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I would like to start composting but I am so confussed!!! I found this container that you can set on your kitchen counter as you collect materials. Ok, easy enough and not too expensive. After that I have no clue. I saw where you can buy this tumble bin thing that you keep outdoors that stores and creates the compost, but the cost is more than I can handle. What are all of my options and how do I even start a conpost. My goal is to have a herb garden in my kitchen or on my front porch so I really don't need to mass produce or anything. Also, how long would it be before I would be able to use the compost?

2007-07-04 12:52:35 · 3 answers · asked by Elizabeth C. 3 in Home & Garden Garden & Landscape

3 answers

Here's a cheap method that looks good but I haven't tried it: http://www.ehow.com/how_16876_make-compost-bin.html

I love the tumblers. Yes, they are expensive but worth it in my opinion because I'd have critters dragging stuff away all the time. My mom gave me one for my birthday and then the next year I bought one for myself. It advertises that it will be ready to use in 8 weeks, but that doesn't count winter in Maine where I live, since it can't cook when it's cold. Also if you fill gradually like we do, it takes a long time to fill it.

I have one bin cooking and one bin being filled. Since there are only 2 of us, it takes 6 months to fill a bin. I store my food scraps in our extra fridge, in a brown paper bag that sits in a plastic basket. We keep fruit and veg, eggshells and small pieces of cooked fish. When the bag is full, it goes into the spinner, bag and all, along with my dryer lint. I spin twice a week if I remember it. I don't spin at all if it's colder than 40 degrees during the day. In the summer I grow comfrey and I add branches of that every once in a while. It's not an exact science.

In spring and fall I empty the one that's been cooking and then leave the other one alone to cook. (I still spin it twice a week) Then the empty one is ready to start filling. Leave about a pint of compost in there for starter. (when you start your first batch, you can use commercial compost starter.) If one starts to smell bad, I add chopped leaves or shredded paper, about a bucket full.

The liquid that drips out over the weeks is not nice, but it won't hurt you. Just don't wear nice clothes when you spin. I never add water to my compost, and in fact I sometimes have to position the drum so that some water can run out.

The compost that is dumped out goes on the ground with a tarp over it. That gets the worms crawling through. Then when it's time to use it the next spring or fall, I don't have to screen it.

So that means it will be a year before you can use your first batch of compost, but after that, you'll have a batch every spring and every fall. Or if you only have one tumbler, you'll have to stop adding to it so that it can cook, and you'll have a batch once a year - more than enough for your herb pots.

My bins draw very few flies and then only fruit flies, never the big yucky ones, and spiders take care of the ones that are there. I break the webs but I never actually see a spider. The stuff looks horrible while it's composting, black greasy balls. But after a season on the ground, it's black gold.
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2007-07-04 13:35:44 · answer #1 · answered by Kacky 7 · 2 0

Worm Compost: We keep a cheap "made in Asia" stainless asparagus cooker from Goodwill (without the basket strainer) on our kitchen counter to collect our veggie & fruit clippings -- just the clean stuff. We toss anything else that comes with oils in it (bread, leftover food, etc. in the garden and kitchen waste recycle bin for weekly garbage pickup because we have a worm bin. I believe the worm bin processes slower even though I try to cut up my scraps. We open a trap door at the base of the bin periodically to harvest completed compost.-- not too frequently, maybe once or twice a year.

We have a large round black plastic bin with twist-on lid in the back corner of our yard. We sent away for the worms for our bin years ago and now there are hundreds of healthy worms living in it.

NEED MUSCLES AND A GARDEN FORK if you don't have a spinner: (Whatever you decide, be sure to maintain your compost: We also have little flies in the bin because my husband had been tossing the vegetable waste on top without turning it each time. Since I started turning it with a garden fork (and reminding him to do it, too) the fly problem has almost been abated.)

The worm bin should smell sweet and clean if you keep it turned and just moist enough.

I read about one woman who kept a small worm bin on her porch. I don't know much about that, though.

Sometimes I wished that we had started a different kind of composting (with chemicals) then we could accept more types of matter and maybe stuff would break down faster..

2007-07-04 20:44:08 · answer #2 · answered by Lynda 7 · 0 0

you can put anything that's biodegradable in it,doing the heat of the summer it will break down faster,you have to turn it every few days to cause air to filtrate through it,in about two months you should be able to use it,cover it so the animals won't bother it

2007-07-04 20:46:50 · answer #3 · answered by thomasl 6 · 0 0

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