Got a Lomi for $200 from a neighbor. Why? We live rurally with frozen winters, so we have frozen composters all winter. So they get FULL in the winter, and Lomi should lessen the volume. Why else? Throughout spring to fall, we’ve had issues with bears consistently visiting our compost bins in spite of turning, adding lots of browns, etc. so hoping this gives me an option during bear months. (mama smelled watermelon rind in the early spring with her three babies and unfortunately made it a very routine visit until we stopped composting…) We have gardens and fruit trees. If we are adding the dehydrated and ground lomi pre-compost to our regular compost, can we Lomi compost meat/dairy and still use for garden and top dressing fruit trees? I’d love to eliminate the organics in my trash. Thanks in advance for insight!

It's been brutally cold here and after I turned it a couple weeks ago the temps just never came back up. I had about 2x5 gallon buckets filled with greens so I broke up the frozen top as much as I could and added the greens in layers. Besides adding lots of yellow showers what else can I do?

Asking for a friend

We get living Christmas trees every year for Christmas. Am I able to cut it up and use it in my pile?

Hi, I'm an environmental engineering student and I have worked on compost sites before.

My dream is for all food waste to become compost and eliminate waste in landfills. So I have been thinking about offering my service to people in my neighborhood.

I did some research about the laws and policies in my area. But I still feel very insecure because I don't know if It is allowed to start with few people on my backyard. I live in Atlanta, GA.

Do you guys think this is a good idea or I'm being naive? What do you recommend?

Thanks.

Cleveland Ohio resident. I started a slow compost in september/October last year in hopes of having some good compost/soil amendment for the springtime. I have a 60 or 70 gallon compost bin that has good access to the earth and I just use the method of layering browns and greens. No turning, just packing it down with a shovel after each time I add layers. I did a good amount of research beforehand and it seems others have had success with a very “hands off” slow compost system like this. Would it help for me to add worms to my compost? Should I do it soon when it will still be fairly cold outside for at least a month more.. should I wait for warmer weather? Does anyone have any tips or experience with this or generally have any comments about a slow compost system? Appreciate the help!

Hi everybody was just curious what everyone uses. I've heard of plastic bins, wood frames, and just a pile on the ground. What do you guys like or dislike Thanks!

Hello

We have a chicken run which is very muddy due to heavy rainfall. I add woodchips and their own bedding from the coop in the run to mix it up with the mud to stabilise it.

We also have fully compostable cat litter. I am aware I cannot add it to my compost heap which I use for vegetable gardening. I was wondering however if I can dump it in the chicken run, which would be a win-win. However I would also like to use compost the chickens generate in the run from time to time on the vegetable beds.

So two questions:

1. is the cat litter harmful for the chickens
2. if the cat litter is for longer periods outside in the chicken run, is the compost harvested from the run later on safe from parasites?

Thanks!

New to composting. I know there’s a bit of a debate whether or not to compost meat and dairy.

My question is aimed to those against it (but any opinions are appreciated). How much "safer" would it be if I put the meat/dairy in the centre of the pile and sprinkled in some Bokashi mix for good measure?

I don’t have much meat/dairy waste. Maybe a chicken breasts worth, once a month.

https://preview.redd.it/qug1yj5q7age1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=6476498d7e7755cc5877d1dbef0a0ef6f6a89bf0

help me solve this disagreement with my partner, they pop an upper decky often and don’t seem to think there is a reason they aren’t biodegradable

Good day fellow composting Gays and Gals. I am in coastal NC now where no real soil (sand only) and all kind of insects - termites, ants, wood bugs, wasps and much more. So untreated wood hardly lasts 1 year just sitting outside, in compost pile I believe will not last even that long. I am slightly familiar with composting living in the West before moving I built a large 2 stage pile from cedar that lasted over 10 years and still strong. Now prices for cedar unacceptable high. My pile is just sitting outside but everything I put in it gets eaten the same night because we have all kinds of animals here opossums, racoons, rats, etc. Covering with a tarp doesn't help at all. I am thinking about pouring a concrete slab 4x4x8 then building the pile from treated wood and covering everything in chicken net. Just wondering maybe there are any other options, maybe somebody already have experience with building pile for this climate and can advise something. Thank you in advance and happy composting!

https://preview.redd.it/maxvepf099ge1.jpg?width=1515&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c47a77ebcdb7d989cfc49fedf9b7b3a45ec06ca4

No banana for scale, but she's about the size of Jabba the Hut

First time posting, long time lurking!

I have several compost systems going in my food forest, one is a hot compost system, currently about 6’x6’ that is a mixture of last years garden plants, alfalfa, composted horse/steer manure, wood shavings, etc. I also have a vermiculture bin going really well too. I wanted to create a third option by raking leaves from the neighborhood (cottonwood, sycamore, oak) and piling them within a roll of 5’ fence I had, which is similar to one of those bio bins I thought.

I started the leaf compost pile a little after Christmas, added a bit of my hot compost mix (maybe five to ten gallons layered in), wet it and turned it once a week. It quickly got up to 145° which was great, but a week later it tempered down to 90° and I haven’t been able to get it to climb. I left town for a while, and came home to still see it sitting in the 80-90° range and it compacted a decent amount.

Now I have added another couple truck beds full of leaves on top, wet the pile again (it was pretty dry due to being left alone for three weeks) and I haven’t started adding biochar from a pile of brush I have been burning to get out of my yard.

I’m wondering if biochar is going to hinder my attempts to get it back up to an active temperature, or if I just keep adding the golden liquid of my loins, along with some coffee grounds from local coffee shops.

Can I add too much biochar to the leaf pile? so far I have probably added 100lbs or so (five to six wheelbarrows) and gently mixed it into the top two feet of leaves. I want to utilize this leaf mulch/compost/mould/whatever to mulch my fruit trees in the spring. Starting it in December wasn’t going to give me much time to get it broken down, I thought since most of the leaves were fairly brown and crispy, so I have been trying to find ways to speed up the process. It’s currently kinda tough to find good nitrogen sources due to the weather and I want to save the manure for the hot compost pile I already have going. I have also read that adding too much manure around trees can be less than optimal.

I also wanted to thank this sub for all of the quality content, it has really lit a fire in me to be more sustainable with my food waste, yard/garden organic material and my piss. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

As I watch the world burn around me, I figure just about the only thing I can control is my garden. Has anyone started a neighborhood composting initiative? I was thinking of just asking the neighbors on my street if anyone would be willing to give me their kitchen scraps if I provided a small bin to each house and collected them once a week. Ideally, I'd love to get my garden to the point to be able to put food in a little free pantry out front.

This is my twenty year old compost pile. Today I was doing some other tractor work and decided to flip her.

As you can see, she's voracious and eats up anything you put in there in a matter of days. I love her (and my tractor).

https://reddit.com/link/1idzr2h/video/jx7xne1el7ge1/player

Made this with some spare boards I had lying around and some chicken wire. I’m super proud of it! I need some tips on how to start, I have a ton of food scraps to put down, but do I need to lay green or brown layers first? Do I actually need to pee on it?

the movie Megalopolis? When I watch it I can’t help but get the sneaking feeling that Cesar is a big composter

Looking for advice from Reencle users. Love my Reencle, I've had it about a year now, and it's fantastic. It isn't a lot of work to harvest, but we need to spend less time on it.

Currently I take the unit outside, shovel half of the finished compost out, laboriously sift it as they suggest, and put the charcoal and larger pieces back in. I understand the reason for this is to return the charcoal pellets so you don't have to replace them.

But can I do this instead?

• Shovel out half of the compost.
• Add charcoal pellets like these back in.
• That's it.

That would help me reduce my household workload which is a necessity right now.

Newbie here and excited to get started with my tumbler outdoors. I’ve already read the grumbles about these and you can shit on me if you want, I’ll just add it to the pile! I’m in North Carolina and after some surprising freezing temps, the forecast is looking above freezing for the foreseeable future. Is it warm enough to get my pile started?

If any pissers want to make their case, now’s your chance. I’ve researched a decent bit but happy to hear any other tips or things you learned the hard way.

Edit: Thanks all! I’ll get started right away. I have tons of leaves in my yard and I’ve been collecting shredded paper and scraps already.