Compost pits in HPP

[Buzzy]

Coffee grounds are excellent, as are tea bags. The only food we don't compost is meat and bones, mainly to avoid attracting rats. We burn the bones in our woodstove for phosphorous, and spread all the ashes.

All plants materials are superb for compost. You can just toss it in and leave it, or you can set up a 3 bin system (the best size is 4 feet cubed - it's big enough to generate heat that should kill weed seeds).

Three bin system - fill one bin the start filling the bin on the other end, after a couple of weeks toss the material in the first bin into the middle bin, getting the stuff on the edges into the middle. Turn it back to the outside empty bin after a couple of weeks, etc. You always have one empty bin and two that are working.

But you can also compost just by tossing all the stuff together and letting it rot.

Compost works best when it's a combination of green and brown materials - soft leafy stuff and more woody material.

Also it needs to be moist but not wet - if it gets too wet two things happen: the nutrients leach out, and the rotting slows down. Throw a plastic tarp over it.

Toss all your kitchen scraps in the compost except the meat, and if you really want to speed up the rotting, spread it with flour. Somebody gave us a 55 gal drum of floor sweepings from a mill once - wham! that compost cooked!

[Buzzy]

yeah, on the flour - I should mention that we didn't put it in all at once, but scattered it in layers as we put in new plant material we'd spread some flour over it.

[mella l]

Using all vegetable and fruit peels are great, as well as egg shells and coffee grounds. I don't put any cooked vegetables, meat or grease in my compost. Shreded news paper with soy ink can be used also.

mella l

[Barb Dwyer]

Our compost is very wet and smelly. It's in a round bin we turn regularly and we add dry material when we can but it still seems wet and stinks. Does anyone know if we can save it? Is there anything we can add to turn it back to compost and not a rotten mess?

[Devany]

I have a pit so far (eventually plan on adding bins) and it actually decomposes into soil in a few weeks time. I collect green waste (including coffee grounds) but I never keep it in the house more than over night. I have collected coffee grounds for days at a time even before I ever did serious composting (they are good to add to the soil of acid loving plants like roses, hydrangeas and azaelas) and never encountered maggots. But things decompose in this climate really quickly.

If your compost is wet and stinky you should be adding more dry stuff to it. It should be moist, but not it is good if you can, also add shredded paper. I use newsprint and sawdust.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

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