How to Make Compost Your Way
Your Compost Stories
It started round a fire at the grade 7 band camp. I was thinking about starting a compost website and asked everyone how to make compost. I expected everyone to say roughly the same thing - but no...
- Jim, a farmer, empties the slop bucket on the compost heap regularly and has done so for years. He's never actually used the compost though because he figures to make compost he has to turn it and he hasn't gotten round to that.
- Marlene, a gal living on an acreage stacks all the kitchen scraps, weeds, and ends of garden cleanup in a big pile and just leaves it alone. Come spring - ready or not - it all gets spread on the garden.
- Bill, a school principal, was battling fruit flies on the classroom worm farm front and considering buying a giant compost tumbler as an alternative.
- Laurie, a young mom, told me she just washes and preps the veggies in a big bowl and then heaves the water and peels directly on the garden every day.
- Mildred, a retired teacher assured me she composted everything. Everyday she digs a little hole is some part of the garden and drops in the days deposit.
I have yet to meet anyone who actually gathers together the regulation cubic yard of green and brown wastes and builds a pile the way nearly every compost brochure or website advises. Does no one follow the rules?
Which begs the question - How do you make Compost?
Compost Confessions
It's time to confess. Hardly anyone follows all the composting rules. There are almost as many ways to compost as there are people composting.
- Tell us your triumphs - a work free pile or a compost tumbler that left you with perfect compost.
- Tell us your nightmares - a fruit fly invasion, raccoon convention site or a rain induced slime fest.
What Other Visitors Have Said
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Rats and Compost
I have two compost piles. The first one is a layer of seaweed, layer of old dirt, layer of horse manure, layer of dirt and then repeat until desired size. …
Do you know how hot is hot?
Not if you can't find you compost thermometer! Yikes!
Last time I remember seeing the thermometer was when I was checking the pile last summer and …
I Accidentally Drown My Worms!
I was new to worm composting and had a lovely little colony I'd produced that was giving us tons of great fertilizer for our garden.
My neighbor, whose …
Lazy Man Composting
I have a small compost pile that I add some food scraps to, but I do not cook much, so that pile is small. My big compost piles are nothing more than piles …
Compost fit for a Skunk
When I first started composting, I didn't have a clue how to do it. I picked an area in the back of the garden, and just started dumping what ever I thought …
I let the worms do the work
After several failed attempts at a compost pile, I gave worm composting a try.
Some 6 years later and many many hundreds of pounds of produce turned into …
Cheap Dog Food Makes Great Tomato Crop
This is really part two to my story of the Fall Leaves. When I was planting out my tomatoes I pushed the mulch aside with my hands to make a hole for the …
Stinky Slimy Mess
Here is my compost fail story...
Several years ago, I worked as the gardener on a large estate. We mowed five acres of grass around the house and the …
Fall Leaf Lasagna Garden
When I was first married and living in Walnut Creek, California, I wanted a garden very much.
Unfortunately, the only available patch of ground had …
By The Book with an Earth Machine
All winter long, I collect my garden wastes in plastic pails on the deck outside my kitchen door where they freeze and thaw in our south Alberta chinook …
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