urban composting

19 years ago

I live in a solid block of apartment buildings in Brooklyn and I'm lucky enough to have a decent-sized yard. This is the third year I've planted a garden, consisting of corn, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans, chard, basil, cilantro, and various flowers (marigolds, sundial, alyssum, zinnias). I started my first compost pile this spring. It consists of fall leaves, kitchen scraps, and a few yard trimmings. Learned of some interesting ways to obtain various greens and browns from local sources, which I'll try to add to the pile. Not sure where i can get straw in Brooklyn (I'd like to mulch with it as well), but I'll poke around and see what I can find.

I'm renting this apartment and probably will probably only live here for 2-3 more years, so I'm looking for a faster composting option.

But I still have some questions about composting procedures:

-is it ok to add fall leaves to the pile without chipping them?

-I've been turning the pile every week or so, and today I'm building a wire cage around it, as described in the FAQ. Once I do this, I assume it will speed up the process a bit, but about how long can I expect to wait before the compost is ready?

-Is it better to grind up kitchen waste into a pulp before adding to the pile, or does it matter? I just read that eggshells take forever to break down if left whole...

-Once the compost is ready, I'm not exactly sure what to do with it...since I don't expect to have very much of it, I was thinking I would spread it around the base of the plants as/if it becomes ready this season. If it is not ready to use before September/October, I plan to let it sit over the winter and mix it into the beds immediately before planting, along with the organic hummus I've been using every May before planting.

-Miracle-Gro: it was my inner debate over whether to use MG that brought me to this website yesterday for the first time. I used MG my first year and had excellent results, but last year and this year I have used only the humus that I mixed in at the start of the season. Results have not been quite as supercharged, but still pretty good, esp. the tomatoes. I'm trying to keep it organic but I do miss the super abundant blossoms and vegetables from my first season...

I keep reading about fish emulsion, lime, urea, etc. etc. and I don't really know what I should add to my soil at this point to stimulate and maintain productivity all summer. Is it worth doing a home soil test now and adding to the soil this summer, or is there already insufficient time to benefit this year's crop?

Thanks, any advice would be appreciated!!

-CHOWZDOWN

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Comments (5)

chowzdown
Original Author
19 years ago
One more thing:
Is it ok to throw pulled-up weeds into the pile as long as they haven't gone to seed??
thanks!
CD
bpgreen
19 years ago
It's ok to put leaves in without chopping them, but they'll take longer to break down that way.

If your compost gets hot enough, you can put weeds in even after they've gone to seed.

Eggshells do take a long time, but you can crumble them by hand if you want. I don't really chop up kitchen waste any smaller than it is already, but some people do.
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chris_ont
19 years ago
If you're looking for speedy compost, whole leaves might end up just matted in a clump and take longer to break down if you don't chop them.
I chop my kitchen waste a little - I once found a whole radish on the bottom of the pile. You don't have to churn it up too fine, but whole cobs of corn or apple cores just take longer to break down if left whole.
Demeter
19 years ago
The smaller you chop things, the faster they will compost. That goes for shredding leaves and chopping up kitchen wastes - I like to run eggshells, banana peels, used napkins, etc. through the blender with some water to make a garbage slurry that I pour into the pile. (I have a separate blender jar that I use for this, BTW, not my regular blender container.) You can even pour blenderized kitchen trash into a trench and plant over it, or poke a hole at the base of a plant and pour the liquid compost in.

The green weeds are good, too. Shred 'em up a little if you can.
jbann23
19 years ago
Composted products or even partially composted stuff will do more for you if you incorporate it in the soil during the fall of the year. That gives the micro-organisms the necessary time to do their work. If you have compost on hand right now then use it as mulch around your plants. Miracle Gro, even though it gives impressive results the first year or two doesn't feed the soil as compost does. You'll have to make the decision to either feed the soil or pile in chemicals. As far as this summer goes, I would recommend fish emulsion, or better still, a fish/seaweed blend to keep things growing well. Keep up the composting and apply it into the soil this fall. Then compost all winter and apply it as mulch on top of the soil. You'll find the tomatoes will be just as good as with Miracle Gro, maybe better when it comes to taste.