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Hi all,
My family and I would really like to start composting but we don't know where to begin. Since we live in upstate NY we also aren't sure of the best time of year to begin doing this since we are worried about being able to compost through the long winter.
We have ample space in our backyard to create a workable compost space...we just don't know where to start!
Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated!
:-)
I bought a compost bin from a garden catalog and been composting for about 8 years. I put just about everything from my kitchen in it except meat and onions and seeds (I grew some sort of squash one year out of the bin). I also put in my lawn clippings that I don't use as mulch in my veggie garden, during the summer. And my shredded tree leaves in the fall. I stir it weekly or when I remember and water it when it is dry (if it hasn't rained). I live in Colorado and last week was in the 60's so the top and outside layers thawed so I was able to stir it a bit and noticed that I have some nice big fat worms in it!!!! Every spring I empty out the bottom 3/4 of the bin (out of the handy opening on the bottom) and mix it in the garden. When I bought my house the soil in the veggie garden was a very heavy clay and now it is a nice loose dirt! You can also check with your local county extension agent for a brochure on composting! Good luck and enjoy it.
http://organicgardening.about.com/od/compost/ht/storagecompost.htm
I started composting about a year ago with a homemade plastic bin composter. The link above is to a step-by-step instructional page someone made on how to make your own. I use mine for lawn clippings, kitchen scraps, and scrap paper. My advice on following the project above is don't be afraid to make big holes (1/2 inch), and lots of them, in the top and sides and even the bottom of your composter. Also, it would be good to throw a tarp or something over it when it rains so your bin doesn't get too wet. And it should never smell as long as you avoid adding meat and dairy. If it does start to smell a little, it's probably too wet. Just shred some newspaper or add brown, dry, fully dead leaves to it. It's extremely low maintenance and I feel great because I'm putting my kitchen scraps to good use! Good luck!
this is prob. not your ordinary compost pile, but I choose an area which I will use as a new garden spot, put landscape timbers or logs around the circumference and divide it in thirds. I then fence it in and put an entrance. I lay heavy cardboard over the grass/weeds. I start with one section that year, lay some small twigs over that part of the cardboard and start dumping household veggie scraps and garden residue. I water it in the summer, never turn it, cover it a bag of good soil in fall and with straw for the winter but continue adding to it all winter also. I go through this process for 2 years. It is then ready to directly plant in and I begin the 2 year process for the second section. The only problem I have is the growing of plants in the compost, from the scraps. While composting I am getting tomato and squash growing freely from discarded veggies. I don't call this a problem though. I have done this for many years and have various garden areas around our area, still fenced and still producing.
You can start composting any time of year, you just may not see much breakdown until the warmer weather. My family has had a compost pile in northern Vermont since before I was born...nothing fancy, just a pile. We put all plant based waste in there, but avoided meat and bones so we wouldn't attract animals. We have never had an issue with smell (that comes more from the meat).
As for maintenance, it was pretty low key (this is a "cold" heap which takes a little longer to break down, but requires less labor). We would just pile the material on one end so that the pile grew in one direction for a year or two, then would start piling on the other end. Then we would dig into the pile to get the good soil out...ideally you should stir the pile, but it still works without it.
We started our first pile quite simply: we smashed our halloween pumpkins up against the fence and added some fall cleanup yard waste. Then we started adding small amounts of kitchen scraps through the winter. Because the pile was so small, it obviously didn't do much in the cold, but when we did our spring cleanup and mixed that pile in with the wintered-over pile, it eventually cooked and finished.
That summer, we bought a cedar slatted enclosure, and the next summer, a second one. The point is - composting is easy, not particularly scientific. Anything that would get stinky if you just left it sitting on your countertop for a few weeks should be buried in the pile or it will - you guessed it - start to smell. If you bury it in an active pile, and go back a couple of days later, you won't find it, unless it's something tough like bones or avocado pits. Even those go, eventually, though they do tend to cycle through a few piles :) Just make sure that you add enough "browns" (dried leaves, straw, wood chips) to balance your "greens" (kitchen scraps, grass clippings, weeds, green leaves), and site the pile close enough to be convenient, but not where it'll be an eyesore.
Our bins are like this one: http://www.cleanairgardening.com/wooden-compost-bin.html I like this design because it's a good size for a backyard pile, the cedar will last for a long time, but won't leach chemicals into the finished compost, it has three sides to allow air to get into the sides, and on the front, you can remove the slats for access, either when removing finished compost or for removing everything to turn it.
We have two, so we can have a finished bin that we're pulling compost from, and a working bin that we're adding to. Periodically, usually when we acquire some serious bulk, we will pull everything out and put it back in in layers. Bulk acquired can be wood chips from the city tree-trimming service, seaweed from the beach, or fall leaves from our yard and our neighbors'.
This is also a really useful little book: http://www.compost-bin.org/let-it-rot/
pretty good information
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/compost/edu.shtml
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