you produce over a quart of very green stuff daily. use it.

Any coffee shops around? Used coffee grounds are "greens".......and most coffee shops, like Starbucks, give them away for free.

I'll definite ask Starbucks. That's a great suggestion. Does the outside weather have any affect if the mixture has the right balance to heat up?

Did you get glib's meaning, frdnicholas? If you're not a compost aficionado it might not have been clear.

@frdnicholas, yes, outside temperature has an effect. Not on the balance of ingredients, but just on the physics - colder temperatures mean the compost pile loses heat more quickly, meaning that it's harder for the pile to get to the temperature where heat-loving bacteria thrive. Or looked at differently colder starting point means reactions happen too slowly for it to get to critical mass of reactions. Actually both are going on. The size of the pile matters as well - At some point you may have a big enough heat-retaining mass (the compost itself is insulation) for this all to work, but there's always some temperature below which it's not practical. In my experience, anyway. For a rule of thumb, freezing point or close to it is clear dividing line below which getting a pile hot is unlikely or a serious challenge. I notice an obvious slowdown when temperatures consistently below about 10 celsius. (Note this also slows down cold composting, too - everything is slower)

I understand what Glib is referring to. In my original post I said that my wife and I don't produce a lot of green stuff. We have a bit of vegetable refuse, coffee grounds and fruit peels but I thinking that most of that will be going to our worm farm. Are there any other sources of green material? I will check with our local Starbucks about coffee grounds. Maybe our local fast food spots would give us coffee grounds? I also get that the outside temperature has an effect on the process. We'll see what kind of winter we have. It's often fairly mild with few days below zero farenheit.

and yet it is the greenest. does not attract rats either, while being very green.

Frdnicholas, sorry but you haven't yet clicked on what glib was referring to ;-) Note that glib referred to a quart.... think about what high nitrogen liquid material you produce every day of your life. If you and your wife don't produce enough it's time to see your doctor.... Keep guessing!

Be a cold day in heck before my husband would know how much “green stuff” I produce in a day.

Your high nitrogen liquid material can be literally green. Excess vitamin c is usually all that is needed.

OK, so we're talking about urine, of which at my age there is no shortage. If we begin to save it, although I'm not sure my wife will fly with this, do we use it full strength or diluted?

Whatever works for you. Boiling in kitchen to concentrate not recommended.

Just nip outside to the heap if it's fine weather. Direct application. Not so straight forward for your wife unless she's good at yoga.

Urine contains significant amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium and something we occasionlly do apply to our compost. With copious use of cow manure and homemade compost, our lean garden soils have been turned rich and productive, though of recent years, even manure has become expensive, mostly the transport of it to site. We have considered the purchase of composting toilets, as FrozeBudd eluded to, it's a waste not to do so otherwise! We are a household that is free of medications and hormones, possibly can't say such of the cow manure we have utilized. We all just need to get over ourselves a bit more!

A way to deliver urine to the compost heap discreetly is to use a container or watering can indoors.

@frdnicholas: don't know your climate (where are you?) but zero fahrenheit is cold by most measures. I was referring to freezing (zero celsius or 32 fahrenheit, I think). Composting slows down considerably at temperatures close to freezing, although it doesn't stop entirely; by the time we're down to zero fahrenheit (about minus 15 or 20C), sometimes even a large pile is close to frozen solid.

I'm in Southeastern Coastal area 1 hour west of Savannah. We occasionally have temperatures at 32, but not every winter. I'll watch the weather and see if I can start the compost or if I need to wait. I'd like to have it ready for Spring.

Start it anytime you have the material. It'll work, whether by hot or cold composting. No point in waiting.

If most of your winter is above zero, shouldn't be much issue at all. Sure, it will compost a bit slower when colder, but with daily temp swings may get pretty warm in the pile. Keep composting and don't wait. (I keep composting and piling up right through below-freezing winter, it composts when it composts)

Thank you all for your help. I just ordered ny compost tumbler and it should be here soon. I have bags of leaves ready to go. I also just realized I have lots of green weeds in the garden from all the rain we've been having. Would it be necessary/helpful to layer the material in the tumbler, or is that not needed? I will be talking with my wife about the other "green" material mentioned in earlier responses.

It certainly will not hurt to layer, and may well help. If they tumbler mixes things perfectly, it wouldn't be necessary; I've never used a tumbler but there are mixed reviews in general about how well they work. One issue seems to be whether they retain too much water (don't let water drain or evaporate well). Does your tumbler have solid plastic sides or more of a mesh?

They may not be big enough to get fully hot in composting - which is not in itself a big issue but perhaps not noticeably quicker.

Also, some say they don't always seem to mix well - which may be related to retaining too much water.

Anyway, no personal experience with them, hope it works well for you.

From the picture it looks like it has solid sides. I'm wondering about drilling some drainage holes on the top and bottom, but I'll wait to see it and see if indeed it holds too much water. Since I'm not really able to turn a compost pile, this seems like the best alternative. Well see....

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

4 days ago

Did you get glib's meaning, frdnicholas? If you're not a compost aficionado it might not have been clear.

Also if you’re a bit dehydrated it might not be clear.

Have any of you used the compost starter stuff that I've seen advertised?

Really not necessary. Most are just a fast nitrogen source.......which is easy to come by as previous posts have noted :-) Some include a microbe inoculate but that is also unnecessary. The microbes are there - or will be once you provide them with sufficient food (mix of browns and greens).

Thanks for your help. I won't fool with that product then.

Just went to my local Starbucks and they have kindly offered to set out their coffee grounds in a bucket that I don't even need to return! Next question: If you have experience with compost tumblers. what do you find to be the best ratio of carbon to nitrogen? I've been reading on the internet and gotten different answers from 50/50 to 3/1 carbon to nitrogen. What seems to be the best, or am I overthinking this?

3:1 seem to be standard for tumblers. They are a closed system compared to an open pile, with less chance of good drainage and adequate venting, so excess moisture - typically from any 'greens' - should be avoided. But it is hard to be precise about ingredient ratios, especially if you are adding material periodically. If the mixture looks too wet or starts to smell, just add more browns to absorb the moisture

Thanks. I'm hoping to have enough material to fill the tumbler to about 3/4 and then not add more until that load's ready. This is new to me so it'll be a learning-curve event.

That is actually a very sound practice when using a tumbler. Do a batch at a time, like you were making cookies :-) Just keep the thing turning - daily, if possible. And the smaller the size of the ingredients, the faster the process works.

I don't have a way to shred the leaves. Is there a chance of them matting and slowing down the process?

Do you have a lawnmower? They do a decent job shredding in short order.

Well I'm still waiting on the compost tumbler. Starbucks generously gave me coffee grounds and said I could come back anytime for more. I'm also getting everything for worm composting which I'm very excited about I'll be retiring at the end of the school year and can't wait!

Thanks for that information. I'll be composting leaves, coffee grounds and some green weeds in the compost tumbler.The worm composting is also going on once I get the worms. I'm hoping to improve my soil beyond the commercial mushroom compost and manure, which, while good for the soil, doesn't seem to have the life that I'd like to have in my garden and fruit tree soil.

Compost good soil amendment, most mulches also good and useful, coffee grounds won't hurt and some soil dwelling life seems to love it. You may also consider some cover crops, esp as your winter is mild. Specific suggestions from soil experts (of which I am not one) may depend on what your use is (eg flower or vegetable garden or lawn or yard), and also what your soil is currently like (eg heavy on clay or some other characteristics). Good luck, sounds like fun stuff in retirement.

I went by SBUX today and asked the barista if she had any coffee grounds that I could have and she literally had

no idea what I was talking about. Maybe it was her first day on the job or something? Or is there a secret handshake that one has to know?

Here's a starbucks press release, it seems participation 'may not be available in all stores.'

https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/starbucks-coffee-grounds-for-the-garden/

My guess is that those that don't do it either don't know about it or haven't had anyone ask. You could probably just show them the above (print or show them on your phone) and ask the manager - nicely - if they'd be willing to do.

Practically for them it just requires a bit of organisation. If they don't have enough people ask for the grounds, may be reluctant, even though it really just means something simple like 'if we have more than one bag around, throw it out (or send to municipal compost).'

I've heard people here mention that lots of coffee shops (independent or non-starbucks? can't recall) can be pretty accommodating if it's a regular customer who asks and/or they agree to take some amount on a regular basis. For example, once a week take a plastic bucket (the plastic buckets being another item they go through a lot of).

i’ve had good luck standing off to the side and when someone asks if they can help me, I tell them I collect coffee grounds for gardening, and is it a good time to empty their trash? They go to their coffee grounds container, haul the bag out, hand it to me, and I leave. I suspect it’s easier for them to hand it to me than to haul it outside. One of the Starbucks I go to told me to help myself to their outdoor trash area. I don’t know why there isn’t trash in the bags I get, but there never is. It’s always pure grounds.

I have the same experience with Starbucks as Annpat. Depends which Starbucks I go to.