please help with my compost!!?

Question

i am a keen but novice gardener and have just bought a composter. I dont know what i should put in it and what i shouldnt, please help!!

Answer 1

Hi

I hope this helps here is a list of put in and leave outs:

In's

peeling potato & onion
carrots
old leaves and grass cuttings
egg boxes
apple cores
cardboard boxes (broken in small pieces and soaked in water)
banana skins
egg shells
tea bags

leave outs:

meat bones
bottles
cheese
fish bones
food scraps
dandelion weeds
tins
cat litter

Hope this is of some help

Answer 2

Well I only started gardening about 2 years ago, and got myself some wooden composters and a plastic one from the local council. I put all my vege peelings, kitchen waste (but not meat cos can attract vermin), egg shells, tea bags, garden waste/weeds etc. earth from discarded flower pots, horse manure, grass cuttings, a few wet newpapers, some seaweed - and this year have the most marvellous compost you could imagine and my garden's growing well. I have learnt as a new gardener it is trial and error, and go with your gut feeling. Some things can be learnt from books but most is using your common sense and getting to know your plants. Have fun - it's great digging in your first lot of rich organic compost - what an achievement!!!!

Answer 3

Anything that's ever been grown. So, all fruit and veg peelings, any fruit or veg that's going off, any prunings or clippings from the garden (might want to shred them first), flowers, egg shells, grass cuttings and leaves. If it gets too wet, add some torn up cardboard. Cover it with old carpet to make sure it reaches the right temperature and fork over now and again. If you have some compost ready made, chuck some of that in as it helps to get the rest started, when you use it save the last to start off the next lot. Some people say it's OK to add weeds as long as it reaches a high enough temperature to kill the seeds off but I never do. Some also say p**ing in it helps! Leaves take ages to break down so you might want to do a leaf pile separately. Just cover them with something dark like weed liner and fork over occasionally, makes really good leaf mould.

Answer 4

Beware of cut and pasted answers. Take your advice from people who really do it.

Start your first batch with compostibles (see list below)and about a pint of bagged compost from the store, or manure that doesn't have worm medicine in it.

I collect veggie and fruit scraps, egg shells, paper goods and hair, and dryer lint in a paper bag in my fridge and when the bag is full, I toss it in bag and all, and give it 5 spins unless it's colder than 40 degrees outside.

When the weather is 40 degrees or higher, I spin twice a week even if I don't add anything. I never add water. In fact I sometimes have to turn it with the lid down so water can run out!

If it gets smelly I add shredded paper or chopped leaves. I also add comfrey stems that I grow just for comsposting. I add garden clippings but not weeds.

I have 2 bins. One gets dumped in the spring and one gets dumped in the fall. When I dump one, I stop filling the other and let it cook, and that's the next one to be dumped.

I dump it onto a tarp and put a little bit back in to start the next batch. Then I drag the tarp to a corner of the yard and tip out the compost onto the ground, then cover it with the tarp and leave it for one season to get worms crawling through it.

So there are 2 piles of compost in the yard but they're only 3 feet across. I never screen it, it's ready after seasoning.

Answer 5

anything that is biodegradable can be use as compost no bones take to long to decompose,no man made products,you can use newspapers any thing that will break down and be show to turn it at least once per week air helps to break it down and keep it free of diseases

Answer 6

No protein at all. Eggshells, not the eggs. Seafood shells but not the meat. Like that. All kinds of green and brown organic matter, like leaves and kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and water it lightly every now and then when you turn it over.

Answer 7

Put in garden cuttings, grass cuttings, uncooked remains of veg chopped in the kitchen and shredded paper. Avoid perennial weeds like bindweed.

Answer 8

Have a look at this site, there's also a cute little game called Hurl-A-Heap which will teach you what's good to compost.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/htbg/module7/making_your_own_compost1.shtml

You want to promote heat and air, and a good mix of green and brown material.

Answer 9

Just not too much wet stuff or it will turn slimy ....as far as foods, eggshells, coffee grounds, banana peels, a good amount of "greens" ---grass clippings, leaves, limbs, etc. to balance out the foodstuffs.

Answer 10

cannot compete with shannon easy all green waste into bin with paper and some soil let nature do the rest !!!! good luck