[mongo_jones]

so, i discovered completely by accident that the giant piles of leaves we'd bagged and forgotten about 2 years ago had without any intervention decomposed into a mix of compost and mulch. i used these to feed and mulch my vegetable garden. given how much the yard generates each year in leaf and grass cuttings i'm thinking i should be able to go without buying mulch and compost every year. but i'd like to do it properly. can someone guide me through the process? are all compost bins created equal?

[Abbylovi]

As you discovered, I don't think there's much to it. If you get a bin, what we do is just put in the "green" matter which includes anything that isn't meat, dairy or (I think) oily veg and layer that with brown matter - leaves, newspaper, paper napkins, cardboard, etc. Someone told me to take out the seeds because "they grow" but that just seemed fussy to me. She was literally going thru the bin and taking out lemons - huh? We should have such problems, lemons growing in our garden. Oh and the bin doesn't smell.

More on how to compost.

My building garden has the garden gourmet, which was provided at a discount by the city. It's possible that your city may provide them free or at cost too.

[memesuze]

You can take the slow approach, as you unwittingly did, and it will take a year or more to break down on its own, or you can take the fast approach, by layering, and wetting each layer as you put it in whatever you've chosen to enclose the pile, and turning it. You can get good compost in a couple of months that way. Enclosing the pile in about a 3-4' diameter keeps the mass heating up if you've used not only a carbon source like leaves but also a nitrogen source like fresh grass clippings or manure. All food scraps except proteins go in the compost, too.

One of the funniest moments in my garden was the time I had gotten elephant manure when the circus came to town, and my cat rounded the corner, smelt the pile of fresh manure I was adding to the compost pile, raised her fur, hissed and tore across the backyard into the house to escape whatever beast had produced that pungent aroma. She knew it was no domesticated critter that was hanging around HER backyard.

Turning the pile occasionally as you build up the layers mixes them up, and can lead to a good heat [~140-150 degrees] that serves to kill the weed seeds and other problems.

The easiest compost bins to make are either made with those wooden pallets, or by taking a length of chicken wire, nailing a length of 2/2 on each end, and then using a screen door hook, holding it closed as a circle of chicken wire. Then when you want to turn it or use it, you simply unlatch the circle and turn/remove what you need. And when that one is done, you just unlatch it and move down the line to start another one.

I'm sure GG will chime in with more helpful hints. Just get started and you'll never regret it.

[Pingarina]

I'm glad you reminded me of the NYC compost project, Abby. I just got a plot at my local community garden, and we need a new compost bin.

IIRC, one needn't worry about weed seeds; supposedly the heat generated in the decomposition process kills them. A lot of people won't put citrus peels into the mix, believing that they'll never break down. I think they just take longer.

[memesuze]

In my experience, heat strong enough to kill weed seeds is only generated if you turn and wet your pile regularly. If you just let compost sit, it only slowly and cool-ly decomposes. But most of us really don't worry about weed seeds. Anything that germinates either in the compost or after spreading can easily be plucked out. And those citrus peels are good for repelling the bad kind of nematodes, so not to worry about their lengthy decomposition.

[hollywood]

Warning to new members: mongo's gonna compost you.

[tsquare]

Home composting isn't great for killing seeds. We have a green cone (okay, two) and the lovely compost we used this year is sprouting squash plants daily. I'll leave a few and see what we get. I'm hoping for kabocha.

[GG Mora]

Sorry, I'm not your compost girl. We do have a massive bin, and we put all our approved kitchen scraps in it, along with leaves and straw and grass clippings. But we never think to water or turn it. Occasionally it gets rotated, and we use what little has accumulated at the bottom of the pile. Given our fertilizing needs, we just order compost by the truckload. Lots of farms making it expertly around here.

tsquare, don't count on anything recognizable in the squash department. Cucurbitae are notoriously promiscuous and cross-breed freely, and won't 'come true' from seed unless you isolate a single species. Just to give you an idea of their faithlessness, the recommendation for seed production is that a species be isolated from others by 1/2 to 1 mile. Chances are what you have growing is a kabochumberchini or a cantelocha. If you get my drift.

[tsquare]

tsquare, don't count on anything recognizable in the squash department. Cucurbitae are notoriously promiscuous and cross-breed freely, and won't 'come true' from seed unless you isolate a single species. Just to give you an idea of their faithlessness, the recommendation for seed production is that a species be isolated from others by 1/2 to 1 mile. Chances are what you have growing is a kabochumberchini or a cantelocha. If you get my drift.

Yeah, I know, but the volunteers are so much nicer than the ones I started from known seeds that I can't pull them all out! The slugs ate all the zucchini (nice round ones, if they had a chance) starts - I must be the only one in the world who can't grow summer squash. I have grown some nice winter squash, and occasionally, cucumbers, in good years.

[prasantrin]

Consider checking with your local community services department about composting. In my mother's area (in Winnipeg), they offered a discount on composters along with some kind of limited reduction in utility payments. I can't remember what now. Your community may also have such a program.

[SRD]

Leaf mould makes an exceptionally good compost and is best gathered, boxed, and left for a couple of years with no other ingredients, however all other ingredients, as mentioned above, can be used and accelerated as suggested. The best compost is made from a combination of woody and green ingredients so if you only have green (weeds from garden, kitchen waste etc.) it's good to add chopped straw or shredded paper (not glossy). Although damping is good, don't overdo it as it can go slimy and sour. Some people add wood ash, but it must be very clean with no treated timber.

I don't know if you have the same problems over there, but we often find snakes and lizards enjoying the heat of the heap, in my garden the slow worms always make a home in our heap, it's nice & warm and there's a plentiful supply of slugs, snails & worms.