Composting
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Composting
Oct 2007
We were thinking of composting in our backyard with the Wriggly Wranch and I
wanted to hear if others had done it. We have 2 kids and a dog. Will this be a
problem? Does it really help
your soil? How much time does it take to have one of these and how much work is
needed to keep it up? We already are really good about putting all of our food
scraps into the green
(Oakland) recycling bin but thought this might be good for our
garden. But I don't know anything about it and what it entails. Plus we are two
working parents so want to make sure it is worth it to buy.
Any advice would be great.
Future composter?
Have been using a Wriggly Ranch for years. It's a rotating,
3 tier system and really simple to use. I also had the Smith
& Hawkin type bin and find that the stuff just dries out so
fast that nothing ever gets composted. I've had great
success w/ the Wriggly Ranch and would highly recommend it.
We love our little worms!
-Worm lover
please give worm composting a try. Actually on two different
occassions I have seen the worm farm for sale at Urban Ore. I
have found that the legs that come with the standard worm
farm from the city of oakland dont last, my worm farm
currently sits on a sturdy wooden box I got at U.O.
Worms take very little work, and the results are nothing
short of fabulous. Feed them once a week, any veg scrapes
will do, I find mine eat about a pound of scraps a week, it
is also important to put lots of damp newspaper on the top of
your worm bedding, and to run some water through the whole
thing at least once a week. The worm farm has a spigot, this
is for the ''worm tea'' to come out, this stuff is worth its
weight in gold and I give bottles of it to special friends.
It makes orchids blume and will do amazing things to any
plant.
I use scredded cocoanut for bedding, you can buy it in big
slabs at the Longs on 51st (the big one) for very little
money. I bought some smaller bricks at berkeley hort. but
they didnt work properly, so i recommend gettting the larger
amounts.
Once your worms have turned their bedding and food into
compost (which you can tell by lookign at it) you must
migrate them to a new tray.
To do this, first stop feeding your worms and give them some
newspsper to eat then simply put a new tray (the worm box
comes with three seperate trays)on top of the old one and put
fresh bedding (the dampened cocoanut stuff) and veg scraps on
the new bedding, the worms will ''migrate'' up to the new
box, like magic!
One other piece of advice, when you add vegs to your worms,
dont dump and run, get a good garden fork and mix them in.
also, you can buy good worms at spiral garden on sacramento
(? I think that is the right street) I dont recommend
ordering them by mail
hope you start your worm farm soon! p.s. kids love to help
with this and soon lose their bug phobia if they have one.
feel free to email me if you have any other questions.
alexis
Sept 2007
I'm on the market for a backyard composter to compliment our garden and
not sure what to get. I'd like something that is easy to remove the
finished product from. It definitely needs to be under $200 (I was
looking at a few in the $100 range). We probably produce about 2L of
compost a week. Any suggestions? Also, if anyone has a used one for
sale, please let me know.
Lisa
I got a discounted Smith & Hawken compost bin through stopwaste.org which I'm
happy with so far. As long as you're an Alameda County resident you can order
one online and it gets delivered to your house. Here's the link:
http://www.stopwaste.org/home/index.asp?page=175
anon
If you live in Alameda County, you can get a composter at a subsidized price
from stopwaste.org: http://www.stopwaste.org/home/index.asp?page=317
There are also free classes on how to compost and they are quite informative,
though you could get the same information from a book like worms eat my
garbage.
Eric
My husband has succeeded in composting in a home-made cylinder about three feet
in diameter made with flexible wire fencing (four-foot width). Not pretty, but
functional. He stirs it up with a pitchfork every few days. This type of
composting may be more appropriate for yard litter than for kitchen waste,
given the smell factor. For kitchen waste we've started a worm farm, which is
just a couple handfuls of red worms and some garbage in a wooden box; the worms
came from a local nursery. He learned about these approaches mainly from
judicious web-surfing and is very pleased that he hasn't used any specialized
equipment.
Best of luck.
Kim
I saw a really great composter at Elephant Pharmacy. I think it was $179. Very
easy to get stuff in and out, and the best part is that it is very compact and
it ROLLS on a base to mix the contents. VERY VERY COOL. No pitchfork
necessary. I think it would take 2 L a week no problem.
-Thinking about buying one myself!
Dec 2006
We were great about composting when we lived in the city and
regularly dumped out countertop container into our compost bin in
the buiding's garage. Now that we have our own home in the
Oakland hills, complete with deer, racoons and who knows what
else regularly traversing our property, I am a little unsure of
how to proceed. Should we keep the large green bin in the garage
or outdoors? If in the garage, will it attract ants, etc? If
ourdoors, will the deer, racoons, squirrels get into the bin and
make a mess? Can the lid be adequately secured and if so, how? If
we create our own pile will it create more animal and insect
attractions? Any suggestions appreciated!
Compost-Confused City Slicker
Ah, composting! How I love it! I am not in the hills of Oakland, but
down by Lake Merritt, so maybe a hills person will give you different
advice, but... I have racoons, skunks and squirrels that are causing
their own problems, but none of them do anything with my compost. I
have the bin issued by the city and the lid isn't particularly tight.
The skunk path goes right by it. I don't put in meat or cheese or
bread. I do add horse manure and straw from the stables up on Skyline.
happy gardener
Hi there,
Alameda County Master Composter here. Do your composting outside as you
normally would. You DON'T want it in your garage!
Two things:
1) Be sure to use a bungee cord to secure the lid on it so raccoons
can't get into the bin.
2) Use lots of ''browns'' to cover up the fresh stuff you put in there
to keep flies and other insects & vermin away.
Go to www.stopwaste.org for lots of great information as well as reduced
price compost and worm bins. They also have a ''Rotline'' you can call
with your questions--the number's on the website.
Good luck!!!
Elizabeth
One way to handle this is to do two different kinds of compost.
I have a small yard and have one compost bin (but this could be a
pile) for clean green yard waste--leaves, grass clippings, any gardening
scraps. I also have two green cones that I use for kitchen compost.
You bury a basket part of the green cone in the ground--it has holes
that worms can go in and out of to break down the waste. There is a
plastic cone that attaches to the basket and protrudes above the
ground--you stick the waste in the hole in the top. When one basket is
full (takes about 6-8 months for my family of 3), you let it rest and
fill the other. The design keeps out animals.
The resulting compost from the green cone is a great fine grained soil.
The leaf pile gives a courser mulch.
You can find green cones on-line. Happy composting.
Jamila
We live in the hills also, and use the green container. Deer are not
interested in it, and it seems that it is too big for the racoons to tip
-- I say this because they used to tip the smaller brown container all
the time when it contained food, but have never tipped the green
container now that we put the food scraps in there.
If you are really nervous, you can get a bungee cord, and string it
between the handle, and the small handle on the side. This worked even
wth the brown container Karen
We also live in the Oakland Hills and LOVE that the city sells our
compost to farmers in the Central Valley, who say they are amazed by its
effectiveness. In any case, we use the big green bin all week long.
You can cut down on animals breaking into it in several ways: put damp
paper towels (also compostable) on top to cut down on the smell, use
bungy cords to secure the lid, or put in your garage). Deer aren't
really interested, but raccoon definitely ARE!
Good luck
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