Best Composting Tips

Some of the dahlias have been blackened by frost, so I am starting to buck up the stalks to add to the compost. I still have some brown leaves from last autumn that I am layering in the bins, which is really handy. The leaves are mostly still intact, with some leaf mold developing. My goal is to store a lot of leaves again this year so I can add even more brown leaves each time I flip the compost piles; they have been fantastic to add in between the layers of green waste. When I was at a recent garden session and composting came up the moderator said 'just keep adding more brown.' I think that makes for really good compost. I am also going to keep my bins a bit drier this winter, because once the cold weather arrives they stay on the wet side. As with many aspects of gardening, composting is part art and part science.

In the past I rarely flipped my bins, but thanks to all of you I have learned what a positive difference it makes. Now I love being able to flip the bins, an outdoor activity that I can even do in winter. I even bought myself a compost thermometer.

It was nice and dry today, so I grabbed my garden fork and spent some quality time with my compost bins. Two were filled to the brim just a couple of months ago, and now they have shrunk down a lot. I flipped them and managed to fit it all in to just one bin, as well as turning a third bin full of winter kitchen scraps, maple leaves, bunny bedding, and bunny poop. The half-finished compost from the fall looked really good, and had lots of big worms. For the first time I have all three bins side by side, with two full bins and one empty one-- so now I can turn them quite easily. I just love compost.

This years garden trimmings. I use the tractor bucket to turn the pile . By next season I push aside the top section and dig down to the black gold soil with worms . Scoop up piles and top dress a few garden areas. No weed seeds down that low under the pile. Give it a mix with the tractor bucket to age for the next year. It’s a simplified system for the ‘Lazy Gardener’, but it works for me. Not nearly a neat and clean as most other compost pics on this thread.

Trust me-- if I had a tractor I would be using a tractor, and not caring what the pile looked like. You are so lucky Shades-of Oregon!

Thanks it’s handy but not that great on hills. Lucky when it’s running. I got tired of being charged an arm and leg for yearly maintenance.
So I learned how to change the oil , gas filter and oil filter. Clean the engine and changed transmission fluid. I pour the oil mixed with water down the rabbit holes out under the barn .They hate that move out quicker than a kid chasing a icecream truck.

Branching Out said:

Trust me-- if I had a tractor I would be using a tractor, and not caring what the pile looked like. You are so lucky Shades-of Oregon!

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my version buries most garden debris in the garden where it is at so it isn't a compost pile as much as a trench that gets buried and left over the winter. by spring most of it has settled back down and i level it off and plant through or over it or whatever depending upon which direction and placement i'm running my rows. this way i'm not disturbing the whole garden. the worms get to sort it all out eventually.

@flowerbug thats a great way to compost garden debris. It’s amazing how fast it settles and breaks down.
In part of my garden there are little piles of this and that clippings fallen branches . I hide under shrubs. Some sorta breaks down by spring. At some point leaves left on the pasture grass left a fairy ring. I’ve heard about them but never actually had fairy’s party in my garden. Proof fairy’s do exist.

p.s. it is a really bad idea to dump used engine oils and other fluids on the ground. most car repair places that do oil changes will take that oil and recycle it.

JalapenosinDelco said:

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We’ve always had compost going, but as our garden is growing we needed more! And having 6 people in our house, we’re certainly creating enough usable scraps.
I had a lot of help from my step-son who was the only one of the kids into this.
We collected free wooden pallets from a store nearby, I asked the manager first.
Cleaned out a large mound of decomposing grass as that’s where my husband dumps the lawn clippings.
Then we inserted the pieces, held together with zip ties.
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We completed it with a front “gate” and a pallet on top, and some chicken wire fencing on the inside to help prevent critters from getting in.
So there to you have it. An almost free compost pile, with almost free labor to boot!
Looking here for composting ideas, what works, what manure you’re using if any, how to keep costs down, how to keep critters out...
Thanks for reading!

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What an amazing little Gardener; U R truly Blessed ... thank you for sharing : )