I found this article posted on Marion Owen’s website http://www.plantea.com/compost.htm
163 Things You Can Compost
And the list keeps growing!
By Marion Owen, Fearless Weeder for PlanTea, Inc. and
Co-author of Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul
A young boy and his father were walking along a beach, when suddenly they came upon thousands of
starfish left stranded on the sand by the receding tide. The young boy leaned over, picked up a starfish and
tossed it, like a Frisbee, back into the ocean. Then he picked up another one,
and carried it to the water's edge.
"Son, what are you doing? You can't possibly save them all."
“I guess not. But these uns'll make it."
The youngster believed that even when the situation seemed hopeless, he
could do his part.. While he could not save them all, he made a world of
difference to those that he did. Composting is like that, too
********************
Every year, tons of organic materials are thrown away, needlessly filling up landfills. By composting
these materials, you can lengthen the life of your local landfill. Like tossing a starfish back into the
ocean, you can make a difference by composting.
Compost to plants is like a healthy gourmet dinner to us. Compared to
preparing a snazzy dinner however, making compost is easy, easy, easy. To
learn how to make and use compost, read my Compost Happens! article.
Compost is not limited to tossing leaves and grass clippings into a pile.
It's much more creative than that! Here's a list of 163 materials (and still
counting!) you can add to your compost pile or even bury in your garden. Just
think, 163 materials that don't end up in the landfill. Plus, your plants benefit
from the gourmet meal. Such a deal.
If you see something I've missed, send me an email so I can add it to the list.
Just for fun, scan the whole list. You'll find more resources, plus a surprise
at the end by a letter sent in by Jean Bell, an organic gardener in Scotland...
Every year, tons of organic materials are thrown away, needlessly filling up landfills. By composting
these materials, you can lengthen the life of your local landfill. Like tossing a starfish back into the
ocean, you can make a difference by composting.
Compost to plants is like a healthy gourmet dinner to us. Compared to preparing a snazzy dinner however,
making compost is easy, easy, easy. To learn how to make and use compost, read my Compost Happens!
article. http://www.plantea.com/compost.htm
163 THINGS THAT YOU CAN COMPOST
Paper napkins
Freezer-burned vegetables
Burlap coffee bags
Pet hair
Potash rock
Post-it notes
Freezer-burned fruit
Wood chips
Bee droppings
Lint from behind refrigerator
Hay
Popcorn (unpopped & uneaten)
Freezer-burned fish
Old spices
Pine needles
Leaves
Matches (paper or wood)
Seaweed and kelp
Hops
Chicken manure
Leather dust
Old, dried up and faded herbs
Bird cage cleanings
Paper towels
Brewery wastes
Grass clippings
Hoof and horn meal
Molasses residue
Potato peelings
Unpaid bills
Gin trash (cotton plant wastes)
Weeds
Rabbit manure
Hair clippings from the barber
Stale bread
Coffee grounds
Wood ashes
Sawdust
Tea bags and grounds
Shredded newspapers
Egg shells
Cow manure
Alfalfa
Winter rye
Grapefruit rinds
Pea vines
Houseplant trimmings
Old pasta
Grape wastes
Garden soil
Powdered/ground phosphate
rock
Corncobs (takes a long time to
decompose)
Jell-o (gelatin)
Blood meal
Winery wastes
Spanish moss
Limestone
Fish meal
Aquarium plants
Beet wastes
Sunday comics
Harbor mud
Felt waste
Wheat straw
Peat moss
Kleenex tissues
Milk (in small amounts)
Soy milk
Tree bark
Starfish (dead ones!)
Melted ice cream
Flower petals
Pumpkin seeds
Q-tips (cotton swabs:
cardboard, not plastic sticks)
Expired flower arrangements
Elmer's glue
BBQ'd fish skin
Bone meal
Citrus wastes
Stale potato chips
Rhubarb stems
Old leather gardening gloves
Tobacco wastes
Bird guano
Hog manure
Dried jellyfish
Wheat bran
Guinea pig cage cleanings
Nut shells
Cattail reeds
Clover
Granite dust
Moldy cheese
Greensand
Straw
Shredded cardboard
Dolomite lime
Cover crops
Quail eggs (OK, I needed a 'Q'
word)
Rapeseed meal
Bat guano
Fish scraps
Tea bags (black and herbal)
Apple cores
Electric razor trimmings
Kitchen wastes
Outdated yogurt
Toenail clippings
Shrimp shells
Crab shells
Lobster shells
Pie crust
Leather wallets
Onion skins
Bagasse (sugar cane residue)
Watermelon rinds
Date pits
Goat manure
Olive pits
Peanut shells
Burned oatmeal (sorry, Mom)
Lint from clothes dryer
Bread crusts
Cooked rice
River mud
Tofu (it's only soybeans, man!)
Wine gone bad (what a waste!)
Banana peels
Fingernail and toenail clippings
Chocolate cookies
Wooden toothpicks
Moss from last year's hanging
baskets
Stale breakfast cereal
Pickles
'Dust bunnies' from under the
bed
Pencil shavings
Wool socks
Artichoke leaves
Leather watch bands
Fruit salad
Tossed salad (now THERE's
tossing it!)
Brown paper bags
Soggy Cheerios
Theater tickets
Lees from making wine
Burned toast
Feathers
Animal fur
Horse manure
Vacuum cleaner bag contents
Coconut hull fiber
Old or outdated seeds
Macaroni and cheese
Liquid from canned vegetables
Liquid from canned fruit
Old beer
Wedding bouquets
Greeting card envelopes
Snow
Dead bees and flies
Horse hair
Peanut butter sandwiches
Dirt from soles of shoes, boots
Fish bones
Ivory soap scraps
Spoiled canned fruits and
vegetables
Produce trimmings from
grocery store
Cardboard cereal boxes
(shredded)
Grocery receipts
Urine (It's true! Read the letters
at my website!)
Making compost is like baking a cake!
My neighbor, Mrs. Crayneck, loves to bake. But when her world famous banana bread doesn't turn out
quite right, she doesn't sweat the small stuff.
"What's the worst thing that can happen?" she says. "I just put it in the compost pile!"
Sooner or later gardeners come across the word "compost." As easy as it is to say, compost has a
reputation for being difficult to master. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. If I can make hot,
160-degree compost during an Alaska winter (see photo below), you can too--no matter where you grow
your tomatoes. It's easy. In fact, you can compost 163 materials! Here's how, beginning with a story about
my Mom...
"If you can read, you can cook!"
One day, when I was 12 and still climbing trees, Mom came into the kitchen and said, "Honey, how about
making dessert for tonight?"
Having just endured months of salad-making for our family of seven, I was ready for a change. Mom
picked up an old copy of Gourmet cookbook and started flipping through the pages. It was like watching
Wheel of Fortune.
Finally, she pressed her finger to a recipe and said, "Here you go, make this."
Her finger pointed to a chocolate souffle recipe. I was stunned. "Don't worry sweetie," she said. "If you
can read, you can cook."
So began my love affair with cooking. I also learned a valuable lesson: You can do whatever you set your
mind to, but if you need help in building a house, installing software, or making compost -- follow a
recipe!
Let's begin this lesson by de-mystifying compost. We'll make it easier by following a recipe. And as you'll
see, making a compost pile is a lot like making a cake. And we can do it in 3 easy steps. 1) Gather up your
ingredients, 2) Stir them together, and 3) let it cook. Even Bette Midler knows the value of compost...
Why the Divine "Miss M" loves compost
"My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a
manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical
experience that lets you see your place in the big picture. And that
is what I had with my first compost heap. I love compost and I
believe that composting can save not the entire world, but a good
portion of it."
--Bette Midler, in a Los Angeles Times interview
I'm sure Bette Midler would agree that making and using compost is not only a life-changing experience,
but it's the world's best soil conditioner.







Compost recycles organic materials, from apple cores and coffee grounds, to dried leaves and
Shredded Wheat.
Compost improves any, and all, soil types.
Compost provides the basic nutrients of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) as well
as dozens of micro- and macro nutrients that are vital for healthy plants.
Compost "gives back" nutrients that flowers, herbs and vegetables remove in their normal growth
processes.
Compost prevents nutrients from leaching away from plant roots.
Compost protects soil against wind and rain erosion, drought, dust storms, earthquakes and other
extreme conditions.
Compost extends the life of landfills by reducing space needed for food and yard wastes.
The "compost cake" recipe
Did you know you can have finished compost in just 3 to 4 weeks? By combining the right ingredients,
your compost pile will not only heat up to 140 degrees (F) or more, but it will "cook down" to a fluffy
material that is ready to use in the garden.
Step 1: Collect your compost ingredients
For a hot, active compost pile, you need to build it all at once, not over weeks or months. Imagine making
a cake by sifting the flour one day, adding eggs and oil the next and then waiting a week or so before
mixing everything together and getting it into the oven. It would be a flop. Start collecting ingredients. Go
on organic treasure hunts. Talk to your neighbors, ask your friends, scan the classified ads, and remember
to check your own back yard.
Did you know the hair on your head contains 30 times more nitrogen
than manure? Next time you go to the hairdresser, ask for a few pounds
of this nitrogen gold mine to add to your compost.
You're looking for a combination of ingredients that will provide the right living conditions for the
microorganisms and bacteria that break down the materials in the compost pile. This tiny work force of
actimomycetes (act-TIN-OH-my-SEE-tees) must have food, water and oxygen to do their job. They need
nitrogen (N) in order to use the carbohydrates or carbon (C) materials as food.
"Without the microorganisms at work in compost, soil would
literally be dead." --Eleanore Perenyi, from "Green Thoughts: A
Writer in the Garden"
Therefore, you want to try for a nitrogen (N) to carbon (C) ratio of about 1 to 3.
Nitrogen (N) materials include: "Stable scraps" such as horse, rabbit, goat, chicken and other manures,
green grass clippings (minus any chemical fertilizers and herbicides), fish meal, bloodmeal, cottonseed
meal, trimmings from grocery store produce, and garden waste, such as weeds and trimmings.
Produce trimmings are good sources of Nitrogen (N).
What about putting URINE in the compost pile?
Do it. According to wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, urine is
sterile and contains large amounts of urea, an excellent source of
nitrogen for plants. Recommended dilution: 10-15 parts water to 1
part urine for application growing season. Urine is also a good
source of phosphorus and potassium, and is widely considered as
good as or better than commercially-available chemical fertilizers.
Urine is also used in composting to increase the nitrogen content
of the mulch, accelerating the composting process and increasing
its final nutrient values.
Carbon (C) materials include: Straw, dried leaves, sawdust (in small amounts), wood chips (also in small
amounts), and shredded newspaper, cardboard and brown bags. One of the best and easiest combinations
to come by occurs in the fall. Mix 3 parts dried leaves to 1 part green grass clippings to make a compost
that is light, airy and fine. Now that's gourmet!
Gourmet compost: 3 parts leaves + 1 part grass clippings.
Materials you DON'T want to add to a compost pile include: meat scraps, oily products such as salad
dressings, peanut butter and mayonnaise, pet litter and food, branches and other large woody materials,
slick magazine pages, and waxed cardboard.
If you live near a coastal community, kelp and seaweed is a must-have ingredient. Here on Kodiak Island,
kelp piles on the beaches in long windrows, and is available to anyone with a truck or garbage can. Pound
per pound, kelp supplies more minerals than any other material on the planet. In the garden, it also aerates
the soil and makes an excellent mulch around potato plants, fruit-bearing shrubs, bulbs and perennials.
And, contrary to popular belief, seaweed does not add harmful salts to the garden.
Kelp is what I call a "neutral" ingredient, in that it doesn't fit in the nitrogen or the carbon category. Yet, it
benefits every compost pile by adding fluff. So, if you live in North Dakota, either make a pilgrimage to
the coast or invite your beach buddies to come visit with their suitcases packed with seaweed.
To learn more about compost ingredients and composting, check out the list of books, websites and other
resources listed at the end of this article.
Step #2: Stir your compost ingredients
Once you assemble your ingredients, you're ready to build your compost pile. Here are some basic
guidelines:





Work with a minimum size of 3x3x5 feet. (If you live in a milder climate, then 3x3x3 feet is large
enough). The key is to make a compost pile large enough to retain heat and prevent ingredients
from drying out. Expect temperatures of 120 to 160 degrees (F), which is enough to kill most
weed seeds and pests.
Use an enclosure, either ready-built, or one make of heavy wire screen, wood pallets, etc.
Coarse materials should be chopped or shredded.
Build the pile in layers, like a cake, alternating nitrogen and carbon materials.
Hose down the layers with water. The ingredients should feel like a damp sponge.
Step #3: Let your compost cook
Turn the pile every 4 to 7 days to aerate it and to provide the microorganisms with fresh food. With
tumblers, simply give it a spin occasionally. For bin enclosures, use a pitchfork to turn the pile, moving
the inside materials to the outside, and the outside materials to the inside--just like folding cake batter.
This is a good upper body workout.
How do you know when the compost is done?
The compost pile is done cooking when it no longer warms up within a few days of turning it.
Incidentally, the pile will shrink to about half of its original size.
Roses are red, violets are blue.
Compost works, so gather the "doo"
--Nursery rhyme from Marion Owen's organic gardening class
Troubleshooting the compost pile
With a little practice, you'll be able to read the symptoms and know what to do to correct the problem.
Here are some common problems and their solutions:
Problem: The compost pile doesn't get very hot, even though it has enough materials.
Possible Solution: You might need to add more nitrogen ingredients such as green grass clippings or
manure to correct the nitrogen to carbon ratio. Make sure the ingredients are damp. Too dry, and they
won't start cooking.
Problem: The compost heap heats up and cools down like it's supposed to, but a lot of the materials are
large and not broken down.
Possible Solution: Because the materials are big and chunky, they don't provide enough surface area
for the microorganisms to finish their work. Chop the materials as best you can. A Crocodile Dundee
knife, or machete, works great for this.
Problem: Whew, the compost pile has a strong odor.
Possible Solution: The pile is undergoing what's called "anaerobic decomposition." Anaerobic means
"without oxygen" which is why it smells like the beach at low tide. You need to add introduce oxygen
back into the pile by turning it at least once a week.
Problem: Animals on the loose!
Possible Solution: If dogs, mice, rats, cats or raccoons are getting into to your compost pile, fence it in,
cover it with wire and avoid adding meat scraps, bones, and fish waste to the pile.
Roses are red, violets are blue.
Use compost on your flowers, and they'll be happy, too.
--Nursery rhyme from Marion Owen's organic gardening class
How to use compost






Apply a 4 to 6-inch layer of compost-mulch around woody perennials in the fall to reduce damage
from winter winds.
After the soil has warmed up in the spring, apply compost around warm season vegetable crops
such as zucchini and tomatoes.
Spread compost on the garden a couple weeks before spring tilling.
Add compost to container gardens, hanging baskets
During the growing season, side-dress your plants with compost to provide a slow-release source
of nutrients.
Make compost tea. Add a shovelful of compost to a 5-gallon bucket of water and allowing it to
steep for a few days. For larger quantities, add compost to a 55-gallon drum. Use the nutrient-rich
tea to fertilize lawns, shrubs, perennials, containers, hanging baskets, as well as annual vegetables,
herbs, and flowers. Dilute the tea for younger plants.
Adding compost tea to raised beds, Juneau, Alaska.


Apply a 1 to 2-inch thick mulch around flowers, trees and shrubs in the spring to maintain soil
moisture and discourage weed growth.
Use compost as a growing medium for seedlings and potted plants. After screening out large
particles, you'll need to pasteurize it before using it.
For more information about compost, compost bins, and more:









"The Rodale Book of Composting" by Deborah L. Martin (Editor), Grace Gershuny (Editor)
"Let It Rot : The Gardener's Guide to Composting" (Storey's Down-To-Earth Guides) by Stu
Campbell.
"Easy Composting," by Vic Sussman, Rodale Press, Inc.
"39 Easy Composters You Can Build" by Nick Noyes (Paperback) October 1995.
Innovative Uses for Compost by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Master Composter A "master composter" site which includes sources for everything from bins to
worms; recycled products and more.
www.organicgardening.com A place to bookmark for all your organic gardening questions.
Seattle Public Utilites' compost page An excellent resource for the home composter.
Seattle Tilth Organic Gardening--Urban Ecology--Composting--Recycling. Highly
Recommended.
Compost
Happens!
Tips for composting in any
climate, especially cool
ones
By Marion Owen, Fearless Weeder for
PlanTea, Inc. and
Co-author of Chicken Soup for the
Gardener's Soul
FEATURE ARTICLE:
Tom Hanks' "Power of Four" solution
More good stuff:
Making compost is like baking a cake!
Marion's online catalog
Who is Marion Owen?
+ Visit her blog
FAQs about PlanTea
Search Marion's articles, tips and recipes
Why grow organic?
News and press releases
Read love letters
How to link to this site
Need a speaker?
How to contact Marion
Visiting Alaska?
Come to Kodiak Island!
My neighbor, Mrs. Crayneck, loves to bake. But when her world famous
banana bread doesn't turn out quite right, she doesn't sweat the small
stuff.
"What's the worst thing that can happen?" she says. "I just put it in the
compost pile!"
Sooner or later gardeners come across the word "compost." As easy as it
is to say, compost has a reputation for being difficult to master. Yet
nothing could be further from the truth. If I can make hot, 160-degree
compost during an Alaska winter (see photo below), you can too--no
matter where you grow your tomatoes. It's easy. In fact, you can
compost 163 materials! Here's how, beginning with a story about my
Mom...
"If you can read, you can cook!"
Go to home page
One day, when I was 12 and still climbing trees, Mom came into the
kitchen and said, "Honey, how about making dessert for tonight?"
Marion's UpBeet Gardener
Newsletter
* Read the current issue
* Sign up here (it's free, silly):
Primary email:
First name:
Having just endured months of salad-making for our family of seven, I
was ready for a change. Mom picked up an old copy of Gourmet
cookbook and started flipping through the pages. It was like watching
Wheel of Fortune.
Finally, she pressed her finger to a recipe and said, "Here you go, make
this."
Her finger pointed to a chocolate souffle recipe. I was stunned. "Don't
worry sweetie," she said. "If you can read, you can cook."
So began my love affair with cooking. I also learned a valuable lesson:
You can do whatever you set your mind to, but if you need help in
building a house, installing software, or making compost -- follow a
recipe!
Let's begin this lesson by de-mystifying compost. We'll make it easier by
following a recipe. And as you'll see, making a compost pile is a lot like
making a cake. And we can do it in 3 easy steps. 1) Gather up your
ingredients, 2) Stir them together, and 3) let it cook. Even Bette Midler
knows the value of compost...
Why the Divine "Miss M" loves compost
"My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a
manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical
experience that lets you see your place in the big picture. And that
is what I had with my first compost heap. I love compost and I
believe that composting can save not the entire world, but a good
portion of it."
--Bette Midler, in a Los Angeles Times interview
I'm sure Bette Midler would agree that making and using compost is not
only a life-changing experience, but it's the world's best soil conditioner.







Compost recycles organic materials, from apple cores and coffee
grounds, to dried leaves and Shredded Wheat.
Compost improves any, and all, soil types.
Compost provides the basic nutrients of nitrogen (N), phosphorus
(P), and potassium (K) as well as dozens of micro- and macro
nutrients that are vital for healthy plants.
Compost "gives back" nutrients that flowers, herbs and
vegetables remove in their normal growth processes.
Compost prevents nutrients from leaching away from plant roots.
Compost protects soil against wind and rain erosion, drought,
dust storms, earthquakes and other extreme conditions.
Compost extends the life of landfills by reducing space needed
for food and yard wastes.
The "compost cake" recipe
Did you know you can have finished compost in just 3 to 4 weeks? By
combining the right ingredients, your compost pile will not only heat up
to 140 degrees (F) or more, but it will "cook down" to a fluffy material
that is ready to use in the garden.
Step 1: Collect your compost ingredients
For a hot, active compost pile, you need to build it all at once, not over
weeks or months. Imagine making a cake by sifting the flour one day,
adding eggs and oil the next and then waiting a week or so before
mixing everything together and getting it into the oven. It would be a
flop. Start collecting ingredients. Go on organic treasure hunts. Talk to
your neighbors, ask your friends, scan the classified ads, and remember
to check your own back yard.
Did you know the hair on your head contains 30 times more nitrogen
than manure? Next time you go to the hairdresser, ask for a few pounds
of this nitrogen gold mine to add to your compost.
You're looking for a combination of ingredients that will provide the
right living conditions for the microorganisms and bacteria that break
down the materials in the compost pile. This tiny work force of
actimomycetes (act-TIN-OH-my-SEE-tees) must have food, water and
oxygen to do their job. They need nitrogen (N) in order to use the
carbohydrates or carbon (C) materials as food.
"Without the microorganisms at work in compost, soil would
literally be dead." --Eleanore Perenyi, from "Green Thoughts: A
Writer in the Garden"
Therefore, you want to try for a nitrogen (N) to carbon (C) ratio of
about 1 to 3.
Nitrogen (N) materials include: "Stable scraps" such as horse, rabbit,
goat, chicken and other manures, green grass clippings (minus any
chemical fertilizers and herbicides), fish meal, bloodmeal, cottonseed
meal, trimmings from grocery store produce, and garden waste, such as
weeds and trimmings.
Produce trimmings are good sources of Nitrogen (N).
What about putting URINE in the compost pile?
Do it. According to wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, urine is
sterile and contains large amounts of urea, an excellent source of
nitrogen for plants. Recommended dilution: 10-15 parts water to 1
part urine for application growing season. Urine is also a good
source of phosphorus and potassium, and is widely considered as
good as or better than commercially-available chemical fertilizers.
Urine is also used in composting to increase the nitrogen content
of the mulch, accelerating the composting process and increasing
its final nutrient values.
Carbon (C) materials include: Straw, dried leaves, sawdust (in small
amounts), wood chips (also in small amounts), and shredded newspaper,
cardboard and brown bags. One of the best and easiest combinations to
come by occurs in the fall. Mix 3 parts dried leaves to 1 part green grass
clippings to make a compost that is light, airy and fine. Now that's
gourmet!
Gourmet compost: 3 parts leaves + 1 part grass clippings.
Materials you DON'T want to add to a compost pile include: meat
scraps, oily products such as salad dressings, peanut butter and
mayonnaise, pet litter and food, branches and other large woody
materials, slick magazine pages, and waxed cardboard.
If you live near a coastal community, kelp and seaweed is a must-have
ingredient. Here on Kodiak Island, kelp piles on the beaches in long
windrows, and is available to anyone with a truck or garbage can. Pound
per pound, kelp supplies more minerals than any other material on the
planet. In the garden, it also aerates the soil and makes an excellent
mulch around potato plants, fruit-bearing shrubs, bulbs and perennials.
And, contrary to popular belief, seaweed does not add harmful salts to
the garden.
Kelp is what I call a "neutral" ingredient, in that it doesn't fit in the
nitrogen or the carbon category. Yet, it benefits every compost pile by
adding fluff. So, if you live in North Dakota, either make a pilgrimage to
the coast or invite your beach buddies to come visit with their suitcases
packed with seaweed.
To learn more about compost ingredients and composting, check out the
list of books, websites and other resources listed at the end of this article.
Step #2: Stir your compost ingredients
Once you assemble your ingredients, you're ready to build your compost
pile. Here are some basic guidelines:





Work with a minimum size of 3x3x5 feet. (If you live in a milder
climate, then 3x3x3 feet is large enough). The key is to make a
compost pile large enough to retain heat and prevent ingredients
from drying out. Expect temperatures of 120 to 160 degrees (F),
which is enough to kill most weed seeds and pests.
Use an enclosure, either ready-built, or one make of heavy wire
screen, wood pallets, etc.
Coarse materials should be chopped or shredded.
Build the pile in layers, like a cake, alternating nitrogen and
carbon materials.
Hose down the layers with water. The ingredients should feel
like a damp sponge.
Step #3: Let your compost cook
Turn the pile every 4 to 7 days to aerate it and to provide the
microorganisms with fresh food. With tumblers, simply give it a spin
occasionally. For bin enclosures, use a pitchfork to turn the pile, moving
the inside materials to the outside, and the outside materials to the
inside--just like folding cake batter. This is a good upper body workout.
How do you know when the compost is done?
The compost pile is done cooking when it no longer warms up within a
few days of turning it. Incidentally, the pile will shrink to about half of
its original size.
Roses are red, violets are blue.
Compost works, so gather the "doo"
--Nursery rhyme from Marion Owen's organic gardening class
Troubleshooting the compost pile
With a little practice, you'll be able to read the symptoms and know what
to do to correct the problem. Here are some common problems and their
solutions:
Problem: The compost pile doesn't get very hot, even though it has
enough materials.
Possible Solution: You might need to add more nitrogen ingredients
such as green grass clippings or manure to correct the nitrogen to carbon
ratio. Make sure the ingredients are damp. Too dry, and they won't start
cooking.
Problem: The compost heap heats up and cools down like it's
supposed to, but a lot of the materials are large and not broken down.
Possible Solution: Because the materials are big and chunky, they
don't provide enough surface area for the microorganisms to finish their
work. Chop the materials as best you can. A Crocodile Dundee knife, or
machete, works great for this.
Problem: Whew, the compost pile has a strong odor.
Possible Solution: The pile is undergoing what's called "anaerobic
decomposition." Anaerobic means "without oxygen" which is why it
smells like the beach at low tide. You need to add introduce oxygen
back into the pile by turning it at least once a week.
Problem: Animals on the loose!
Possible Solution: If dogs, mice, rats, cats or raccoons are getting into
to your compost pile, fence it in, cover it with wire and avoid adding
meat scraps, bones, and fish waste to the pile.
Roses are red, violets are blue.
Use compost on your flowers, and they'll be happy, too.
--Nursery rhyme from Marion Owen's organic gardening class
