Compost

My husband said that you just put leaves,dirt, and vegtable leaves like lettuce, like when you clean lettuce, cabbage,and type vegtable that you don't use, like potato peelings and just keep turning it all the time,he said you just keep turning it until everything has rotted,and he said it is ready when it all just turns black & is just dirt and then it is ready to use..He use to have agarden so he knows,so thats what he said..I have never had a compost myself but he has..

Just cordon off a small area with some old pieces of wood and perhaps tin sheets if you can get them, place hedge cuttings, leaves, waste vegetables and grass cuttings etc, every now and again, put some manure at certain levels to help it all rot down. Take compost from the bottom of the heap.. That's how I used to make it.. It can small or big as you need to fit in with the garden. Hope this helps.

I think it takes about 6 weeks to compost. Find a small area of your yard & dig a bit of a hole. This is where you can dump your scraps. Just collect all vege & fruit scraps (except onion) & add it to this hole. Every now & then add some torn up newspaper. You can also add a good quality potting mix. Turn it around every day, so it gets a good airing. You can add all sorts of garden clippings too, but I would recommend weeds.

I used to make compost in a locking garbage can with small holes drilled over it, including the lid, for air and water management. I started with a couple shovels full of good wormy dirt, then added veg trimmings, coffee grounds and grass and other soft yard waste I knew was safe. When it needed turning, I'd just lay it on its side and roll it around! Compost is ready when its broken down into small pieces, and looks mostly like dirt. You can put it through a 1/2 inch hardware-cloth sieve, then put the big pieces back into the bin to break down even more. And put the worms back in it because they'll do most of the work for you, and their waste, or 'castings', are like gold!

Hey Coffee, I love your nickname:) Anyway, curious to know if you've started composting with any of the ideas you got from here? Any tips you've learned yourself? I'm new to the composting thing as well. Two years ago we tried the bin, but it didn't work out well for us. I found you have to turn the compost an awful lot, otherwise you end up with mold, instead of nice healthy soil. So this year we are doing the heap. It seems to already be breaking down. Every time I turn the heap, more lose crumbly dirt falls to the bottom. YEAH! Any way, since you mentioned you have very little area to work with, I wanted to pass a tidbit on that I got from a friend. They have a heap, a worm bed, and bins. They are homeschoolers, and this gives a project for each kid. This friend also told me that you can throw your scraps, egg shells, and coffee grounds into a blender or food processor. Blend it up till its kind of a thick soupy substance. Then you move the soil away from the sides of the plant, pour in the soup, replace the soil, and voila instant fertilizer.

We just make a compost pile next to the garden without placing it into anything at all. The best part of the compost will be at the very bottom. It's best to let it sit for a year before using it. You might want to start a couple different piles and use the oldest pile first.

Hi Coffee, alamode's got it right. Since this was posted 3 months ago, did you start composting with any of the ideas that were given? It takes a few months to really start to break down. You can also add peat moss in there with the veggie and fruit and egg shells, coffee grounds, etc. Hope its working out for you!

Another way is to shovel the garden soil up into raised beds by about 6 to 8" and then plant on the high places, During the growing season you will put your vegetable scraps in th low areas that yo walk on. You can cover this walk way with straw or even boars. At the end of the season you will shovel the soil from the high areas onto the low areas where the "compost is being make. Each year you will do the same thing, thereby enriching the garden soil every year and helping to keep weeds down by "rotation the garden area.

Having grown up on a farm where we raised nearly everything we ate, I remember the low-tech compost heaps well. It was always so fascinating to see the junk turn into rich dark lovely smelling earth again and watch the new plants thrive in it. We always just used "heaps" such as Goodie describes. I read the articles on new high tech compost systems, including the Japanese Bokashi with great interest, though, as getting new soil in just 2 weeks is pretty radical: http://www.biome.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=105 I would also be awfully curious to know if anyone here has ever bought one of these toys: http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Countertop-Compost-Pail/dp/B000075MI0 I have only done composting the "heap" way.

I say you can use plastic bags. Compost I think can be made by plant leaves and fruit outer layer, and will be ready when these are vanished into the soil. I don't know, I'm not a gardener, but frequently we send some for the school garden

I know that you want to make your own compost. I am suggesting you that you go to www.compostumbler.com. The company that sell the compost machines is based in Pennsylvania. I understand that the machines are very expensive. But that is worth the weight in gold. You can have at least one compostumbler to convert all your organic material into compost to use as soil. Let me know what you think.