jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Last fall, I started a composting pail, with help from people here. I took a large plastic garbage pail, drilled 1" holes in the side, and started filling it with composting waste. It's about 3/4 full, and it seems to be making nice compost. My question is, what do I do now?

If I keep putting grass and food scraps in there, it will never be just compost that I can use. It will always have some new, unprocessed material in there. Do I have to start on another composter and let the first one sit?

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Composting requires some turning occasionally. If you just layer stuff you will get anaerobic decomposition, which is really smelly. Turning it allows air to get at everything which keeps the compost smelling reasonably good. Proper composting requires both carbon and nitrogen, in a ratio approximately 20:1. Carbon is dry leaves and brown stuff. Nitrogen is green stuff. Just using grass and vegetable trimmings is probably too much nitrogen. Add some leaves. Small sticks are OK. Larger sticks will take a while to break down. The key is surface area of the chunks. Small particles have more surface area per weight of material so there's more surface for the composting bacteria to work on.

I'd get another barrel and let the first one work for a while. I generally don't use barrels for my compost, but I have a lot of material (a pile about 10 x 10 x 20 ft) so a barrel is impractical. So I have compost piles, not compost pails.

I turn the pile once a year when I move it to another location to make room for the new pile. After the second move (in the fall) it's ready to spread on the field (in the spring).

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, I've been turning it, and I like seeing the compost that's appearing.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

When my father spread the compost he'd been saving for a number of years, we had the biggest, firmest, and sweetest red tomatoes I have ever tasted in my life.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I think I'll have to wait till next year to use this, since I've been adding new ingredients every day.

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

I read somewhere, years ago, about putting vegetable & fruit peelings into your blender with water and blending it on high so that it was really totally liquified, and you could pour it directly onto the base of your plants. I did that for many years and my flowers & vegetables seemed pretty happy with it. It also kept the raccoons out of my compost pile of mostly leaves and grass.

daplight Loc: Kansas

I would turn the pile more, to expedite the compost. If you can turn every month, add some water as well, you will have good compost to use within a couple of months. You can also add a little urea, (46-0-0-nitrogen) onto leaves. I've built my compost bins out of pallets, stapling chicken wire on the inside so bins get the air they need. A manure fork is a wonderful and necessary tool to have for this task.

A lot of work, but worth it if you like gardening.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

This is made from a large plastic garbage pail, so I can roll it to mix it a bit. I also stir it up with a stick. It's amazing how all that stuff decomposes. It's also saving me money paying to get rid of garbage.

bookman Loc: Southeast Michigan

Jerry, when we were first married (45 years ago) I steered my white-bread, plastic-world wife into more healthy ways to live. She started embracing organic-style gardening, eliminating as many manufactured chemicals from our lives as we could, etc. She started composting our kitchen and yard 'wastes' and over the years has become almost obsessive about it. We now have eight compost bins, some homemade and some commercial and I don't dare toss anything that can be composted into the trash. Did I say 'almost obsessive'?

Not suggesting you go to that extreme but with only one composter, you will have to just let it go to compost at some point, empty it and start again. Two bins/pails might be a good solution and just stagger their processing times. :thumbup: :thumbup:

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Thanks. I'll have to get another. I saw a composter at Sam's Club. It was plastic, on a stand, with a handle to rotate it. The price was $150. I can get a large garbage pail for $10 or less and drill some holes in it.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I used to have a second bucket, dump from one to the other speeds things up, lately just making a big pile and digging out the bottom , the way my Father and Uncle did.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

With three dogs out there, I'm not going to dump food on the ground. :D

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

What kind of 'food', we and I never put real food in the compost, corn husks, cobs, vegetable ends etc OK but no meats or other vermin attracting stuff, we have enough stray cat problems as it is here, BTW what kind of dogs?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right - only plant/vegetable matter. Cats and dogs aren't a problem with the garbage. It's the bears that can cause trouble. They can tear anything apart to get at good-smelling garbage. They've taken my storage box apart, opened a garbage pail, and taken a bag into the woods for dinner. Cleanup is a mess. They also rip open wooden garbage sheds.

Two pugs and a dachshund.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

Bears could be a problem, we have stray cats and an occasional coon or skunk, our daughter has 3 dogs, puggle and two rat terriers, the smaller rat terrier is a cat chaser, don't know what she'd do if she ever caught a cat, she weighs about 9 lbs.