compost pile

[Naked Camper]

Does your family keep a compost pile? I have yet to google it, but how does it work? Anything specific I need to know? Do they smell horrible?

[summertimeshine]

Does your family keep a compost pile? I have yet to google it, but how does it work? Anything specific I need to know? Do they smell horrible?

We have one...It does not smell that I have noticed.

If you want a perfect pile follow these directions...but FTR we just have a pile in the corner of yard. Nothing fancy. Dh just turns the pile over every once in a while.
http://www.ehow.com/how_3541_begin-compost-pile.html

[mama-hobbit]

We have one.

We took a sheet of plastic lattice and wired it into a tube... everything gets put into it and it gets good airflow... we water it every now and then, and turn it. It works nice. It doesn't smell... and it makes nice compost. :)

[Teacher Mom]

We just throw it in the garden area and it gets tilled up for the next year. Nothing scientific about it.

[MotherSong]

We compost all vegetable waste.

DH made our bin. It is against a chain link fence, in the back yard. It has a wooden pallet for a bottom, and plastic sides with round holes, and a wooden top covered in tarp to keep rain out. We forget to stir it, until summer when it starts to smell, and then we do stir it more often with a shovel so our neighbors don't hate us.

It makes wonderful soil for our garden. The public library had a ton of books, and the county extension office (agricultural extension...something like that related to 4-H / gardening / farms) had a free class and some brochures. There's a lot of good info out there to read if you want to get really into it!

Love,
MotherSong

[Hannah Jo]

I don't have one now, but did when I was growing up. Nothing very scientific about ours, either. We actually had two piles- one for grass clippings and the other for kitchen waste. We just turned them once in a while. We had a bucket outside the kitchen door that held all the vegetable peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc. It was emptied out when it was full. The only rules we had were no cooked food and no meat.

There was something satisfying about seeing such rich soil develop from what would otherwise be thrown away.

[Littledisciples]

Growing up we had a coffee can just for that purpose. We threw all the vegtable extra's in it. So then when it was full they would crush it up or just throw it in the garden. We had a bigger bin outside that you threw it all in. Then their was a lid that sealed. You turned the crank and the inside would move like a blender of sorts. IT got all crushed and their was a hold to put water in. So a bit of water you got this mucky stuff. That went in the garden. Yummy hugh LOL. Mom had the best garden around.

[Iarwain]

We have mega-compost. I fell off the wagon for a year or two and really missed it. Now, because of the chickens, sheep, and goats we have loads of waste hay and "other" erm... stuff. Stuff that makes very nice compost however! I'm a lazy composter. We used to just do a pile in the corner of the yard and at that time we did occasionally turn it. Right now what I have is a length of spare fencing wrapped into a circle and filled to the top. I toss food scraps in and sort of try to cover them. I need to build a second pile because this one is hugely full and I have a ton more hay to clean up and a chicken house to clean out. There's too much to mess with turning so I just leave it and come fall or whenever I need it I'll dig it out and put the stuff that hasn't fully broken down back in to start a new pile.

Compost happens. It's just the process of rotting controlled for our convenience. You can be all technical about it and build and tend the perfect pile or you can completely ignore it. Either way you'll wind up with compost. You just get to decide how fast it happens and what it looks/smells like as it happens (and yes you can have a non-stinky pile without too much trouble).

[CJ]

We have too many rodent issues to have a compost pile around here. Anyone find a solution to that? I've seen rodent-proof ones advertised in gardening catalogs but am afraid of springing the $ for one if I'm not sure it will really work.

[r2dab2da]

We have too many rodent issues to have a compost pile around here. Anyone find a solution to that? I've seen rodent-proof ones advertised in gardening catalogs but am afraid of springing the $ for one if I'm not sure it will really work.


We just started pretty small with a half keg wine barrel thing. I plan to get more. We do ours with worms though. I only started composting because my 2 younger kids like to have "pet" worms and I was running out of space. We also have a cat and a few neighborhood cats so there aren't too many rodents.