Compost question

Mrs Manners

I'm making a not-so-fancy garbage can compost bin. A few questions:

If you made something similar, how big were the holes you drilled?

Do you place your compost bin in the sun or the shade?

Do you go out of your way to chop up items smaller before placing in the bin (ie. veggie waste, etc)?

What do you typically compost?

If you compost grass clippings, do you have a chemical lawn service that sprays your lawn (I'm going to attempt an organic garden so it seems like I wouldn't want to use the chemically sprayed grass we're required to have in our neighborhood)?

Do you use worms in your compost bin?

Anything else I need to know?

curlydoglover

Do you place your compost bin in the sun or the shade? Ours is in part-sun.

Do you go out of your way to chop up items smaller before placing in the bin (ie. veggie waste, etc)? Naw.

What do you typically compost? Kitchen scraps, yard waste

If you compost grass clippings, do you have a chemical lawn service that sprays your lawn? We don't compost them, we leave them on the lawn.  No, we do not have a lawn service or use chemical weed control.

Do you use worms in your compost bin? No.  Though I'm sure they find their way in since ours is open to the ground.  I've thought about vermicomposting, but never really get around to it.

mindyandmike

Do you place your compost bin in the sun or the shade? mine is in full sun

Do you go out of your way to chop up items smaller before placing in the bin (ie. veggie waste, etc)? sometimes but mostly not

What do you typically compost? kitchen scraps, shredded papers, sometimes tp tubes if I think about it.

If you compost grass clippings, do you have a chemical lawn service that sprays your lawn (I'm going to attempt an organic garden so it seems like I wouldn't want to use the chemically sprayed grass we're required to have in our neighborhood)? I compost grass clippings a few times through the warmer months, we do not use chemicals on our lawn.

Do you use worms in your compost bin? ours is open to the ground so worms make their way in (I got super excited when I saw my first worm!).

Anything else I need to know? make sure that your compost doesn't get too dry otherwise it will take a long time to break down. When I dump items in I usually dig a hole in the middle of the pile in my bin (with a pitch fork) and put the scraps in there and then cover it.

hoping4septimus

Mrs Manners:

I'm making a not-so-fancy garbage can compost bin. A few questions:

If you made something similar, how big were the holes you drilled? about 1/2" diameter and there are a lot of them. Make sure you put some on the bottom too.

Do you place your compost bin in the sun or the shade? Mostly sun (I figured anything I could do to make the temperature get high enough fast.

Do you go out of your way to chop up items smaller before placing in the bin (ie. veggie waste, etc)? No...

What do you typically compost? kitchen and yard waste (unfortunately I only have 2 bins so I can only compost so much... a lot ends up going to the county in compost bags

If you compost grass clippings, do you have a chemical lawn service that sprays your lawn (I'm going to attempt an organic garden so it seems like I wouldn't want to use the chemically sprayed grass we're required to have in our neighborhood)?  I use a green lawn company.

Do you use worms in your compost bin? Yes! When I dug my garden beds I had my sons collect all the worms we found and put them in the compost bins. Now my compost bin has so many worms it is amazing

Anything else I need to know? Rotate your compost fairly regularly. I use a pitch fork and also put the lid on tight and roll it