Suppose someone has recently come into possession of many cans of expired Campbell's Savory Vegetable Soup, could that soup be used used in a compost pile?

I have fruit trees and this summer and fall added a lot of dropped fruit to my compost pile, which also included grass clippings, twigs, weeds, and some paper and cardboard. The pile started to develop a slightly rotten scent, so I knew that my green to brown ratio was off and that I needed more browns the offset the fruit. However I didn't have any good sources for large amounts of browns until leaves started falling. Today I decided to turn my pile and mix in some leaves, but I was not prepared for how rotten the interior of my pile smells. It is sickening. 🥴

I'm hoping that with the addition of plenty of leaves my pile will recover, but I don't know if the rotten smell on my hands will ever dissapate 😂 I've definitely learned my lesson to do whatever it takes to include enough browns, because I don't ever want to deal with smelly sludge like this again.

I'm looking to get advice on cleaning a deer skull with critters, I've got a 55-gallon drum of compost that's filled with black soldier fly larvae and was wondering if they could get it done without my help

Freshly loaded bin. Garden leftovers and shredded leaves/grass

Does anyone know what to do with the dirt/compost/pre-compost that Lomi leaves behind? For some context, I live in a small apartment, have a few plants. I main bought the Lomi composter for organizing and reducing trash. I also have only been using it on the economy setting which breaks down the contents in 4 hours.

I was planning to use it for gardening but overpopulated deer have overtaken our suburban neighborhood and are eating up our vegetable plants and small fruit tree. I chased a juvenile deer in my backyard and he hopped over our 6' fence with relative ease. Due to this I'm pretty much just using it to plant some deer resistant plants, they don't like papaya, and as a topping for our grass lawn.

I have a very small yard and planter box. I have a compost bin about the size of a big round trash bin and it’s a total failure—the organic matter in it is 4-6 years old and food is still identifiable. How? It’s very cold where I live (Zone 4), the compost is shaded, people stopped adding to it, and I think it is dead in a microbial sense.

I have warm parts of my small yard that face the sun but no where for a big bin.

I also have a FoodCycler I just put back into use for the first time since I moved here. In a prior life I added it to a rotating bin that had the opposite problem, it was often too hot, but it still worked. This time I’m kind of lost, so I came up with this idea: load 5 gal grow bags with a mix of FoodCycler and brown matter from the failed compost/yard waste in layers, then plant seed potatoes in late spring on top. Line up the bags so they get 6-8 hours of direct sun (this is the maximum for me). All summer the seed potatoes would grow while the warmth breaks down the compost and brown matter into something more like soil. At the end of the potato season I’d mix it with dirt and do a fall planting of cold-hardy kale, then next year I’d rotate this soil for tomatoes for nitrogen fixing.

Will this work, and how much soil might I need for each 5 gallon grow bag to make this happen in addition to the lasagne layers of FoodCycler compost and brown matter?

I recently obtained a free composite dual composting bin but wanted to protect the pile from excessive rain and to help insulate it.

I decided to use bitumen roofing sheets but hadn’t thought about if this could potentially be harmful due to the nature of the chemicals in the material. Could this be a problem over time?

Hi folks. I inherited a compost pile from the previous occupants, which I've been periodically turning and adding to. Mostly garden waste but being careful not to add any seeds / perennial weeds.

I put some down of the garden as mulch, and a couple of weeks later I have a fine lawn of nettles, wild carrot, toadflax and other invited guests. Is there anything I can do to the compost so I can use it? Or to deal with the weed seedlings when I do?

Thanks!

Hello friends, how true is this ? I've been getting this from people in the area. (Nelson British Columbia ). As far as my knowledge a d experience go all carbon based entities are compostable and a proper compost method with regulate its pH. Is there Science supporting this ? Anyone knows ?

I am receiving free bulk goat and horse manure. It is from a trusted local farm. They've told me that they have some piles that are about 2 years old that have been sitting mixed with bedding, such as hay and wood chips. However it has not been treated as a hot compost and has not been turned, so my question is is this safe to put directly on my garden?

I'm starting an in-ground bed and I really need to enrich my soil. I would not be planting anything until spring 2025.

What do you think? Do you have any other advice? Thank you so much!

PS I am new to composting and so forgive me if this seems like a really basic question. I am not feeling very confident and need some encouragement!

There is a service that comes to collect your compost for 20-25 monthly which includes a weekly pickup of a 3.5 or 5 gallon bucket. Twice yearly you can request compost for your garden from the service I believe they give you around 5 gallons. Is this worth it

Recently started a compost pile (2 months ago). I have been adding cardboard and coconut coir for browns and kitchen scraps for greens (fruit/veggie scraps, egg shells and tea bags).

Yesterday I came across a comment on this subreddit saying to avoid onions, citrus fruit and tea bags.

We do a lot of juicing, cook Indian food and drink tea. So my greens have a lot of onions, citrus and tea bags. Now I don’t know what damage I have caused. Can anyone tell what I can to do save my pile?

Also my pile isn’t heating up. Wonder if those items are causing it not to heat up

Hi all, first time poster and first time composter, so pls be gentle with me.

I think I dun goofed.

I recently moved into a house I bought with my partner, and one of the first things I got started was my compost franken-pile. I started it off with a bunch of torn up moving boxes, toilet roll cores, various dried plant matter I found around the place, food scraps, coffee grounds and other weird and wonderful things like pet hair etc. I've kept it somewhat wet to help the cardboard break down and encourage wormies to come have a snack etc.

Today I went to Bunnings and was like how can I get this bad boy cooking. I didn't want to pay for a compost starter because I think that's a bit of a rip off so I walked to the compost section and saw mushroom compost... it said it was a by-product of commercial mushroom production so I was like awesome, a super cheap alternative!

I went home, enthusiastically ripped it open and poured it all over my franken-pile (all 12kg of it) and called it a night... only to later go online and see that it's apparently really high in sodium and super strong and high alkalinity!

Have I really stuffed it? Can I save it? How much coffee do I need to sacrifice?! We're going to be planting blueberries and a bit of an orchard and it seems like everything I want to grow needs low pH.

How complicated does composting need to be? My family goes through a lot of fruit/veggies/amazon cardboard.

Could I start tossing stuff in a pile with no turning or any additional work? I know it might not be ideal but right now all my scraps are 100% wasted in the garbage.

I'm about to start my journey into home-made kefir as it is a simple procedure and supposed to be very healthy for one's microbiome (gut).

But as a I read that kefir has a rich variety (up to 50 different strains) of beneficial microorganisms (bacteria and yeast), it got me thinking if it could be a good (and cheap) alternative for EM1 if one would ferment molasses/water with kefir grains?

If one would use pond water, one would also get the photosynthetic bacteria that kefir lacks.

Any thoughts?