Composting?

[Mamaw]

DH has been wanting a composter like they advertise in magazines. I finally found one that is somewhat affordable in a gardening catalog and ordered it for the holidays. It is a round tank that you put the material in and spin every couple of days. Do any of you have one similiar and can you give any tips? I know nothing about making our own compost but wanted to give it a try in any case. Thanks all

[jdr250]

We compost but we just use a circle of chicken wire.
We throw everything in it that the chicken or dogs won't eat. Plus all of our gardening scraps. We water it whenever it begins to get dry. They should be moist.
It's great for your garden and another thing we've noticed is that we are emptying our garbage alot less because since there is no food only paper and plastic there is no smell.
The only thing is we are in a pretty rural area and have rats and mice etc. anyway but if you through food in, the rodents will come. We haven't noticed more of a rodent population because my dogs kill rats whenever they come in the yard so during the day it's no problem, now come night time I'm sure they're feasting. But hey I figure I'm contributing to the circle of life...LOL Mice eat the compost, stray cats eat the mice, my dogs eat the mice and stray cats.

[vigilant20]

I have one of those on my wish list! I may get one with part of my tax return. I have a very small yard so thought it would be my best option (especially with nosy neighbors that would complain about an eyesore pile or any smell it would produce). I just thought I'd reply so I can watch this too, I'm curious what people have to say about them.

[Ceashels]

I have one of these. I probably don't keep it as moist as I should, but things do break down. We have it in the sun to help keep it warm. The only thing I don't like is that depending on what is added to it.... it gets heavy and difficult to turn because the weight is below the pivot point. It is doing its job though and we don't have the problem with rodents as much as we used to.

[brook]

yes we had one... but first.. tell nosy neighbors it is Yard Art!

now to the had one... we bought one more for the novelty.. yard art. I have huge compost piles out by the barns... we get so much compost I dump it over the cliff.. I can always go get it if I needed it.

The boys... when the boys were too big to swat, had too much in their rooms to make grounding effective.. they did manual yard labor. One punishment was to turn the ball! they turned it all right! right over that cliff! down it rolled and they loved going down the driveway to retrieve it. A plastic ball can only take so many times of being kicked, pushed around, falling down 30 feet, rolled back up the driveway before the pieces just give way.

the boys graduated to mucking pens! and putting that into the compost piles!

Moral of the story.. don't have the boys roll it around at the same time!

To get it started, go get a bad of composted steer manure ... unless you have friends with livestock.. get a few shovel fulls of that.. throw it in the ball and so it begins! clean out your vegetable drawer, left over vegetables, leaves, anything organic.

[homesteadmamma]

We have one, although it doesn't turn. It sits by dh's workshop and we empty it each fall. It's the only fertilizer I use on my garden.

[madhen]

I just dump mine in a big pile in a spot in the garden. What the chickens don't eat, they turn into the soil. What they DO eat comes out the other end!

[57plymouth]

I just use a pile and a pitchfork. Works fine for me at least.

[Grainlady]

We have a ComposTumbler (www.compostumbler.com/). You'll get compost in 14 days.

You know your plants need compost if:

-they require frequent watering
-flowers only bloom for a short period of time
-colors of the blooms are weak and washed out
-plants don't grow to normal average heights
-plants show damage from disease

Best thing about a container composter, it keeps out rodents and insects. You only need to have one skunk attracted to the compost pile to teach you a valuable lesson.

Lawns love the stuff, however, weeds DON'T. So when you topdress your lawn with 1/2-inch of compost, you'll not only have great grass, but it helps eliminate weeds.

Plants grown in composted soil have fewer problems with plant diseases, especially fungus. Compost is supposed to help control fungus on container plants, in bedding areas, and the lawn.

Compost made with leaves as one of the ingredients is supposed to create an almost toxic effect on Nematodes.

[Minner77]

We discovered composting in late Oct, right before it started snowing! We went with the chicken wire/pile variety. We're trying to keep going with a tub in our garage. We figure we don't have anything to lose.

DH got a pitchfork for Christmas since I read that it was much easier to move with a pitchfork than with a shovel. (And since I was enlisted to help once and didn't like shoveling.... )

~Mary

[SweetPea]

I just use a pile and a pitchfork. Works fine for me at least.

This is what we do too.