hey Lloyd...Lets put this thing to rest,once and for all, how much do you charge for a yard of compost... around here it is 23.00 a yard..... a whole freakin' yard... for only 23 bucks... that is sooo awesome,as some have said very eloquently, if we had to charge for our personal compost, we would have to get at least 100.00 per yard...we have so much time and labor into our meager bins... you can't start buying products for your compost... if you have to buy stuff,you may as well go buy finished compost from a known reputable source ....by the yard... way better deal ;-)

{{gwi:275409}}

If you want to turn your kitchen scraps into compost within a few short weeks, you might want to check out this compost bin made by NatureMill.

Not everyone has access to large quantities of compost 'ingredients' free from others. By the time I drove around to pick up other people's grass clippings I may as well go to the feed store and buy some blood meal and alfalfa pellets. I've used both to help the decomposition along. I've also used soyameal. I think any of the seed meals can be used, such as cotton seed. I doubt it's available here in the north so I use what I can get. I use fine wood shavings as the carbon as it comes as horse stall bedding and I don't have a lot of leaves on this property (coniferous forest) and only get bagged leaves in the fall from OP.

Use whatever you can scrounge but if you have to buy something it's not all that expensive and a perfectly acceptable way to compost. Of course you may not have the same bragging rights. ;-D

Hi Luckygal,

Yeah right... You are just too chicken to go and ask people for stuff ;-)

This time of the year especially... everything is free and available.. ;-)

Btw... Your argument could be used this way also, " by the time I went to the feed store and bought all the stuff and then went home and mixed it all in, I could have just gone and bought some primo finished compost and saved a lot of time and effort ;-)

You crack me up, you are as bad as my mom, she does the same thing... ;-)

urea, eh? Can I add some urine to the pile as well? I have access to some greens but not a lot and the piggies make 2 14gal storage containers worth of wood chips and poop every 2 weeks. I need to cut my lawn this week so there is some greens and my boxwoods need hacking back so that might be more, and I can go to Starbux and get more coffee grounds to augement my husbands output.
Seriously about the urine though, if I take antidepressant meds should I refrain form peeing on my pile? Thanks y'all for your suggestions!

I'm still brand new to composting so forgive me if I'm not right on. My understanding is that used coffee grounds are a great source of nitrogen that will heat up and speed up your compost. What is so good about them is that they are free if you have a little time.

As of last week I found a local coffee shop right by my work in Louisville; I drop off a 5 gallon bucket in the morning on my way in. By the next morning they have filled it up with their used grounds, and I swap it out with another bucket. At this rate I can get 20-25 gallons per week, which leaves me some to use on my lawn too. The coffeeshop loves to give them away because they hate the waste.

A lot of chain places like Starbucks will just leave a bag of grounds in a bucket by the door that you can take for free, or you just have to ask. It doesn't have to be an extra trip where you have to drive all around and waste your time; just stop at places when you are already out. I have made a habit of stopping at any Starbucks that's on my way when I'm running errands if I have a few minutes to spare. Last week, in about half an hour of extra time, I picked up 10 gallons. It doesn't have to be hard or expensive!

The key is just be willing to ask others; also, you're more likely to inspire others than to weird them out when you tell them what you're doing with their borrowed garbage IMO!

Jon, I think you are jumping to a whole lot of conclusions without knowing very many facts as well as stating your own personal opinions in a pretty rude way. I'm not going to enlighten you because I'm waaay too busy making my own style of compost, as well as a lot of other things that provide enjoyment in my life, but you might want to cut your Mom, as well as posters here, a bit of slack.

IMO a nice son would just give his Mom some of his wonderful compost since it's only cost him his labor. Something she did for you many years ago.

Kazbachris, you are *right on* about the coffee grounds altho it takes a lot to make a real difference, especially in a garden the size of mine. Of course every little bit counts so I use the UCG from our coffee machine every day. I've also collected UCG from both coffee shops in our little town. This is one of the 3 piles I collected last year. All gone now but we're retired and too busy doing other fun things so I'm using other things for my compost this year! :-)

{{gwi:264064}}

Whoa, Jon. Danger, Will Robinson!!

Most people here have a level of composting they are comfortable with. While pointing out techniques one uses or mistakes one has made is fair game, unless a person is waaayyy out to lunch or completely in error, we should let people discover their own path.

For the most part, all composting is a social good and for many many people it is also therapeutic no matter what scale they may be at. Projecting our own circumstances onto others is usually not helpful.

Lloyd

P.S. And we ought to never, ever, cast our mothers in a negative light.

LuckyGal,
I am soooo sorry, I did NOT intend to be rude to you....

I totally apologize... I'm sorry ;-(

P.S. You are right about my Mother too.. I Love her soooo much, she gave birth to me on Mothers Day... What a woman ;-)

If she wasn't 1200 miles away, I would give her compost, she totally deserves it...she is the best Mother in the World (IMO ;-)

Thanks, Lloyd, I know you understand the different ways compost can be made - as well as how some of us Moms don't like to be 'dissed'. :-)

Apology accepted Jon.

Hey, did ya see my large pile of UCG? That's one of 3 piles I scrounged last year. Had to 'ask' for it from a somewhat reluctant coffee shop owner. However, they came thru and for several months we collected. My DH did the 'grunt' work of lifting it - a large garbage can of UCG is *heavy*. I've also asked for and received many bags of bagged leaves. No one who knows me IRL would ever say I'm 'chicken', however we live in the back woods and it's not always easy to get things free and long distances to drive for everything. I also don't have much in the way of equipment the same as most posters here, so hope you will keep in mind most of us aren't composting on a huge scale with large equipment or in exactly the same ways. It's all good tho no matter how we go about it. IMO new posters especially need to be encouraged altho I'm a very old committed composter and also very opinionated! ;-D

Have a great composting day everyone!

That little 'dust up' should remind us all that people's compost pile is like their child ... might be ugly as a mud fence to some, but beautiful to the parent. And our composting style is akin to our parenting style ... don't criticize unless you see REAL trouble... and then only in the most general way. BTW - Jon that was a very sweet and sincere apology. Sort of like when we "step in it", we just compost the danged stuff and everything turns sweet.

When I looked at the list of ingredients in the OP, it seems short of browns?

Of course that depends upon the ratio of wood chips to the other materials.

Wood chips are the only brown thing that was listed.

A rule of thumb would be to have about 3 parts brown to 1 part green.

Great way to say it pt! Especially when one is just starting out with compost like I am, you learn by doing and trial and error. One might start out in not the best and cheapest way, but as time goes on we start to learn that there are cheaper ways to do the compost. It just takes time and learning. I used bloodmeal on mine last season, but that was before I found a better way and source for my nitrogen, horse manure. Yes, it felt funny at first asking, but now I know better. I'm sure it takes quite some time to perfect one's compost technique, and you are right, everyone has their own. We should all just be glad that there are folks out there that do want to make a difference and make our own compost and stop throwing away everything. :)
OK, that's just my thoughts. I'm done now. lol

"P.S. Hortster, three things? ;-)"

And an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.

>

On the contrary, I think a little extra antidepressant in the compost would do everyone a bit of good. (I suspect that by the time it gets through all that processing, any remnants of drug would be at a sub-clinical level in your veggies. But there's always placebo effect.)

And judging from your description, it sounds like your pile is getting larger, more regular deposits of browns than greens. So I think adding starbucks is a great plan.

JMO
Dawn