compost pile

[DannyD]

need some information on what you folks have done to make a successful compost pile. I have leaves, and some yard clippings, fertilizer, but that is about it.

I am going to put together a bin behind my shed to start this, should be about 10' x 10' and 3 or 4 feet deep.

 

[Glenn9643]

Danny,

We live out in the country and have plenty of room so I just make a pile without a bin. Last year I pulled a sweeper behind the mower whenever I cut (about five acres) and when the hopper was full emptied it into a large pile in a place where I'd already mowed. After mowing I went to each area with the FEL and transported the grass clippings to my compost pile location. This generated a huge amount of clippings. Also added sawdust from my woodworking and from the shop dust collector when it accumulated. Any trimmings from flowerbeds or the garden goes into the pile. This time of year leaves will be mixed in if I get around to sweeping them up. We also add just about any uncooked household food waste, but no meat or grease. Coffee filters and grounds. Eggshells, etc. If it gets too dry you may have to water it occasionally. If you have enough material and can run a hot pile, keep check on the temperature and turn with the FEL when it starts cooling. A little dried molasses or commercial fertilizer will help get the heat up if needed, but the main thing for heat is adequate greens and mass with some moisture for the microbes to grow. It's not that complicated; you're just accumulating materials to an area so they can decompose with the assistance from microbes. Pretty hard to mess up, unless you have too much "green" matter and get it too wet. Then it smells like a barnyard. More browns will help that.
I've not been too active with it this year because of my wife's illness, but we still have about twenty yards in a pile from last year that's great stuff.
Oh yea. They say not to add diseased plant material to your compost. I've also read in many places that a hot pile will kill weed seeds. It may kill some of them but there are a few that I've seen that survived. Bermuda is one of the survivors.

 

[Arcane]

Glenn's given good advice. The way to keep the pile balanced right is to hold aside some brown leaves to add with the grass clippings during the growing season. But its hard to keep a pile hot during the winter because there are few greens to add, but if you can keep the center wet you'll do some good. And throw a layer of topsoil on every so often.

I was working on my bin today, and I'll try to add a photo of it tomorrow. My bin is a 12'x12'x6' high kennel kit from HD, except that I leave it open to 24'x12'x6'. Tall is better than wide, as the pile compresses during decomposition. And each time the pile drops a foot or two I use the fel to turn the bottom to the top.

I mulch grass clippings and some shredded leaves right back into the lawn during the growing season. So on a couple of weekends each fall I go to the town landfill and pick up truckloads of the nicely bagged leaves that folks take there. (Yes, its an interesting conversation.) I have also arranged with two lawnmowing/landscaping services to dump the leaves they've collected from their customers.

And if you're going to use the compost on a vegetable garden, don't use any materials that you don't know for a fact were grown without herbicides or pesticides. I actually keep a second, smaller compost pile for that purpose.

 

[txdon]

Danny, instead of fertilizer I put in cottonseed meal and dried cow manure. I also put in rotted tree wood. I use no chemicals - organic.

 

[Arcane]

Here's the pile this morning. The chain link fence sections keep the pile contained but can be moved easily to let me turn the pile with the fel.

 

[escavader]

I too prefer to have an open pile,rather than in a bin,that way i can stir it with my tractor[you need something to push against].I also use most of the things mentioned above.In middle summer months i get alot of pea pods,cucumber peelings,corn husks...all the veggie by products..of course the most is leaves.I also use woodchips,you would be surprised how quick they heat,and break down,
After the first of september,i start a new pile,allowing the old one to finish rotting,so its ready for the garden come spring.I have been composting now for a few years,and my garden soil is what i always dreamed it should be.With all the farmers in our area going out,manure isnt easy to get,and i think we all get enough toxic chemicals in our bodys,the less the better.
THE ORGANIC GARDENER...ESCAVADER /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JonM]

I too just have a pile. It's been just grass all summer and added leaves recently. I mix it up the last time next weekend when I take off the TracVac and put on the RB. It's been a dry summer so the compost pile isn't working too good. Might have to water it.

 

[johan3400]

I have a compost pile of leaves and manure. I have neighbors who need to get rid of sheep manure and horse manure. I just started last year and it is doing well. I know the good of compost for my gardens. I have the best tomatoes each year because of the great compost they grow in. I do keep track to not have leaves or grass from chemically treated lawns.

 

[TBDonnelly]

I've had an ongoing compost pile for many years. I always try to save a small pile from the previous year to use as a compost-starter for the next year. I harvest some of the first fallen leaves and get them turned into the existing compost pile to get the process jump started. I've used fertilizer and ashes from the grill or camp fire to get a "fresh" pile started.

This is how I tell if my compost pile is cooking. I go out on a cool evening after dark (5:30-6:00pm /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif ). Today was perfect.

I drive the tractor out to the compost pile. (see attachment)

Picture 1 of 3.

Don

 

[TBDonnelly]

Then I drive the bucket into the base of the pile, making sure I get good bite, lift and dump.....and if I see....(click on the attachment)

I know it's doing what compost piles are supposed to do.

Picture 2 of 3

Don

 

[TBDonnelly]

If you're getting an over abundance of steam,
you may want to check your radiator hose. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

More often than not it'll be the compost pile
lettin' you know it's doing its thing. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Picture 3 of 3

Don

 

[PineRidge]

Don't think I would recommend smoking during this exercise, some methane gas may be present.

 

[PhilNH5]

We have been small scale composting for years. It is our main means of getting rid of kitchen waste. To get a good hot pile you need a ratio of 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen. Translated that means 30 parts "browns" such as leaves to each 1 part of "greens" such as fresh grass or animal waste. This will give you the "hot" pile mentioned above. My wife thought I was nuts the first time I came in, all excited, to tell her the compost was steaming.
But you can make compost in a "cold" pile. The mix is not balanced enough to get it cooking but it will eventually become compost. The only caveat is that you can not be weed seeds or diseased plants in a cold pile. You will spread both along with compost in your garden.
I used to have pet rabbits. There waste is one of the best "greens" you can have. Only chicken manure rates higher in nitrogen content. So I had really hot piles. Now I live in NH. Lots of leaves, a little grass and no rabbits. My piles are always cold - but I still get compost.
I use pallets wired together. I can use the BX FEL to turn it when needed. I had to wrap pallet bin with chicken wire to keep my dogs out.

Phil

 

[PhilNH5]

One other thought. If you intend to add kitchen waste you need to have the pile close enough to the house so that you will actually use it. Other wise it is to much of a chore and you delay taking out the compost. Then you get a fruit fly problem and even worse an angry wife.

Phil

 

[oliver28472]

Amen to that and have a couple 5 gallon buckets ready this week. Quit using that gargage disposal.

 

[mwood]

Around here, I give all the kitchen scraps to the chickens. I get eggs, lower feed costs, and nice manure to put in the pile. Seems to work out quite nicely for me!

Mark /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[RalphVa]

I just make a pile. Needs to be at least 4' tall for it not to lose too much heat to allow it to "cook". Attached is a look at my pile behind my new MacKissic shredder/chipper.

I get a lot of sawdust from my cabinet man. For each 2 barrels of sawdust, a bag of 10-10-10 is needed to bring the C:N ratio down to around 30. I just sprinkle it around over the sawdust once I've dumped it, spread a soaker hose over it and let it run for about 30 minutes. You could use some organic sources of N, but obtaining their N content is not always easy, particularly for correcting from about 300-500 down to 30 like for sawdust.

I use the MacKissic to shred up prunings and to grind up leaves that the town folks just give away. They're so kind to bag them up and leave them at the curb. Have gotten about 6-10 pickup loads (15 bags/load) so far.

A fellow master gardener also does theirs as a pile. Think he has a JD 4300 to toss his. I've a little JD 4010.

I don't really care if mine composts. Even if it doesn't, I spread the mulch around my veggies for weed and moisture control. It turns to dirt for the next season. Been doing this for nearly 30 years. Main benefit of composting is it'll kill weed seeds.

You just need to get your C:N ratio to around 25-30, a little bit of brown, a little bit of green, some moisture and some enzymes (available in a little bit of dirt). There are some good articles to be found by searching on the internet.

Ralph

 

[theboman]

My pile is not a scientific pile, not even color coded but seems to work for my needs.
When I sweep the lawn after mowing I pile the clippings in a pile. It's pretty good sized most the time. The next time I sweep I start a new pile and put the old pile on top.
As the leaves start falling I'll start a new pile and get the old pile and put it on top.
Many times I get piles of weeds, former garden plants etc and add to the mix.
I may turn the pile a time or two between adding stuff and water is supplied by rain.

I've used the compost on low spots around the yard etc and it works great.

BTW, my compost piles are right on the ground, and from time to time when mixing (or turning) I get a nice gob of mother earth that mixes thru... Ain't nothin' finer smelling than a compost pile in the middle of a hot summer day!

 

[MossRoad]

Our garden is pretty small. I take four old skids, stand them on end and make a box. I use 4" screws and just screw the tops together, one screw in each corner.

I start filling the first box with scraps, alternating green and brown material, with some occasional chips, etc... pretty much anything that was once plant matter. Coffee grounds and egg shells, too.

After a few weeks of this, the box gets full. Then I take three more skids and make a second box off one side of the first box. I remove the front skid off the full box and fork the material over into the second box. This effectively turns the pile and only takes about 5-10 minutes of much needed excercise.

Then I replace the skid and start filling the first box again. After it fills up, I take three more skids and make a third box off the side of the second box, remove the front skid off box #2 and fork it into box #3. Then I fork box #1 into box #2 and start filling it again.

When box #1 is full for the third time, I fork the stuff out of box #3 and run it over a frame that has 1/4" hardware cloth in it. This sifts if pretty nice. Anything left in the screen gets dumped into box #1 for a trip through the process again.

When #3 is empty, I fork everything in from #2, then fork #1 into #2. Box #1 is usually pretty rotted out by three months, so I smash up the skid and put it in a brush pile and build another box out of fresh skids.

This system has worked well for many years. I get so much dirt and compost out of this system that I cannot use it all in my garden, so I just pile it up in the back yard. We've lived in the house for 10 years. Last year I spread out the pile into a berm along the back of our property. It ended up being 4 feet wide at the bottom, two feet high at the top, and 110' long. That's alot of dirt from primarily kitchen scraps, bush trimmings, leaves and garden waste! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I also have a few piles that I just dump stuff on and let rot for a year without doing anything to them except for the occasional turning with the forks. That works too, but the three bin system is much more efficient and productive and only takes about 10-20 minutes once a month.

 

[Volfandt]

I don't use bins either. I just make a pile and add to it over the course of the season. For me it makes turning w/the FEL easier. I turn the older over the newer to get the fresh cuts into the middle. The pictured compost is all thats left over from last years grass & leaf clippings and it was gone shortly later. It was my 1st batch /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
All the Mrs's plants got side dressed with it this year.
It was dark brown, moist and with a somewhat pleasent aroma, just like I'd heard it would be. This years pile is about double last years.

Volfandt