You can, Carrie. But it would help matters if you chop it into smaller pieces. If You put a 3 foot plant with a 1 ft rootball in there, it might take years to break down. Smaller pieces will be compost a lot sooner.

Karen

And make sure you keep it moist, but not too moist. :)

.... thanks, but pleeeeese don't ask me to turn that mess...

:0)

carrie

I have a question, too. I threw a bunch of yard waste into an old garbage bin that leaks and let it sit. I know that it didn't cook like a regular composter does, but there's nice compost in there anyway.

The problem is I hesitate to throw anything in for compost that has seeds in it. If done right, does it "cook" at high enough temps to destroy the seeds?

I buy my compost from the city because I need a lot of it, and it's cheap. But last year we tilled and amended my soil in 3 places with compost and peat, tilled it in.

This year I have this awful, huge clover, I mean with runners and roots so strong it's almost impossible to pull out, took over a lot of the yard and in my beds. None of the neighbors seem to have it, so I can only conclude that the seeds came in with something I used or planted.

aliska: Most likely you tilled up weed seeds to the surface. If you simply spread compost on the surface, like mulch, and avoid tilling, you most likely won't have that problem.

If composting is carried out normally, and put through hot cycles, weed seeds are supposed to be destroyed. Whether that's true, I can't say. But I do make the effort, and usually put most of my compost through at least 2 or 3 hot cycles (around 130 to 160 degree range) to attempt to kill weeds. It isn't all that hard. In fact, I really enjoy my composting. Some might call it obsessive.

Karen

Karen is right! I use mushroom compost in place of mulching, or before mulching (sometimes the association has it done) and never have a weed problem.

This year I got really lazy and threw some compost right over a patch of grass, then put a bit of mulch on top. Then I just planted through it, I also put some tipsy pots there. So far so good...

I compost the entire flower plant but do chop up the more 'stemy' (is that a word) plants so they break down faster. I have learned NOT to compost any weeds that have flower heads - weeds that haven't gone to flower seem to be OK. I don't have a problem if 'good' flowers reseed in the garden - I love the surprises. I sift my compost and what hasn't broken down gets dumped back into the bin .....

Lynne

Even with hot composting, I have had seeds sprout right in the compost as it sits and cold composts to finish. Tomatoes and oak trees often sprout and grow in there.

So you can compost the entire plant and just trash the seed heads or mature flowers. That's what I usually do. And I no longer compost tomatoes.

Karen

LOL Karen - I was hoping that someone would post that their compost grows!
I get killer potato seedlings in my compost - and have had lots of surprise tomatoes growing where I've placed compost.

I'm not great at turning it frequently but trying to change that. I have a big walk in bin and I now have compost climbing boots (named so by my daughter) so that I can stand right in the pile and turn it! She has a matching pair to help.

Lynne - what do you use for sifting? I tried an old window screen before but that really didn't work out.

I get flying insects in mine... what's with that? Is it the fruit they are going for? I have NO idea what I am doing when it comes to this composting business... I just pile in leaves, veggies - water once in a while - but cannot turn it - way too heavy.

Carrie

Carrie: When you say leaves, do you mean brown, fall leaves, or fresh green ones? The old ones that fall in autumn are a "brown", or carbon, green ones are higher in nitrogen, so they're a "green". It sounds like you need more browns- autumn leaves, straw, paper, cardboard, etc. Always bury greens in carbon, or brown. It will lighten the mix, making it easier to turn, and cut down on flying bugs. A bale of straw is cheap, goes a long way, and makes nice compost. The C:N ratio of the mix should be about 30:1, that's carbon to nitrogen. So you want more "browns" than "greens".

I love messing with my compost, even flipping the whole thing, except when it's 90 degree weather and humid like yesterday.

Karen

I agree with the chopping. I put small sunflower stems and those things seemed to never break down! If I had chopped they probably would have done much better.

I also got a rat family that lived in my compost so I spread it all over the garden and gave up.

I might try a small bin or something though. It makes me sad to throw out all that kitchen waste!!

Karen

kqcrna, thanks for answering. So we can't be sure that higher temps get all the seeds is what I'm reading. Those two beds have been churned before by pulling out privet and the front bed digging out yew, then stump grinding, then letting lie fallow for years. Tilling did go a little deeper, but in the 40 years I've lived here, I've never seen that kind of clover, the littler, less invasive kind, yes.

I've wanted to compost but also want rainbarrels, can't have everything and can't make bins right now. All I can do is throw it in that garbage bin. But now am afraid to put it on anything.

Now I'm pulling up lots of grass that has seed heads. It's good grass so I throw that out on the lawn for the mower can chop up but sure don't want to compost that. For now I've got cardboard laid down and dumped some stuff on top of that.

I got my beds pretty clean last year and sure don't want to introduce anything more than I can help. And I'm out of mulch, don't know what I'm going to do, spent so much already, and it's expensive at nurseries and big box places as much as I need. Newspaper and cardboard would be great, but nothing to top it off with to look neater. I was too tired last fall to save leaves in bins I cobbled together and how I regret that now.

A lot of it I throw in Kraft bags, then have to pay for a sticker so the city will pick that up. Especially rose prunings with thorns, lots of them, don't want to try to compost that, but bet the city dumps it all together in their setup. So when I use their compost, I don't know what I'm getting, and that could be how I got that horrid clover.

It sounds like covering with cardboard might be your easiest solution to getting rid of it. Or, try to yank them after heavy rain. We had strong storms last night, strong wind and heavy rain. I've just been out yanking weeds- clover, unwanted flower volunteers (verbena bonariensis by the hundreds again), even dandelions were easy to yank without any tools. The enire root came up because the soil is soppy wet.

Grass is great for compost :-) Heats it up fast. But if it's some nasty kind that you don't want to see again, you could still use it in compost and just cut off the seed head and trash it.

Karen

fgirl21 - My husband built me a frame that fits on the wheelbarrel and attached 'hardware' cloth (I think it is 3/8" square heavy wire) to it - works great keeps the larger things out but I still get some good larger organic matter in the compost that I spread on the gardens

Since I have mostly pine trees and not alot of fall leaves I shread up newspaper and put into the compost bin for my browns. If you tear the paper from top to botttom you get nice even strips - mine are about an inch wide and decompose real quick .....

Lynne

Since I live in the country and have the space, I have two compost piles. The pile from last year and this year's new pile.
The new piles grows and shrinks a lot as stuff is add and starts to break down.
The previous years pile is quite settled but is still pretty big. Probably a mound 6-8 feet wide at the bottom. Turning the piles here involves using the loader on the garden tractor. Yup, they are pretty big piles.
So I just pile on any garden debris, weeds and all. As well as veggie scraps from the kitchen and coffee grounds.
This fall the previous year compost will get spread on the veggie garden. Since that garden gets mulched with a grass clipping/fall leave mix every year, I don't notice much in the weed seed coming from the compost.

The only garden debris I don't put on the compost is from diseased plants. Those go in the trash, since the disease may not break down during the composting process.

This is a little OT but I thought I'd share it anyway since we are talking compost...

For years I struggled with finding a container my family would not complain about in the kitchen for gathering scrapings/peels/etc to take to the compost bin outside. They hated the smell, the pail to rinse, etc etc. I was shopping for one of those fancy crocks with the charcoal filters (expensive...) when I came across this canister in a store. It is a OXO Good Grips POP 2.5 qt storage container with a silicone seal. NO smell, pop up knob is easy to pop up and grab with one hand when your other hand is full of drippy coffeee grounds, I LOVE it. Goes in the dishwasher easily too. AND the family uses it.
I only paid $8.00 at a Home Goods store, but here is a link to see it on Amazon........

Here is a link that might be useful: OXO container for peels/coffeee grounds/etc

nan -- I use an old Rubbermaid 2-qt plastic pitcher to hold scraps for composting. It has a lid to contain the mess and a handle for easy transport to the pile. The idea was in a local gardening magazine.

KT

I have a clear kitty litter bucket I plan to start using for scraps. I have a juicer and can't stand throwing away all those scraps. I like to feed my worms in the garden :)

I might just dig a small hole to dump those scraps in away from the plants.
Karen

Sometimes I just throw my scraps except meat directly on whatever strikes me, it breaks down pretty fast and hard to see from the street. Like I cut up watermelon rinds in small pieces and dump them on something lol.

I saved up my tea bags all winter in a nursery pot w/plastic underneath and loose cover. Last fall I brought some apples in and left them on the counter too long. Fruit flies. Finally had to spray.

But then they were turning up again in the kitchen, dr and back where I work, annoying. I'd find them dead in the cat's water, dish rinse water. They seem to be gone. I think they were breeding in the tea, and I was dreading spraying again, wasn't sure where all to spray.

I dumped the tea bags by the garage where I can't get anything to grow. May have made it worse. The bottom had already composted.

Yup, the fruit fly problem was what sent me looking for a air tight container. I really like your idea KT of a pitcher with a handle, but is it air tight?

This OXO canister can be completley full with banana peels, tea bags, coffee grounds, wilted lettece, etc and not one tiny bit of scent (to attract flies and complaints!)

The pitcher is not quite airtight. We haven't had fruit flies in ages, but I do empty the container almost every day.

I think the last invasion of fruit flies came from a batch of bananas, not the scraps container. Those little pests are hard to get rid of if you don't get on them immediately after they appear.

kt