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Composting

P. Dreadie

P. Dreadie

I was talking to a friend here and said I need to make a compost bin or something. He offer to give me a tumbler he doesn't use. So I starting reading on line..... I read that lawn clippings are good for starting compost but if that's what you use mostly you end up with a messy stinky pile of stuff. Grass clippings are something I can get every week. Same with kitchen scraps. But bigger stuff like leaves only come once a year. And then I only have 3 large trees and three smaller ones. What else can a guy use ?? Easy stuff to find I'm hoping.

My wife rides horses so I can get horse and cow poop . Also where I'd like to put the tumbler ( so I don't have to look at it ) is on the side of my house, but it doesn't get a lot of sun .... maybe 4 to 5 hours a day. Does that matter ?

Thanks & Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
I'm fairly new to composting but sunlight doesn't play into it much if at all. My wife has taught me that one doesn't even need a container. My wife creates a pile of leaves, corn stalks (any leftovers from the garden), kitchen waste (no meat), and general yard debris. She waters it daily and then with a hoe moves it around, which turns it over and over. I've been watching this process for almost a year (7 or 8 months) and by god it works! As to smell; I have never smelled anything foul or unpleasant from this. The ants love it, the birds love it and it just works. Anyway, something to think about. Remember; here in Thailand everything is 24/7/365.
Oh, and I have worms (big ones) in my raised beds for my Habaneros (red & orange) and before this I had never seen a worm here. Cheers.
 
I like to keep my main overwintered compost piles in direct sun or it takes until summer to thaw out completely, although its likely not a problem in Texas or with a tumbler.
I add almost anything organic. You can add manure if needed but you really want a good carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and grass clippings & food scraps should have lots of nitrogen. For basic carbon I add lots of used tissue like paper-towels, napkins and even shredded newspaper although leaves are my main concern here in Potawie-land
 
Grass clippings, as said above, contains a lot of nitrogen, if it's not well mixed, it will just rot in a bad way.
But you can mix some with other stuff, or let it dry before putting it in the compost pile (you don't really need a container, you can make a pile between some wiring (like those used for chickens) or wooden pallets).
The pile must have a good size to work well, around 1m² is ok.
Kitchen waste is good (organic, and it's better not to use meat).

Horse poo may be better than cow poo, because it contains more fiber.

But with all that, you'll end with a too low carbon/nitrogen ratio, adding dry leaves is good, but may not be enough. If you can get some wheat straw, it could be good to put in the compost.
You can use your garden waste too, corn or sunflowers stalks if you have some, even dried weeds. Crushed small branches is good too.

The pile doesn't really need sun (it could be too dry), but must stay moist (not too much, some people cover the pile when it's raining too much) and you can mix it a little sometimes to add oxygen, and add some water if necessary.
 
Thanks everyone & SS that's great a link. The wife brought something up about the horse poo...... they use wormer on the horses. Would thar effect things , be bad for humans or something. I know they give cattle all kinds of crap too.

Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
I've done a lot of reading about composting, but I've never made a very successful attempt. I definitely want to incorporate homemade compost into my garden, but I've yet to find the magic recipe for the level of input I'm willing to give to it right now.

From what I remember, you have to be careful with grass clippings because if they get too wet they will just rot instead of decompose. When they rot they go anaerobic which kills all of the beneficial microorganisms that you are actually trying to grow. The trick is to get the right mix of greens and browns and to keep them at the ideal level of moisture. How to achieve this is beyond me though lol.

You also mentioned you have access to leaves, but only once a year. Not necessarily a bad thing, because from what I've read it is best to give the leaves a year to decompose into leaf mold before incorporating it into a compost pile. And even then it contributes to the finished product mostly as a organic filler.

And as far as the horse manure goes... I don't know anything about the worms. But I have read that horses are not able to break down seeds like cows can. So, if you decided to use horse manure, you would have to get the pile to a high enough temperature to sterilize any seeds that the horses might have eaten and passed.
 
I don't have but three smaller trees but I collect enough leaves to last a year - store them in garbage bags. I add a layer of green stuff (tomato leaves which are starting to die, weeds, grass, etc., then a layer of leaves. If I run out, I let some grass, weeds or leaves dry and then use it. Almost everything from kitchen waste goes into it: tea leaves, corn silk and cobs, stalks from broccoli that get cut off the heads, pizza crust, left over meals that do not get eaten in time. I'll also add newspapers, small twigs, tissue paper, even meat. Just make sure that it is buried deep enough in the other stuff so as to not attract animals.

Come fall, I'll pull up all the pepper, bean, cucumber, tomato, etc., plants and using the lawn mower cut them up. In spring, I mow my winter wheat or rye grass cover crop, add it and some of the leaves I collected the previous fall.

Mike
 
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