making a compost pile with 15yds of lawn debris?

[aardvark]

Hello all, I've been working in my yard again lately since finishing most of my Wilma clanup and repairs. I've run the landscape rake over about 1/4-1/3 acre of the property, and have at least 6-8 yards of debris piled around in different places. Once I finish the rest of the I estimate I'll have about 12-15 yards of debris total.

Originally I figured I'd dig a hole and bury alot of it, and push some out to the curb for pickup by our local service. However, it seems alot easier just pushing all the debris into the corner of my lot and just letting it sit for a few years. On the positive side, I'll hopefully have a nice pile of dirt and compost when the time comes.

I did a search for compost already and read up on the desired 25-30:1 ratio of carbon:nitrogen. My question is, how do I get to that point? I've never made a compost pile before, please forgive the incredibly obvious questions.

Here is what I have:
1) dead grass which has turned brown - 40%
2) dried pin needles, pine cones, aand leaves - 40%
3) twigs and sticks, more dead than recently alive - 10%
4) sand - 5%
5) palm frons - 2%
6) misc junk (cloth, rags, paper, etc) and branches (2"-4" diameter) and fallen citrus fruit (oranges, grapefruit, etc) - remaining 3%

So, based on the above list, who do I determine what ratio of carbon to nitrogen I have? Any recommendations on the best mix of chemicals to add? I figure I'll push it all into the corner, which is sunny all day long, and pile it as high as I can. I pushed the Hurricane Wilma debris about eight feet high, and I can probably get the compost pile that high also. Will that help, or is that high just overkill?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[XANDROS_user]

Jared: You think u have a lemon, make lemonade. Here is my 2 cents on the KISS method. 8' high is good. Creates temperature and moisture. Turn the pile (maybe once a month), puts oxygen in the pile. Add any and all kitchen scraps Excepts meats and fats (these draw unwanted creatures to the pile). Think sugar. Sweetness feeds the microbes. They multiply. They consume the leaves, grass, etc. Mollasses is great but any sugars are ok. When you turn the pile notice the black (compost) on the bottom. Put that in your plant beds. Keep adding leaves etc to the pile. Remove the pine cones as you find them in the pile. Pine cones compost very, very slowly and are of no value to the soil. Rotate all organic material thru that pile and do not use any snythetic fertilizer again. Your proporty will love you.
Regards

 

[EddieWalker]

Paul James on HGTV says to pour a beer on a new compost pile to get things started. Beer has the ingredients needed to start the bacteria, or whatever it is, to begin the process.

On his show he had a small pile and poured one beer over it. Your pile is much larger, but I have no idea is more beer is better or not.

If it was me, I'd burn it and be done with it, but haveing some good soil for planting is allot smarte aproach.

Eddie

 

[aardvark]

I did some readng on the internet this morning, and it seems like I have about a 50-50 mix of greens to browns. It also seems like I need to chop the pine needles (I have alot of them) if I want to compost regularly.

However, I just want to get rid of the stuff in the quickest and simplest manner, and pushing it all into the corner and piling it with the loader fits the bill nicely. I'm going to do that, and spray it down with water, and maybe throw in some 10-10-10 fertilizer, per some of the other websites I found when I searched for "how to make compost" on Yahoo.

I can't reall burn the stuff, because at this point, where I live is practically the city (it used to be the country two years ago), and also we can't burn without a permit, or in the winter. It's pretty hard to get a burn permit in Palm Beach County anyway for a non commercial application. I tried last year for some other stuff and the fire dept said "no".

Digging a hole to bury it will take more time than pushing it into a pile. Pushing it to the curb will require me to seperate some and bag, which I really don't want to do either.

I never heard about the beer, but I have heard something similar with milk. Pour a gallon of milk around on the pile and it will attract the bacteria to start the process.

I'm still interested in hearing more ideas. Thanks.

 

[Farwell]

I would drink the beer and pour on the milk.
Farwell

 

[escavader]

I would drink the beer and use the recycled beer on it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[oliver28472]

Leave out the pine needles. They take a long time to break down may not be what you want in compost anyway. They make an excellent mulch. It costs 4.00 for a small bale of those around here.

 

[Glenn9643]

Don't get into too tight a place with your pile. Be sure you can get to it to turn every few weeks with the loader. If you can get it cooking the pine needles will melt in along with everything else. We have a gallon size plastic pitcher with a top that seals pretty well we use to collect kitchen wastes (egg shells, onion and other veggie peels/parts. basically everything short of meat and grease). Take a fork or shovel and dig a hole into your pile to empty that into when the pitcher fills. Occasionally water everything down. With the size pile you're talking about you shouldn't have a problem with running a hot pile.
You'll probably have to pick out sticks and pinecones before using the finished compost, but you can leave them for the next pile.