How To Compost – Page 83 – Crazy About Compost

Trash Can Composting

Trash can composting is an effective way to compost at home without spending a ton of money on a compost tumbler or big clunky compost bin. Are the results as good? With attention to a few key factors, the answer is definitely yes. For composting to work well, you need to primarily pay attention to airflow, volume, moisture, and contents. The above picture was sent in to me, and I love it. Up to this point, I've composted in cramped spaces using small kitty litter buckets, but haven't had a trash can to try. Realistically, it's about the same footprint and you'll get better results due to the capacity. For a successful trash can composter, make sure you drill plenty of holes- composting needs oxygen. Lots of commercially available composting…

Simple Compost Harvesting for Impatient Gardeners (video)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oCA3UbLadE Here's a good MIgardener video showing how to sift through your compost heap. His pile is clearly past its thermophilic phase, as it's cooled down enough that it's filled with pill bugs and earthworms...these are the critters that turn your material from compost to finished compost, by further breaking it all down. This phase is essentially as long as you want it to be. His trick with using the pitchfork to separate out all the twigs and non-composted material seems to work well for him. I made a compost sieve for screening mine, but a pitchfork would make a great preliminary screening as well. He mentions nutrients leaching out into the soil... a simple method for helping prevent this is to start your compost heap with at least six…

Okay to put weeds in compost pile (video)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veLSPo423KM Daphne Richards has a nice video here explaining why it's OK to put weeds in your compost pile if it's one that's really cooking. Once you get into the 130 and up range, the weed seeds die off in a matter of hours...she mentions 150 degrees, but in my experience it doesn't need to get THAT hot...although it's cool if you do. I would simplify the video by saying that if you're working with a large compost bin, you can definitely compost weeds with no problem. However, in smaller volumes there's just not enough heat generated for a sustained period of time to kill the weed seeds. Personally I like to put a big stack of weeds on top of my compost as an insulating layer, because I simply…