I just gave my compost pile a feast today, watermelon rinds, corn husks, bell pepper scraps, old soup bones, bananas, rotten snow peas and spinach, potato peelings. We just had a party, so now my soil's gonna have a party as well

Ever time i feed ours all the green scraps something goes through a lot of trouble to dig it out of the pile and feast on it.

Mine's been eating watermelon rinds and rotten tomatoes.

Courtesy of my neigbor's lushy fertilized lawn I have a brand-new, half composted pile composed of lawn clippings and pine straw which teeters between drying out and going slimy.

We were supposed to borrow a tiller this weekend to get the fall section ready and that was supposed to be worked in but someone else got in ahead of us.

By next weekend that pile may be half-finished compost already.

Turned pile #1 into new bin #3 & added some molasses (the kind used for dairy cows & WAY too strong for her to make cookies with) & water to pile #1 (now in bin #3) and pile #2.

To pile #3, I added a layer of leaves, newspaper ripped into strips (left over from my niece's paper-route), an entire watermelon rind, UCG, some other kitchen waste & covered with a couple of fork fulls of half-rotted leaves from the big pile in the yard (slowly being moved to the new bins).

Added a bale of straw,lots of grass,some peat moss.UCG.
Pile is taller than me i am almost 6 ft.Watered it down soaking it .Cant wait to see how long it takes to shrink.

pick up load of cardboard boxes and 5 yards fresh cow manure what a fun day(:

newspaper
junk mail
broccoli
zucchinni ends
sodden cold cereal
spanish rice
freezer burned corn
a piece of breaded fish
tea bags
UCG
dead flower blooms
some of my daughter's hair after a trim
hair from my electric razor
a squirrel gnawed corn cob
orange peels
half eaten pear

Did a lot of deadheading and weeding today so had a large wheelbarrow full of greens. Also had a pile of grass clippings and lots of UCG w/filters. Layered it all with sawdust/horse manure so the bin is full. Starting a new bin tomorrow. Used one bin of almost finished stuff as mulch today.

I have mixed grass clippings and ramial wood chippings (many thanks to valerie_ru). That combination is running HOT! The ramial wood chippings were heating up all by themselves. I measured its temperature at 135.

The apples from the yellow apple tree ended up in the pile. Shredded corn stalks, corn cobs, bad tomatoes.

It's all in a huge pile right now, about 3 cubic yards or more. I haven't finished making the new compost bins.

I'm going to update the thread on sifting compost - I have a pile from last year that's gone anaerobic and I think sifting it will help get it back to aerobic and help it finish.

The main pile gorged on 6 hills worth of mildew-laden, borer-scarred, run-out summer squash inter-layered with old leaves today. That on top of a heaping helping of corn husks and a bunch of rotten tomatoes a few days ago. Its a happy pile.

The accidental pile of grass clippings with a little pine straw got flipped again today in the hopes of preventing excessive matting and keeping the odor down by keeping it well oxygenated. Its hot enough to be uncomfortable to touch and the odor is present but minimal. Still, I can't wait to get that, and some reserved leaves, tilled into the fall garden site this weekend.

newspaper
corrugated cardboard
deadheaded flowers
eggshells
papertowels

my pile's wet- i keep adding browns, but it's still clumpy. I need to get some woodchips- i have some old wood, but no chipper!

Corn husks,
watermelon rinds,
tomato peels,
tea leaves,
a few used Kleenexes,
shredded junk mail/scrap paper,
2 shredded toilet paper tubes,
lots of mint and oregano trimmings,
a bad potato,
a small cardboard box,
and two packages of very stale crackers.

when you put commas in the list, it looks like poetry.

A truck load of horse manure/sawdust

left over sticky rice
scrapings from chinese food
bread crusts
teabags
eggshells

Flower scapes from hostas
Weeds
Growing tips pruned from the squash vine that ate the garden
Veggie trimmings from making stuffed squash
Egg shells and coffee grounds from breakfast
Questionable cole slaw
One small aborted cantaloupe
(I hope there are no more cantaloupes to put on the pile!)
Carrot tops

brush from trimming trees away from fence & electric wire

little bit of blood from same project

shredded junk mail/office paper/magazine subscription coupons/newspaper/etc

tea bags/coffee grounds & filters

contents of can marked tomato sauce but it wasn't red it was green

old chinese food
paper plate
fries
tomato sauce
a small chicken bone

Turned the pile. Not adding anymore to this container, as I've started a bigger container.

One's own blood -- now that's composing dedication (speaking as one who shed a few drops into the newly dug areas today when I scratched my foot with the pitchfork).

My pile got a generous feeding of assorted grasses and weeds from the new garden areas as well as the usual helping of kitchen scraps. I think DH will have a basket of shredded junkmail for it shortly -- which is very good because I am almost out of last fall's leaves and have 2 months of summer yet.

The birch and tulip trees are already contributing to this year's supply of browns, but I may have to use pine straw just to cover up excess greens and keep them from stinking.

Whew, hot today. South Central Pa is doing it's best Amazon jungle impersonation.

layer of:
shredded newspaper
junk mail
paper towels
receipts
carpenter ant-chewed, rotted wood and sawdust from one of our dying maples (we have three at different stages of bucket-kicking)
wet it down with a tumbler full of old soda and coffee, then half a tumbler of water.

then added:
UCG and filter
two end pieces of bread (sans planaria)
half a small cactus that died on me
a little dry pasta
deadheaded flowers
english ivy trimmings

junk mail
paper towels
paper bags
bark
dead leaves
small twigs
two shriveled aloe leaves
left over pasta and sauce
left over peas
few peach pits and another half eaten peach
UCG and filter
cherry pits and stems

Didn't water the top layer- hoping for rain.

Today's feeding included a lot of banana peels, the usual kitchen scraps, and the spent cucumber vines.

eggshells
banana peel
UCG's and old coffee from work- my wife just shook her head when she heard I was taking stuff home from work for the compost
pint of sticky rice
a lot of newspaper
some small twigs

I like---------

Blutarskie's humor

Joannaw's commas

Silvia's sacrifice ( and Iam's)

and my new compost bin----pallett made ----FREE !!

and a question ---newspaper----i recieve he local rag daily and see whre a lot of ya'll say you throw it in the pile ---do you shred first or can i just tear up by hand ??

Joanna's commas indeed;
Maybe some talented person can start a "Compost Haiku" thread?

You can tear up newspaper by hand.
It dissolves purty fast.

Some kitchen scraps that included some choice banana peels, UCG w/ filters, coffee we didn't drink, shredded junk mail from home and work.
Kath
felt the warmth when the pile was turned this morning :)

I cleaned out the fridge today so you really don't want to know...

Just the usual and Ma Nature contributed some welcome rain.

Full bin is heating nicely. New bin is too small yet. Need to get out and collect some fresh horse manure. Ugh! But so good for the compost.

Full bin heating nicely.
Must collect fresh horse manure.
So good for the compost.

shredded office paper
coffee grounds & filters
*buckets* of used restaurant-sized tea bags
tomato odds & ends
cucumber peels
cantaloupe seeds, rinds, & squishy stuff

Oh shoot. I didn't know I could compost cantaloupe seeds. I rinsed them down the drain because I thought anything with seeds, like tomatoes, shouldn't be composted. :( I did, however, save the rinds.

Let's see:
Filled middle pile with 3/4 Toyota Tundra truckload of horse manure/wood shavings mixture and top half of left pile. (Emptied bottom half of left pile onto lawn.)

Started (now empty) left pile with 1/4 truckload of manure/shavings, freshly picked weeds, and 1 lg trashbin of shredded cereal boxes, brown paper bags, and junk mail.

Right pile is waiting to be emptied onto left pile.

Water

I don't usually do this but it was bone dry and I need the compost this fall. So I toted water to the biggest pile. Bummer. Wish it would rain.

Seeds compost just fine.

Though unless you run a thoroughly hot pile there is a certain risk of having volunteer plants sprout up in the garden after the compost is spread.

I have no objection to that so all the seeds go in with the rest of the stuff.

Corn husks and cobs, cantaloupe rind, UCGs, cucumber peels, tomato ends, onion peels and ends, watermelon and rinds, avacado rind, cilantro ends, mushy salad, old apples, shreded junk mail, paper towels, weeds (seems like an endless supply of these...).

The usual- UCG, banana peels, cherry pits and stems.

Got a free 50 lb bag of wood stove pellets (pressed sawdust0 so I'm set for browns, for like, EVER.

Built brand new pile last weekened. Only leaves. got about 100 bags from garden service. added water and Half cup molasses (diluted) over it all. Temp this morning was 131degF/55C. Put small tarp on top to keep some moisture and heat in. sides are open. Smells great , maybe its the molasses.

canna leaves
wet cardboard
a few more fence pieces
leaves/twigs/shavings

Added about 100 pounds of spent brewer's grain. The pile is really heating up. The flies are loving it so I covered the top of it with straw.

My very first pile! I put in:
A pile of dead dry leaves that came down in last week's storm
Coffee grounds and filters
Eggshells
Banana peels
Potato peels
Bell pepper scraps
Dead vines from the peas
dead cucumber vines
deadheaded flowers
shredded newspaper
ends from snapped green beans
Outer cabbage and kohlrabi leaves
So that is my start!

cantaloupe rinds
used paper towels
UCG
fur from my cat's brush
jalapeno stem ends
moldy figs
old leaves that were sitting in my front yard for several years and were almost all composted already anyway
used Feline Pine cat litter

cantaloupe rinds
tomato bits
yogurt that I couldn't get out of the carton (added water & sloshed it around)

more moldy figs :(
more mostly composted leaves to cover

Trying to figure out whether or not this bin is going to be able to handle the entire rind of a watermelon, or if it's just going to be too full after trying to balance all that green out with browns. My rind has been sitting there for a couple days, waiting, as I contemplate. If my new bin gets here before I'm done thinking it over, then I won't have to contemplate anymore.