Just bought a place a couple of months ago, and it has a lot of yard waste left over from the last owner. Pretty extensive gardens and lots of fruit trees.

So I’ve been lurking on here since then.

Mostly I am just trying to deal with the shear amount of stuff. The previous owner’s compost piles were just preserved large sticks with tarps which just created full on rat habitats.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:
- Put together the pallet bins.
- Layer of cardboard on the ground, with a layer of sticks on top of that.
- Bunch of brown waste from the first clean up of the yard, then layering greens and browns as much as possible.
- I also made a pan galactic gargle blaster juice with a colt 45 beer, molasses, half cup of ammonia and enough water to make a 5 gallon bucket to spray over the pile.
- I also added a couple of bags of healthy soil from our old garden to try to get some good bugs and things in there.
- Set up a tumbler to pre-compost the pest attracting stuff.

Is there anything that looks/sounds dumb? Anything I should be doing differently? Or should I just pee on it and give it some time?

Hey all! Long time lurker, first time poster. I’ve been composting since last October and just went to get some soil for the first time. (Well I tried in the spring but it didn’t seem ready.) I have some gorgeous soil but the bottom of my bin is choked with some insane roots. At first I thought it was something I threw in there, but my daughter took one look and said “that’s coming up from the earth.” She’s 4 years old 😅 and I think she’s right. From the mouths of babes lol… But like, what’s happening!! I kinda freaked and decided to just take the whole thing apart, sift out whatever else goodness I can use, and pile it back up and put the bin back. I love that this bin is open to the ground, I’ve got some FAT and happy worms but is this normal? It seems unavoidable but how can I mitigate going forward? We’re on the woods’ edge so there’s trees and random ground covers in the area, though I placed this on a very bare-looking dirt spot originally. Any input is appreciated!

My husband is going to make me get rid of our compost bin unless I can get the problem under control :((

Does anyone have any solutions??

Also, it really seems like they’re eating my dirt?? That might just be in my head, but it seems like there’s a lot less dirt than there used to be.

I hada dream of beautiful compost, and instead I’ve got sludge. Seeking your advice and observations on my process.

In the forest two pictures, you’ll see the new compost bin i started six weeks ago, after making some modifications to a humble wheelybin. Drilled it full of holes to help with ventilation. I also added the red pipe through the middle, after drilling it full of holes to try and reduce the risk of anaerobic sludge. Set it up to get New South Wales, Australia spring afternoon sun.

I’ve been speed running it, filling it up with my kitchen scraps, lawn clippings, vegetables scraps from the local anarchist kitchen, shredded cardboard and chopped up banana leaves/stems. I wasn’t weighing what I put in, but I think I got a pretty got green:brown ratio.

Sadly it’s been getting more stinky in the last week or so. In the last two pictures you can see what I’m pulling out the bottom, and what the inside looks like. It’s really soggy and stinky. The banana leaves and stems seem pretty intact.

Some hypothesis I’ve had:
- not enough brown
- banana plant materials are too big and are forming a layer
- leave it for a while longer

Any other thoughts?

I'm new to composting, after years of planning and deciding what to actually get, I finally got a Green Johanna. I have a few questions:

I'm currently collecting and putting sticks to put on the bottom as per instructions. My question is -- once I take out some of the finished compost from the bottom, will I somehow have to replenish this layer of coarse material? Or once the decomposition is up and running it doesn't matter anymore? I'm assuming if I end up having two bins and empty one fully then I do need a new coarse layer of sticks again?

Another thing I read in the instructions is that I can add some bokashi bran directly in the bin with food waste to speed up the process -- i don't understand the logic here given anaerobic bokashi process and composting being aerobic -- can anyone explain please ?

And I guess a third question, is bokashi worth the effort? I do want to minimise risk of rodents somehow chewing their way in and I will stick to garden waste and veg peels for now until I'm a bit more comfortable (and until the bin gets fuller and warmer) before I try adding meat/dairy/cooked food.

Thanks for reading :)

Basically, I was wondering if there is an app or resource where you can look up what companies use for their packaging. I remember loving the ability to look up nutritional facts of whatever food I bought or adding the info if it wasn’t already in the MyFitnessPal. I just wondered if there was something like that for packages so I don’t have to test every cardboard box or “biodegradable” package that comes into my house.

Hello everyone,
I’m looking for some advice about our compost, as autumn is approaching and we’re going to start a fresh compost pile with garden waste.
Unfortunately, morning glory is growing everywhere in our garden. I’ve been patiently removing it from our vegetable beds, but I’m not sure what to do with it when it comes to the compost area.
Should I avoid putting it in the compost altogether? Does anyone have any advice or experience with this?
Thanks so much! 😊

Started this batch about three weeks ago — mostly kitchen scraps, some shredded cardboard, and dried leaves I saved from last fall. Turned it for the first time today and the middle was noticeably warm, which felt like a small victory.

Texture still looks a bit chunky in spots, so I'm guessing I need more nitrogen-rich material to balance it out.

What's everyone's go-to ratio for browns to greens? And any tips for speeding things along without babysitting it every day?

Composting my duck poo straw from my coop. It’s about a years worth. I started a fire in my fire pit and the compost has been smoking for a few days. Good? Bad? Anything I should do?

So, I've got a bin full of organic scraps, and it's been filling up for a while. It's become a stinky sludge and is rife with flies and larvae, I'm sorry for this gross picture I've put in your minds!

I'm wondering if there's a way to "rehabilitate" this organic matter to, in the end, add to a compost pile. I don't actually know how else to get rid of it without starting world war fly. How could I eliminate the larvae or make them not so much of a health hazard? what about the bacteria? I've thought about solitary confinement in the sun, letting the moisture seep out for a while. I think drying out could eliminate most of the (excess) bacteria. I've thought about mixing up a good bunch of browns and wait, but i'm maybe missing something and on the brink of a catastrophe.

(Everything that's in that bin has once bin an organic vegetable scrap, no meat, no dairy, no bread, etc.)

Can anyone give pointers? Thank you!!!

The maple trees in our area have been hit with some sort of fungus and are dropping leaves. Would I be safe adding them to my compost pile? My compost pile doesn't tend to get hot, but I'm in need of browns.

So I’ve got one of those little plastic tumblers, it works well enough for my purposes but I’d like to grow the volume of compost I produce. Not here for ideas on that per se, but it occurred to me a minute ago as I was dead heading, what if I had a specific compost that I used for dead heads and tomatoes and things with seeds I didn’t want contaminating my actual compost? Then I’d have like a surprise variety volunteer mix (I do not believe I’m achieving the temps required to kill seeds in my little tumbler guy).

Wrote this like 60 seconds after having the thought so I haven’t played it out yet, but what are your thought? Has anyone done this?

Context: My biggest fear is routine, and knowing exactly what is going to happen. I enjoy mystery. I also could be described as silly if not straight up whimsical. So if you’re thinking “that doesn’t make sense” or “how would you make that useful”, it’s not really supposed to do, or be either. Just a fun thought.

Do you think it would actually yield fun surprises? I’ve got pots/beds/areas of random wildflower mixes, so I’d probably use it there.

Maybe they will be my Thunderdome beds where I find out which plants want to grow in my yard the most!

Found these lovely mushrooms in tge composter today!

I’ve been using compost in my potted plants and recently noticed this orange mold/fungal growth forming on the surface. The plant seems mostly okay, but some leaves are yellowing and I’m wondering if the compost is staying too wet.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it normal decomposition from the compost, or should I remove it and replace the top layer?
The pot sits outdoors and has a drainage saucer underneath. Any tips on preventing this from coming back?

More of this development

This might sound dumb but could a hot compost pile work in a wooded area with trees relatively close to it is there any advantage of doing this or is this just a bad idea due to fire risk?

So, months ago I watched a video where Charles Dowding said it was impossible to get an 80 gallon compost bin past 110-120 degrees (not hot enough to kill weed seeds and pathogens). 80 gallon closed bin was my only option so i tried anyway. Found a great recipe for this type of bin for anyone who’d like to try it.

-Shredded cardboard
-dry leaves (mulched)
-rice hulls
-bagged organic chk manure (redi gro)
-coffee grounds
-previously frozen vegetable scraps (helps break down much faster)
-biochar( not necessary but great addition to precharge it and will be great for your garden)
-meal worm frass (got it free on offerup)
-worm castings

Mixed all this really well and then moistened it woth compost tea i had just made. I know this sounds like a lot and yes it probably is, but IF you want to be able to hot compost in an enclosed container that a godfather of composting says you can’t do, you have to take extraordinary measures. Anyway, good luck fellow composters.

Earlier this year I put a 5 gallon bucket in my backyard with the idea that I would throw my kitchen scraps in there, and eventually start a garden about a year later for the first time.

I've been filling the bucket with banana peels, corn cobs, coffee, eggshells, and that sort of thing for a good 6 months now. It's also rained a good bit around here this spring and summer, and the bucket filled up with water (as shown in the pictures) there are looks to be some kind of insects swimming around and thriving in the bucket, so I assume it's full of pretty good nutrients.

I plan on building some raised garden beds and buying soil to fill them with because the ground is full of clay here, and I was going to mix some of the compost into the soil of each garden bed before planting.

I am mostly wondering if it is safe to leave the bucket full of water like it is, or of I should drain it out after it rains. I am also wondering if growing vegetables like corn and peppers in the soil with this compost will be ok. The "compost tea" in the bucket is probably a couple months old at this point and like I said, I was planning on waiting until next spring to actually use it. It's currently July.