Gardeners - please teach me about composting

[Greta]

What is the absolute easiest, laziest way to compost?

 

I don't mind an initial investment of time and money, but want something that will be little effort to maintain and keep going.

 

(BTW, I'm a very inexperienced gardener, who is just trying to do a better job of taking care of the yard. Nothing too ambitious!)

[regentrude]

The easiest, laziest, and cheapest way to compost is to throw everything on a big pile in the backyard: grass clippings, leaves (they compost faster if you shred them with the lawn mover first), compostable kitchen waste (veggie trimmings, apple cores, etc).

Keeping the pile moist speeds up the process. Leaves should be intermingled with fresh green waste.

 

Let sit until done.

You can have multiple piles and keep adding to one so the other finishes and can be harvested". If you have one, eventually you'll have to turn it to get at the dirt and put the uncomposted fresh stuff on the bottom.

 

[Ali in OR]

Lowest effort? Start a pile in an unseen corner of the yard. Try to have a mix of green stuff (grass clippings, veggie scraps) and brown stuff (dead leaves in fall is the biggie around here). If you have the time and energy, give it a stir with a pitch fork once or twice during the summer. Now the big disadvantage of the random pile method is time involved for finished compost. You may have finished compost in a year.

 

We had a plastic compost bin from Costco. I don't really recommend that. It warped and the walls disconnected from each other over a few years time. Last summer dh built two bins. The sides are wood slats with space in between the boards. One is taller than the other; it's the current compost-dumping bin. The shorter one is for finished compost. They have no bottom--you want worms and things to be able to get in.

[Renthead Mommy]

Between composting and recycling, our trash is about 1 bag a week so you can do more than just garden with it.  Where do you live as that will make a difference in heat and mositure as well as what you have to put in it yard wise. 

 

I use a back composting bin.  You can use something like that, make a wood frame from pallets, use a metal wire circle or just a large pile.  Depending on which you use will also effect speed. 

 

You want to alternate layers of browns (carbons) and greens (nitrogen).  For browns you can use leaves, old straw bales, even paper shreddings.  For greens grass clippings or food scraps. When I have leaves and grass clippings, I just layer them.  But most places we have lived, I don't have both at the same time.  Food scrapes you always have.  But don't use meat or dairy in regular composting.  When I had only grass/food scrapes but no browns, I layered with torn up newspaper or paper shreddings. You want to keep it moist, but not wet.  Wet will smell.  You also want to make sure air gets to it.  You can turn it, or at least loosen it and stir it up a little, letting air into the pile will speed it up.  If you never touch it, it will decompose, it will just take a lot longer.  I have a compost aerator tool.  It is basically a stick with hinged wings on the end that fold up as I push it in, and unfold, pulling lower levels up as I pull, stirring it up and letting in air. 

[Susan in TN]

What is the absolute easiest, laziest way to compost?

 

I don't mind an initial investment of time and money, but want something that will be little effort to maintain and keep going.

 

(BTW, I'm a very inexperienced gardener, who is just trying to do a better job of taking care of the yard. Nothing too ambitious!)

Make sure your kitchen window is easily opened and shut. Open window. Toss vegetable/food scraps, etc onto the ground outside the window. Close window.

[Renthead Mommy]

My bins have to go fast.  I move every two-ish years, so I need fast compost to build brand new garden beds everytime and I need it done so I can empty my bins, spread it and move my composters. 

 

Along with making sure they are areated, I try and get mulched leaves.  Sometimes that works sometimes not.  We only have a reel lawnmower for when we do the yard, and when I have had lawn guys at some houses, they just blow the leaves to a pile and vacume them into their truck.  So it is usally whole leaves for me.  

 

You can add compost accelerator which speeds things up.  I like to go all natural, but again, time is never on our side.  I have found this at Ace and True Value, but not at Lowe's and Home Depot.  You can also find recipes online involving beer and soda and ammonia.

 

One thing that really speeds mine up is using my bokashi.  They are japanese and translate to fermented.  Basically it is a bucket with a spout (so you can drain off the juice that makes a great fertilizer deluited down 1:10 with water).  You put all your food scrapes in, tea bags, coffee and coffee filters, paper towels and paper napkins and it is okay if there are bits of meat and dairy in there, unlike just composting (but I wouldn't throw a whole steak in, just the leftover bits from a plate).  You sprinkle the EM on each 1-2 inch layer you add to the bucket and let it fill up.  When it is full you let it ferment for two weeks.  You can add it to your compost pile, covering it up with a few inches, or bury it right into your garden bed.  Worms LOVE it and decomposes very, very quickly.  Like in only two -three weeks depending on your weather. 

 

Food is fermented, so even if you just throw it out, it breaks down and doesn't rot and turn to methane.  Animals don't want it.  Over winter in NY, I just dumped my bucket into a black plastic garbage bag that sat outside my back door.  It froze in the bag, but nothing ever bothered it as it was thawing in spring and waiting for me to get around to moving it to the compost bin.

 

You can find a lot of information and videos from Austrial and New Zeland online.  You can buy the EM (effective microorganisms) online from US distributors.  It was hugely popular in Okinawa.  In Okinawa they burn their trash as it is such a small island.  Their diet is very heavy plant based, so there is a lot plant kitchen waste in rinds, peels, seeds and stems.  They are also very into gardening wiht front yards taken over by gardens.  So there  was a need for composting, but it took long and there was often not enough room to do it. An Okinawan developed this in the 70's.  Cuts down on trash, and creats nutrients for the soil to grown more food or plants. In Okinawa, you could buy the bucket and the EM right in the local hardware store.  I hope someday we reach that point.

[KungFuPanda]

Pile everything in an unseen section of yard that's not too far from your back door.  If it's a hike, you won't do it.  Throw leaves, yard waste, compostable food waste, newspapers, and cardboard on the pile.  Cover it with a black tarp.  Keep an old shovel back there you can bury food waste and not attract the wrong bugs and critters.  A friend tosses her stuff into black contractor's bags and flips them now and again, but I have too many leaves for that.  

 

I also have a worm compost in my kitchen.  Make your kids do this as a science project and convince them that the worms are pets. You have to get red wigglers to do this.  Then remember to feed them every week or so (you'll get a feel for how fast they process your kitchen scraps) and keep them moist.

 

I keep an plastic cookie bucket with a lid on my counter top.  Mine is from Trader Joe's "Cookies Beyond the Pail."  I crossed out "cookies" and wrote "compost" with a sharpie.  I don't deal with kitchen scraps until my bucket is full.  Then I decide if I want to feed the worms or toss it in the outdoor compost pile.

 

I've also read that some gardeners keep a "honey pot."  This is just a small area in your regular garden where you bury scraps.  Nature works her magic and you can use it as compost the next year.

 

One thing I forgot . . . check with your city.  Mine will give you a compost thingy (it looks like a black, plastic ring) for free if you agree to compost for X number of years.  I really should get one :-/  Here is a link to my county's compost page.  You can download a Home Composting Guide from there if you wish.

[kubiac]

Great advice here. My favorite site for asking questions is the GardenWeb Soil Forum. Very active and full of smart folks:

 

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/soil

[MEmama]

We have 2 large bins that DH built out of pallets, primarily for leaves and big stuff like hydrangea stalks. We also have a black covered bin for food scraps, tissue rolls (the cardboard part), paper egg cartons, and the occasional experiment like the biodegradable plastic cup we threw in last summer.

 

Mostly we just keep piling things in, though I do turn it now and again unless it's frozen solid. I have a weird fondness for my compost worms and like to check up on them. We keep adding all year, at least until the backyard fills up with too much snow, and in the spring I separate the finished stuff at the bottom from the bigger chunks at the top and start all over again. It's slow but effective, and absolutely simple.

[Greta]

Thank you all so much for your help!

 

So buying a bin designed for the purpose doesn't really save you any effort in the long-run? Just a simple pile is the way to go?

[Greta]

Make sure your kitchen window is easily opened and shut. Open window. Toss vegetable/food scraps, etc onto the ground outside the window. Close window.

:lol: I like it, but since my kitchen window faces the street, I'm not sure my neighbors would appreciate it.

[Susan in TN]

:lol: I like it, but since my kitchen window faces the street, I'm not sure my neighbors would appreciate it.

Ah, yes. You could plant some small shrubs to shield the view and contain the "worm farm"? :D

[Greta]

Where do you live as that will make a difference in heat and mositure as well as what you have to put in it yard wise.

Albuquerque - long growing season, but pretty hot, and VERY dry.

 

We generate a ton of yard waste. :-( Some evil, nasty person who owned this house before us planted a virtual forest of pyracantha. I hate that stuff. It grows like crazy here, and we can't even keep up with trimming it back to a reasonable level. It's awful. We also have lots of dry, scrubby, ugly evergreen bushes. (Can you tell I do NOT like the way this yard was landscaped?) Those are the primary sources of yard waste, and we do have a chipper to help deal with the stuff. My husband has just been putting the chipped yard waste everywhere as mulch, but we have a lot more mulch now than we need! So I have got to start composting it. The soil is sandy and alkaline, so I know it would benefit a lot from the compost.

 

Oh, also, we don't have a lawn. We have several pine trees, and a few deciduous trees. And some flowering shrubs and bushes too. A few deserty things like yucca and cacti as well, but they create very little in terms of stuff that has to be clipped, trimmed, etc.

 

So I will of course be adding veggie peels and scraps to the composting. And coffee grounds? Eggshells?

[Greta]

Ah, yes. You could plant some small shrubs to shield the view and contain the "worm farm"? :D

Hmmmm..... I like it! :D

[Greta]

You can add compost accelerator which speeds things up.

I think that would be a huge help!

[Greta]

I also have a worm compost in my kitchen. Make your kids do this as a science project and convince them that the worms are pets. You have to get red wigglers to do this. Then remember to feed them every week or so (you'll get a feel for how fast they process your kitchen scraps) and keep them moist.

Oh, you keep them indoors? Okay, I did not know that. What sort of a container or "home" do you have for them? Where can you buy them?

[Laura Corin]

Coffee grounds and eggshells are fine.  The egg shells tend to break down into smaller and smaller pieces rather than actually composting, but that's fine.

 

The key (as others have said) is having a balance of lush green stuff (grass clippings, veg. peelings, etc) and 'brown' stuff (your pyracantha  chippings, or cardboard, scrunched newspaper...).  If you have too much green it goes slimy; too much brown and it doesn't rot down properly.

 

If you don't have enough green, you might need to ask your neighbours for more....

[Cottonwood]

My bins have to go fast. I move every two-ish years, so I need fast compost to build brand new garden beds everytime and I need it done so I can empty my bins, spread it and move my composters.

 

Along with making sure they are areated, I try and get mulched leaves. Sometimes that works sometimes not. We only have a reel lawnmower for when we do the yard, and when I have had lawn guys at some houses, they just blow the leaves to a pile and vacume them into their truck. So it is usally whole leaves for me.

 

You can add compost accelerator which speeds things up. I like to go all natural, but again, time is never on our side. I have found this at Ace and True Value, but not at Lowe's and Home Depot. You can also find recipes online involving beer and soda and ammonia.

 

One thing that really speeds mine up is using my bokashi. They are japanese and translate to fermented. Basically it is a bucket with a spout (so you can drain off the juice that makes a great fertilizer deluited down 1:10 with water). You put all your food scrapes in, tea bags, coffee and coffee filters, paper towels and paper napkins and it is okay if there are bits of meat and dairy in there, unlike just composting (but I wouldn't throw a whole steak in, just the leftover bits from a plate). You sprinkle the EM on each 1-2 inch layer you add to the bucket and let it fill up. When it is full you let it ferment for two weeks. You can add it to your compost pile, covering it up with a few inches, or bury it right into your garden bed. Worms LOVE it and decomposes very, very quickly. Like in only two -three weeks depending on your weather.

 

Food is fermented, so even if you just throw it out, it breaks down and doesn't rot and turn to methane. Animals don't want it. Over winter in NY, I just dumped my bucket into a black plastic garbage bag that sat outside my back door. It froze in the bag, but nothing ever bothered it as it was thawing in spring and waiting for me to get around to moving it to the compost bin.

 

You can find a lot of information and videos from Austrial and New Zeland online. You can buy the EM (effective microorganisms) online from US distributors. It was hugely popular in Okinawa. In Okinawa they burn their trash as it is such a small island. Their diet is very heavy plant based, so there is a lot plant kitchen waste in rinds, peels, seeds and stems. They are also very into gardening wiht front yards taken over by gardens. So there was a need for composting, but it took long and there was often not enough room to do it. An Okinawan developed this in the 70's. Cuts down on trash, and creats nutrients for the soil to grown more food or plants. In Okinawa, you could buy the bucket and the EM right in the local hardware store. I hope someday we reach that point.

I was also going to suggest bokashi as a fantastic accelerant that also adds wonderful microbes to your soil. The kind that are necessary in our gut. Added bonus, the microbes are so busy breaking stuff down that they generate heat on their own from their intense activity,band there's no need to turn your compost bin if enough bokashi is in it. There's several ways to use it. I liked the bucket method off to the side in the kitchen. Layer kitchen waste with bokashivtill bucket is full. Let it sit a week..it won't stink but will smell vinegary because its fermenting. Bury in compost area and in 2 weeks there is no sign of food (except for corn cobs and the like), only rich black earth and ready to be used as fertilizer. Bonus for me was that as long as um using bokashi, I don't seem to have a non beneficial bug problem. Such a wonderful addition to gardening!

[Cottonwood]

Oh and I would encourage eggs shells to add calcium to your soil, but make sure they are finely ground so they can be used by the soil sooner. I also add various salts for magnesium :)

[KungFuPanda]

Oh, you keep them indoors? Okay, I did not know that. What sort of a container or "home" do you have for them? Where can you buy them?

It's just a Rubbermaid bin with holes drilled in it and nested inside another Rubbermaid bin. Mine is small (that bin that's about twice the size of a shoe box) and in the kitchen. When my worms increase I'll either split them into two bins, or move them to a larger nested Rubbermaid containers or five gallon buckets. I probably put ten minutes a month I to their care. If you want to pawn that off onto the kids, they even have coloring sheets online so little kids can learn.

 

You have to order the red wiggler worms online or get them from another homeschooler. Someone in my HS group orders a bunch and had a class for the kids to set up the bins. There may be a way to attract them, but you can't use regular earthworms.

[KrissiK]

We bought a composted from Costco. We put a sprinkler inside so it waters it when our sprinklers go off. We put everything in there - egg shells, coffee grounds, fruit and veggie waste. The composter has a door in the bottom, so we just take the good stuff out of the bottom. Dh uses a pitch fork on it from time to time to mix it, but we do very little to it. It's gorgeous stuff. Black, rich and full of worms! Wonderful!

[Carrie12345]

Learning balance is your greatest tool (imo.)  In a rush or I'd look for a link, but they're easily googleable.

 

Animals eat EVERYTHING in my yard. Even evergreens. Literal herds of deer roam and cross my property every single day.  Bunnies galore, frequent bears. But I've open-pile composted with zero evidence of animal disturbance... except for when I tossed some rotten tomatoes and forgot to add leaves.

[Greta]

Learning balance is your greatest tool (imo.) In a rush or I'd look for a link, but they're easily googleable.

 

If you have time later, I would be most grateful for the link. I must not be using the search terms you had in mind, because google isn't helping me. :)

[Tanaqui]

Okay, two things. First, you really must not put meat, dairy products, or oils into your compost. Not because they won't eventually degrade, but because they attract vermin. You also must not put animal droppings in if you intend to use this on food plants. There are ways to compost chicken and rabbit droppings that eliminate pathogens, but you're not likely to do that if you're lazy.

 

Second, anything organic (that is, once living) will degrade eventually. You can toss menstrual sponges (but not tampons) and condoms in there if you like... though please don't tell us if you do, because talk about TMI! If you want to do it faster, you want to layer your compost in neat piles of "brown" compost (full of carbon - this is dead leaves, onion skins, paper products, nut shells, bits of bark) and "green" compost (full of nitrogen - coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable trimmings, hair clippings, peels, lawn clippings). As a general rule of thumb, big things take longer to degrade than others, so it's wise to chop up your watermelon rind or jack o lantern before tossing it in. Hair, nutshells, and eggshells take forever to decompose - grind the shells up very finely first, and as for the hair, well, chop it up really small as well or just inure yourself to the fact that you'll be picking it out of your mostly finished compost and tossing it back in. Avocado pits are a lost cause. People usually have an abundance of "green" compost in the spring and summer, and then waay too much "brown" compost in the fall. The trick is to store up your tree-dropped leaves in a separate bin and toss them in periodically throughout the year rather than all at once.

 

Once you've put in the effort of layering your compost, you'll want to stir it periodically and make sure it's aerated. If there's no oxygen getting through the layers, the microbes aren't able to work as fast. You can turn it over with a shovel and aerate it by poking it several times with a stick, or you can buy special devices to make this easier. You'll want to do that if you have a compost bin rather than a compot pile.

 

One word about garden clippings in the compost. Some things should NOT go in the compost. If you use heavy herbicides on certain plants, then those should stay out of the compost because they might harm something else down the line that you want. Morning glories should never go into the compost, especially if you're taking a lazy route and the compost isn't "hot", because those are the weediest flowers and the seeds WILL NOT DIE. If you're dubious about any weed, in fact, then you should not put it in the compost once it's gone to seed. Ragweed must never go in the compost because it will spring up again from the tiniest bit of root no matter how diligent you think you are. Branches and sunflower stems will take forever to decompose unless you run them through a mulcher, and thus should not go in the compost. (Every year I find myself impaled on another rose thorn from the time we trimmed them all back. That was three years ago!) Other than those specific caveats, I can't think of a garden clippy that shouldn't go in the compost. Compost was invented so you wouldn't waste the things you yank up! But, to remind you: No morning glories, no ragweeds, nothing that's gone to seed.

 

[Okra]

Thank you all so much for your help!

 

So buying a bin designed for the purpose doesn't really save you any effort in the long-run? Just a simple pile is the way to go?

 

 

Honestly, I'm afraid of the critters and reptiles that might like my compost pile if I just piled up a pile leaves and food scraps.

 

I have a compost tumbler I bought off of Amazon.  I like it.  It works fine.  I like the fact that NO CRITTERS can get to it.

 

DOWNSIDES

You can't compost as much stuff as just a pile.

No worms can get to it

It dries out quickly.  I have better luck with the compost in the Winter/Spring/Fall because in the Summer, it is hard to keep it moist enough

 

UPSIDES

I like it better than just a pile.

I really worry about snakes and other animals that could get in a pile, and I love that the tumbler means no critters

It's not hard.  We do not do it the "right' way, I throw  leaves in, then just gradually add food scraps until it seems like it's ready.  We usually get compost twice a year.  That's okay with me.  If I worked it more, then maybe it would be faster

[Greta]

There are ways to compost chicken and rabbit droppings that eliminate pathogens, but you're not likely to do that if you're lazy.

No, I'm not at all likely to do that. But this does bring up a question. We have three dogs. One of the reasons we've never gotten around to setting up a compost bin is that it always turns into an argument. My husband wants to compost the dog waste. I tell him you cannot do that. He doesn't believe me. So we end up doing nothing. Question is, would there be a way to compost the dog poo separately from the yard waste and kitchen scraps? I know they cannot be put together. But can I give hubby a project and let him compost the dog waste? Or is that going to stink as badly as I think it will? Please tell me that it just isn't possible, because I don't want him to do it! It's just too gross for a small suburban yard! If we had 20 acres and he could do it really far from the house, then maybe. But in our circumstances, no way, right?

 

No morning glories, no ragweeds, nothing that's gone to seed.

Cool, got it. Thank you very much for this and all the other info you gave me!

[KungFuPanda]

No, I'm not at all likely to do that. But this does bring up a question. We have three dogs. One of the reasons we've never gotten around to setting up a compost bin is that it always turns into an argument. My husband wants to compost the dog waste. I tell him you cannot do that. He doesn't believe me. So we end up doing nothing. Question is, would there be a way to compost the dog poo separately from the yard waste and kitchen scraps? I know they cannot be put together. But can I give hubby a project and let him compost the dog waste? Or is that going to stink as badly as I think it will? Please tell me that it just isn't possible, because I don't want him to do it! It's just too gross for a small suburban yard! If we had 20 acres and he could do it really far from the house, then maybe. But in our circumstances, no way, right?

 

 

Cool, got it. Thank you very much for this and all the other info you gave me!

Can you bury this in/near your compost pile?

 

http://t.petco.com/product/12232/Doggie-Dooley-Pet-Waste-Disposal-System.aspx?utm_expid=88332828-8.YhNmyjHGSTCrOmZxQ0Fztw.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

[Tanaqui]

Bad news. You can dig a septic tank for the dog poop. It will indeed be smelly, but with a lid on you won't notice. Make your husband handle all of it, and he'll probably forget about it after a few weeks. However, make sure to stress that this stuff cannot, cannot, cannot go in the regular compost! Waste from carnivores is a no-go for nearly all of us, not if it's going in the garden. Much too smelly, much too high a risk of pathogens. Edit: And come to think, probably so high in nitrogen that it needs to be aged quite a while. But I'm not googling that!

 

http://www.plantea.com/dog-waste-compost.htm

http://www.instructables.com/id/Big-Dog-Poop-Composter/

 

You can probably toss pellet type kitty litter in there was well, the stuff that's made from newspaper or pine or wheat, but not the regular sort because it's made of clay and won't decompose.

 

One more thing I forgot, and it's really common sense - if you pull up your tomatoes because they're dying of tomato blight (or your roses that have thrips, or your elms that have dutch elm disease, or... well, you get the picture), you can't toss those in the compost. Then the compost will have the disease, and the next time you try to grow anything in the nightshade family it'll be affected and thus afflicted. Again, this might not be an issue for hot composts, but the lazy method isn't hot composting. Diseased plants go in the garbage... or in your doggie septic tank?

 

 

[kubiac]

Thank you all so much for your help!

 

So buying a bin designed for the purpose doesn't really save you any effort in the long-run? Just a simple pile is the way to go?

 

I used to have five bins, and they were very useful when I started, but I just sold four of them. They made me feel like a REAL COMPOSTER when I started, and they were great for coaxing the gardener and other family members into contributing, but they don't actually increase speed or effectiveness of composting.

We now use (a.) pile in the corner of the yard for all yard waste and general scraps, (b.) chickens do their thing on watermelon rinds, corn cobs and greens, (c.) worm bin is for juice pulp and "little bits" captured by the sink strainer, (d.) the last of the compost bins is going to be the designated holding tank for the contents experimental sawdust toilet. We'll see how that goes!

[Greta]

Thank you both! I think now that I can give him a logical explanation for why the poo can't be composted with the rest, he will probably drop the issue. I didn't know the why before - I just knew that experienced gardeners said you couldn't do it, and for me that was good enough. For him, it wasn't.

[kubiac]

No, I'm not at all likely to do that. But this does bring up a question. We have three dogs. One of the reasons we've never gotten around to setting up a compost bin is that it always turns into an argument. My husband wants to compost the dog waste. I tell him you cannot do that. He doesn't believe me. So we end up doing nothing. Question is, would there be a way to compost the dog poo separately from the yard waste and kitchen scraps? I know they cannot be put together. But can I give hubby a project and let him compost the dog waste? Or is that going to stink as badly as I think it will? Please tell me that it just isn't possible, because I don't want him to do it! It's just too gross for a small suburban yard! If we had 20 acres and he could do it really far from the house, then maybe. But in our circumstances, no way, right?

 

 

Cool, got it. Thank you very much for this and all the other info you gave me!

 

AH! NOW I would recommend a bin because human, dog and cat waste are all possible vectors for dangerous human pathogens. Yes, he can compost dog waste (or human waste or leprechaun waste or whatever). However, you're right that you want to sequester it from other compost, and you want a system where you add to the dog-waste bin for 12 months, and then close it off and leave it UNTOUCHED for a minimum of one year, two to be safe. After two years, it should be very lovely humic soil, but to absolutely safe, don't use it on food plants or at least don't use it on root crops (where the compost would directly touch edible parts of the food). 

 

The key to poo composting is that you need to have a lot of cover material. In your yard it might well be pine needles, but s--t stinks so you need to cover it with something. Wood shavings (like you'd use in a hamster cage), straw, pine needles--something dry and voluminous and relatively cheap, so that every time you make a deposit, it gets covered completely. This should eliminate smell, although there will still be flies. Be sure to site a compost bin like this away from rainwater flows, sprinklers and any public traffic area. In a big rainstorm, the leachate from manure piles is a public health hazard and a major environmental issue, on both the industrial and on the home scale.

 

All that said, I don't recommend starting with a dog waste composter. (Wish granted!) Compost really a kind of a living organism, much like yogurt and sourdough. You are cultivating a soil food web of bacteria, fungi, invertebrates and more. It often takes a while to figure out the "recipe" and timing that works best for a given household's organic waste production and local conditions (wet environment, dry environment, critters, etc).

 

I would say start with food waste and yard trimmings, and play it by ear for a few months at least. See when it gets stinky, see when it stops changing, see when the red worms invade and when they recede, find out if you like turning compost piles (some people find it therapeutic), and see where you should site it in your yard for maximum benefit. 

IF and when you feel like you've mastered basic composting, then you and your DH graduate to Advanced Composting with Intent to Destroy Possible Dangerous Pathogens.

 

Last but not least, let me leave you with a paraphrase of Arnold:

 

 

IF IT LIVED, YOU CAN COMPOST IT. 

 

Don't sweat the details too much. The compost can and will do all the work, just keep feeding it and you'll get there eventually.

[Greta]

Thank you, Kubiac!