Getting composting right

17 years ago

I came "home" from college (hanging out with mom between semesters in my 30's is not "living with mom", 'cause that's not cool) and found that the solution for the 1 1/2 acres of oak leaves on the property was to leave them in a huge pile in the middle of the yard.

Immediately, I saw beautiful things that could be done for my Hosta gardens, and started adding food waste to one corner. After a month or so of this, I acquired some wooden palates, and fixed up a couple of neater compost bins by the garage. I started filling the bins by "turning" the decomposing pile of leaves & stuff into the bins. I covered the first bin with a thin layer of partially rotten leaves, and then a thin layer of rotten cow manure to keep it weighted & to add nutrients.

In the second pile, I am still working on filling with parts of the original leaf pile (which was steaming nicely, BTW, when I stuck the garden fork in & pulled out a load of almost-composted material). I am also adding fresh food stuff to the second pile, along with more fresh leaves (dry, but not part of the original compost heap). It's about 2/3 full.

My questions are:

1. How long does it take in a setting like this before I should think about turning everything again?

2. What is a good gauge to the amount of moisture that's "right"?

3. I read a couple of places about adding pet food to the pile in handfuls between layers. Can anyone explain why & how this works?

4. What would be the benefit of adding a Molasses mixture? Where would I find "dry" molasses, and is dry better than liquid?

My goal is to turn both piles together into a third bin to fill it, since these two should be reduced enough that they will mostly fit into another bin of the same size. Then, I'm going to re-fill the first 2 original bins with more of the huge pile (which has a while to go before it's gone) and repeat. When I finally turn bin #3 into a 4th bin, or into a "use" pile, I'll repeat the process of moving everything over to the next spot.

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Comments (4)

joepyeweed
17 years ago
1. Depends upon how much energy you want to exert. Some people never turn their piles. Some people monitor temperatures and turn when the temperature drops. Some people turn daily because they have nothing better to do.

2. The common recommendation for moisture in a compost pile is "moist as a wrung out sponge". It should be moist, but not wet. There shouldn't be excess water if you squeeze a handful.

3. Pet food is typically grain based with protein. It would be considered a "green" in composting. Personally, I would never "buy" anything to compost. There are plenty of ingredients available for composting that are free, items that are going to be disposed of anyway, that are beneficial to compost (like kitchen scraps).

4. Molasses is primarily sugar, a carbon material... providing food for microbes. And again, if you had some molasses that you wanted to throw away, the compost pile would be perfect. But putting perfectly good molasses (or dog food) in the compost pile, is a waste of money.

You may want to check out the Frequently Asked Questions Page on this forum. Lots of great information in there for composters.

Here is a link that might be useful: SCM FAQ
ericwi
17 years ago
The oak leaves will turn into finished compost faster if they are first shredded with a mulching lawnmower. I rake our maple leaves into a windrow, about two feet wide, and 10 inches high. I pull the mower through this windrow backwards, because that helps keep the leaves contained in the row. The mulching step is very fast, but the raking, and the cleanup after, both take some time.
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ptilda
Original Author
17 years ago
Unfortunately, I don't have access to a shredder, and I borrow a lawnmower from my brother to mow my lawn, so I don't have a lot of access to it either.
cheapheap
17 years ago
There is a thread on here somewhere about pet/dog food in compost (it stemmed from an article)- it seemed that many thought it would be pretty expensive compost even with "cheap" food. A few people suggested less expensive alfalfa pellets instead (I have not tried this, the animals would get me.)
If you have a farm supply store nearby you might find what you are looking for in questions 3 & 4 there.
Best of luck to you!