compost pile@Everything2.com

compost pile@Everything2.com: "A compost heap is a wonderful thing, converting organic rubbish into dark, moist, humus-filled garden fertiliser. Every serious gardener needs a compost heap and even the not-so-serious can enjoy watching the wonderful process of turning household rubbish into sacks of moist, black, fragrant compost.

Fragrant? Have you ever smelled a woodland waking up after a night's sleep? The smell of damp earth after rain; the smell of bluebells growing and butterflies feeding? That's what good compost smells like.

I think it is awesome, seeing a cold compost heap converting all kinds of blackened vegetables, slimy cucumbers and cold tea leaves into this rich, nutrient-filled fibre. It takes a few months, but set the heap up right and you can leave it alone, quietly performing one of nature's greatest miracles in a dark corner of your yard. A season or two later, the heap is crumbly, moist compost, filled with worms and centipedes; bacteria and fibre. Just right to feed a new generation of plants, helping them grow strong in the new year's sunshine.

You don't need a huge heap, nor do you need to keep it topped up with barrow-loads of vegetable matter. That's a hot compost heap, and those are only for the professionals, or near-professionals. A hot compost heap needs looking after; it needs feeding, changing and checking every few days. Hot heaps are wonderful because they do the job quickly, in weeks rather than months, and the heat kills seeds and disease-causing bacteria, making it safer to use on the garden.

A cold compost just sits quietly in the corner, minding its own business, feeding its host of industrious residents and slowly converting rotting cabbage and broken roses into a gardener's black gold. It generates a bit of warmth, but not much. Just enough to give the worms a peaceful home, slightly warmer than the cold winter air."

compost pile@Everything2.com

compost pile@Everything2.com: "Start your compost pile in the fall. Collect all the leaves that fall, and pile them up. As you add the leaves, have the garden hose on the pile at full-throttle. Soaking the leaves is a critical part of the process. If the leaves are too dry, they won't decompose. You can't get them too wet.

If you're trying to start a new pile from scratch, you'll need to add some sugar. Don't waste your time with home center composting kits. Plain old sugar (about a 5# bag for about 7 trees' worth of leaves) will start a pile very effectively. Just spread it over the pile when you're done piling them up, and water liberally. The sugar will ooze into the pile and the bacteria will find it particularly appealing. If you have a pile already active from the last year, by all means spread some of the digested material into the fresh leaves. That will work better than sugar at starting the pile.

Work the pile as it starts to heat up over the first month. This working keeps the aerobic bacterial activity high. You don't want your pile to go anaerobic on you. The decomposition is slower, as not as much heat is generated, and it stinks! Working the pile will keep oxygen going into the center. Just stab it with a pitchfork and wiggle it around a bit, at least once a week. Do this throughout the pile.

Add any vegetable rubbish from your kitchen, such as used coffee grounds and peels. Not only will you be creating rich organic fertilizer from garbage, you'll find that you generate much less garbage for the curb. DO NOT add eggshells or other animal waste. They will attract vermin, and that will make your neighbors very unhappy.

It takes about a year for the material to be sufficiently decomposed for application to gardens. I don't advise using compost for indoor plants. Make a compost tea for that purpose.

If you like to fish, the compost pile is your friend. Worms by the thousands will discover your pile by mid-spring."

Eureka!...I mean, you reek ah!...er, I mean, Urea! | spiceoflife's Blog | Gardening Community

Eureka!...I mean, you reek ah!...er, I mean, Urea! | spiceoflife's Blog | Gardening Community: "This was when the Agway employee asked me if I needed any help. They're like that there. (No, I don't work for Agway, smarta$$!) I told him my dilemma - I need a nitrogen source and I don't want to spend a lot of money. Voila! He shows me Urea. It's made by Espoma, it's organic, it's 45% nitrogen, and it's only $10.00 for a 5 pound bag. Sold!

With a few thank yous exchanged I take my compost supercharger back home and dutifully build my yard-waste lasagna by layers - brown leaves, water, sprinkle a handful or two of urea, a couple shovel-fulls of almost-finished compost. Repeated 5-10 times. Pop the cover on it and bake in the sun for 24 hours. Yummo!

I get satisfaction out of doing things well, and this includes making a good compost pile. Today, I get out of work and dash home to check on it. I grab my turning fork and start turning it over. And yep, I can feel that heat starting already! But then, I notice the smell. It's unpleasant, but not overwhelming. And there is the definite twang of ammonia. Darn it, I put in too much urea! The wee little beasties have too much nitrogen and can't metabolize it all and are just releasing it as ammonia. The ammonia smell was weak, and I didn't see any of the urea pellets in the pile, so I'm hoping that this is as bad it will get. I'm going to need to turn it every day or two until the smell goes away."

Urine for compost Grow Your Own - Growing, How To Grow Tomatoes Growing Fruit & Veg - Recipe Advice, Organic food Gardening, Chickens, Seeds for Sale

Urine for compost Grow Your Own - Growing, How To Grow Tomatoes Growing Fruit & Veg - Recipe Advice, Organic food Gardening, Chickens, Seeds for Sale: "Pet poo helps too, especially from veggie pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs and birds! I wouldn't use cat or dog poo - it stinks and can contain all sorts of nasties, such as toxicara. Putting wee on the compost is obviously much easier for the male members of the Vine as they can do it direct (as long as no-one is looking). I use a bucket inside my shed and empty that onto the compost heap before I leave the lottie."

Urine for compost Grow Your Own - Growing, How To Grow Tomatoes Growing Fruit & Veg - Recipe Advice, Organic food Gardening, Chickens, Seeds for Sale

Urine for compost Grow Your Own - Growing, How To Grow Tomatoes Growing Fruit & Veg - Recipe Advice, Organic food Gardening, Chickens, Seeds for Sale: "Think I've mentioned this before, buy one of my friends gets her little boy (infant school age) to wee into a plastic bottle and pour it on the compost heap. He thinks it's totally normal but it confused his teacher when he tried doing it in a pop bottle at school - she was called in to discuss his development."

Print Page - household ammonia to speed up the compost pile?

Print Page - household ammonia to speed up the compost pile?: "There is no reason that you couldn't use ammonia, except that the concentration is too high. Ammonia is only harmful to microbes/earthworms/plants above a certain concentration. This not because ammonia is 'toxic' but because it causes a change in turgor pressure, which is osmotic pressure(water pressure) inside the cell. Water, like everything else, diffuses from an area of high concentration to low concentration. Solutions with a high concentration of ammonia have a low concentration of water. Because the concentration of water is now higher inside the cell, water flows out of the cell and it becomes dehydrated. Water will literally out of roots into the soil.

That being said, the solution is dilution. If you dilute ammonia enough(10:1) it can be safely added to compost. Household ammonia is all biodegradable. You should still use your urine, but I think this is a good idea. The ideal carbon/nitrogen ratio is 13:1, while leaves and tree waste are typically 200:1. It is unlikely you could ever get a pile of leaves to an ideal ratio by simply peeing on it. If you add ammonia that is diluted enough so it doesn't kill the microbes, over time they will absorb it,and then reproduce. This will result in the nitrogen being converted by microbes into an organic form that be available in the soil over a longer period of time."

Simple Composting How-To

Simple Composting How-To: "You need to toss on a shovel full of dirt every now and again to supply the bacteria needed to break down the compost, and you need to keep it moist (about the consistency of a wrung out sponge, not sopping wet). It will break down faster if you go out there with a fork every now and again and turn it over. If your pile ends up being mostly carbon (usually in the fall, when all you have are dead leaves), fill your hose end sprayer to the top with plain old household ammonia and spray it every time you add a layer of leaves to the pile (ammonia supplies a lot of nitrogen).

It's also nice, but not absolutely necessary, to shred everything before adding to the pile (run your lawnmower over it) because smaller pieces break down faster. And if you live in a cold winter area and your leaves aren't completely composted by spring, use them as mulch around your plants and dig them in later.
Cindy in Newbury, OH"