Are You Collecting Leaves for the Winter Yet?

I get asked pretty often about how to compost leaves quickly- now is the time to focus on collecting them to get you through the colder months. As you can see, my compost bin is only halfway full at the moment, and that's after I swept the sidewalk and threw in what I could. If you toss them in your compost pile as is, they will take longer to fully break down...but that's OK- I don't feel like doing any extra work right now. Once I collect 4-5 full bags' worth of fall leaves from around the block, then I'll break out my favorite noisy, clunky leaf shredder. I will be able to make that all those leaves fit into one nice and neat trash can to be used as…

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How to Choose Brown Materials for Your Compost Pile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM6GHAjbna4 How to Choose Brown Materials For Your Compost Pile What are some good carbon sources (brown materials) to use for composting? Cardboard: Perfectly compostable (especially good for worm composting), but I’d recommend putting it with your recycling instead- there's always going to be a recycling market for cardboard. Paper: Just like cardboard, it's best placed with your recycling. It is compostable (rip it up first!), but it’ll stick around for a while. Shredded paper: Won’t make it through the recycling process due to its small size. Composting it is fine, just ensure there’s no plastic mixed in with it. It’s not going to add much value to your compost pile, but it will eventually break down. Newsprint: The non-glossy stuff can compost (be sure to rip it up!), but…

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