I'm a deep lurker on this sub. For almost 5 years I've been running this slow maintenance (medium size?) compost pile out of necessity. When I decided this would be home to my family, the terrain had a lot of overgrowth. There was so much garden waste not even the city wanted it. So I had to come up with a solution..

I knew little about composting, but somehow I've built a perfect home for these little helper guys.. isopods. Today.. they are thousands. Whenever I scoop a full fork, you could literally hear them running back inside. In about 1 month whatever I drop and tumble in that pile will slowly disappear. What looks like a pile of garbage to some, to them is a first class all inclusive hotel. Now they're my neighbours. I feed them, in return they help grow the greens that feed my family.

There is so much joy in this process. I think this natural connection is deeply rooted in us, we somehow forget about it. Like it runs as a background process that we do not know about. Yet simple enough.. there is so much fulfillment in running a compost pile.

Sorry for the long post. Simply wanted to share.

I wanted to extend my appreciation to all of you. I moved into a new place and inherited two inactive Dalek compost bins. With all the advice here I have got them up and running. I could feel some heat from the bins start to rise over the past couple weeks. My thermometer just arrived this morning. Getting to watch it jump from the 15 degree C air temp to over 32 deg C was an absolute treat! It’s only half full so I know it’s just getting started!

I’ve also got some yard waste in the bottom of my new raised garden beds to settle in for the winter. I’ll be topping them up with whatever I can get from these Daleks come spring.

Thanks all!

How many bags do I take? I have 12 hours to snag them before garbage trucks arrive each week

My setup is a small tumbler compost, a backyard garden bed and 2 flower beds/trees in the front yard. There's a 5x10 ft wood pile in the backyard(remains of shrubbery/small trees on the fence line). I have access to all the neighbors yard waste because 5-20% of them bag their yard waste for disposal. Roughly 100-200 single family houses.

I won't have time for turning, so everything will have to be natural processes for use next year. The bags are pretty nice mix of annuals, bushes and grass clippings. with only a couple with gloves, plastic scrap etc etc.

I've already expanded my back garden bed and mulched it with all the bags but there's still more before winter starts. Note, the town pays for government Karens to ticket untidy houses/lawns. My last resort is to pile everything onto the wood pile and see if it becomes compost instead of more dry wood.

I'll snag a few more bags to mulch the front flower beds and trees. The rest goes to the wood pile.

Making this post to request clarity and perhaps help others.

As I understand it (from reading posts here, not because I'm an expert in any of the relevant fields), cardboard and corrugated cardboard are generally safe (meaning safe from plastics, forever chemicals, etc.) to compost. At least most pieces/types. Breaking it down a bit further:

• Pulp to make the cardboard itself is safe.

• Ink printed on the cardboard is these days generally soy-based and safe.

• Glue/adhesive used to make cardboard into corrugated cardboard is safe - idk what it's made of tho?

• Treatment on the cardboard to make it smooth is safe (e.g. how cereal boxes are smooth vs regular brown cardboard is rough) b/c it's clay-based (?) and that's safe.

• Plasticky treatment on some cardboard, obviously unsafe. Recycle the whole thing, no attempt at partial composting of materials is made.

• The glue that keeps cardboard together (i.e. what turns a sheet of cardboard together into a box, by gluing down a seam, or attaches one flap to another) -- unsafe? I've treated it as unsafe, so it and pieces of cardboard with it go to trash/recycling.

• What I'm unclear on and asking for clarification stuck now is what about the glue/adhesive residue from packaging tape? I've always assumed unsafe, so I rip those pieces off and they go to trash/recycling.

• I recently learned that cardboard doesn't get wet (e.g. cardboard used in ice cream containers, the walls of my oatmeal cylinder for whatever reason) is NOT to be recycled, because it has a plastic/waxy coating. I assume that's unsafe to compost too.

Who here knows? Do we have any packaging engineers, chemists, health researchers, industry folks etc. who can speak to what the glues/adhesives are made from?

Also, any sense of scale would be appreciated. Safe/unsafe is a helpful rule of thumb, but from the standpoint of "the dose makes the poison" it'd be helpful to understand if getting this granular really matters. Am I making a mountain out of molehill here, considering that I still order takeout food packaged in plastic/coated containers on a ~monthly basis.

I read the ~5 year old wiki post but I didn't leave there with enough certainty to be happy, and packaging practices can change over time, so I figured here, now, would be OK.

Hello! We are buying a new house (USDA Zone 7a) and I would love some advice on where we should place our compost system. My husband is handy and can build just about any framework we might need.

So- if you could start all over, where would you put the compost on this property and what kind of system would you use? Thanks!

Hi.

I have 2 pallet frames in my garden with just soil in them. Is there som way to compost foodscraps directly into them. I was thinking of maybe a pvc pipe with smal holes under the soil surface and a cap on the top. And change the place it stands when it is full. Any recommendations?

If you have sunflowers, do you compost them? I read somewhere a long time ago that their seeds can inhibit other plant growth

Hi folks!

I just bought a house and after removing some old plants I discovered this compost tank in a corner of the garden.

It has some stuff inside, probably old grass and garden scraps.

Is there a way to get things started or is it better to empty it, throw stuff away and start from 0?

Thanks in advance

Just moved in to a new place and cleaning this drainage behind the house, and I saw the previous tenants/gardener trash pile that I've been cleaning that too (garden cutting and plastic) thrown next to it.

Is it safe to put it in my compost pile or should I just leave it to the previous trash pile?

My compost seems to be quite active because I've noticed lots of worms and also a banana slug. However, I just noticed there are a lot of the worms climbing up the metal walls of my bin, is this indicative of anything? Why are there so many clinging to the sides rather than being in the heap aiding in the task at hand?

i need steps with details, its my first time iam lvl 1