Do NOT Compost These Items

Sometimes when you are just starting out with a compost pile it is hard to know just what you should and shouldn't put in there, for a list of items you should add please visit Over 70 Things for the Compost Pile. We've done some research on the things you should NOT add to your compost pile.

Cat, Dog, or Human Fecal Matter. While manure from chickens, horses, and cows is fair game, carnivorous animals' waste can introduce disease and parasites to your garden and to you when you harvest your food.
Diseased Plants. Plants that are diseased should never be added to compost. This can introduce the disease to new plants.
Meat, Fat, Grease, Oil. These items can attract pests and they can also coat your items in the compost preserving them and preventing them from breaking down.
Printed Glossy Paper. There are chemicals in the ink that may not break down well, as well as foil and glossy papers that do not do well in the breaking down process of your compost.
Salad Dressing, Mayo, Oily food stuff. These items will not break down well. They will stink up your garden and attract pests.
Sawdust from Treated Wood.
Weeds. Do not compost weeds as some seeds are not killed by the heat of the compost and the weeds will come up where you place your compost later.
Anything Treated with Pesticide or Herbicide. This can cause your compost to be fatal to your garden.

Don't forget, Red Hill General Store carries composting equipment and tools.

Over 70 Things for the Compost Pile

Sometimes when you are just starting out with a compost pile it is hard to know just what you should put in there. We've done some research on the best items for your compost pile.

Things you CAN compost:
100% Cotton non-dyed Clothes - cut into small pieces
100% Wool Clothing- cut into small pieces
Barnyard Animal Manures - bury well in your compost to avoid flies. Do not use pet or human waste in your compost.
Beer
Brown Boxes - shredded/torn
Brown Packing Tubes - shredded/torn
Brown Paper Shopping Bags
Burlap Sacks - shredded/torn
Cereal - stale
Christmas Tree - should be chopped up very well, preferable with a wood chipper
Coffee Grounds
Coffee Filters
Corn Husks
Cotton based tissues, napkins, and paper towels
Crackers - stale saltines
Crepe Paper Streamers
Dead Leaves - not from diseased plants
Dried Grass
Dust Bunnies
Egg Cartons - the PAPER ones
Egg Shells - need to be mashed into a fine powder
Fall Leaves
Feathers
Fish Parts/Seafood Scraps - best for large piles so they can be buried well
Floor Sweepings
Flowers from floral arrangements
Fresh Cut Grass
Fruit
Fruit Peelings
Hay
Herbs & Spices that are old
Jack o'Lanterns
Jelly, Jam, or Preserves that are old
Kelp
Kitchen Scraps
Laundry Lint (not fabric softener sheets)
Loofahs - the natural ones not synthetic - shredded/torn
Nut Shells - not walnut those can be toxic to plants
Oatmeal
Old Bread
Paper
Paper plates - be sure there is no waxy coating on them
Pasta leftovers - must be plain and cooked
Pencil Shavings
Pickles
Plant Prunings - not from diseased plants
Pine Needles
Pizza Box - shredded/torn
Pizza Crusts - tear into small pieces and bury well in the pile
Popcorn Kernels
Potpourri - ONLY natural
Pretzels - stale
Rice leftovers - must be plain and cooked
Sawdust - from untreated lumber
Seaweed
Shredded Newspaper
Soy/Almond/Rice milk
Spent Flower Blooms
Straw
Tea Leaves/grounds/bags
Tofu/Tempah
Toilet Paper & Paper Towel Rolls - shredded/torn
Trimmings from electric razor
Twigs - old & dry need to broken into small pieces

Vegetables
Vegetable Peelings
Wine
Wine Corks
Wood Ashes - in small amounts
Wood Chips
Wrapping Paper Rolls - shredded/torn
Wreaths - ONLY natural

Don't forget, Red Hill General Store carries composting equipment and tools.

Starting Composting

If you are planning on having a garden next year, now is a great time to look into composting. Compost is a great material that will help your garden to grow.

Composting is also a great way to cut down on how much you are sending to the landfills. When you compost you will be reusing many degradable products that are ordinarily thrown out.

So how do you start your compost?

To make things easier you can invest in a composter to hold your compost or you can create your own compost pile.

First you will want to select a spot that is near a water source, this spot needs to be dry and shady.
Then  you will add your brown and green materials (list for appropriate materials below). Be sure that the larger pieces are shredded or chopped, you will add the materials continually as you collect them.
Moisten your dry materials when they are added.
Once you have established your compost pile, you will want to mix in grass clippings and other green waste, bury vegetable and fruit waste under 10 inches of your compost material.
If you are using a compost pile, cover with a tarp to keep it moist.
When the material at the bottom is dark and rich in color your compost is ready to use. This can take anywhere from two months to as much as two years.

Green Compost Material:
Algae
Bone meal
Coffee grounds
Egg shells
Feathers
Flowers
Fruit and fruit peels
Grass clippings (fresh)
Hair
Juicer Pulp
Manure
Plant Trimmings (that have not been treated with pesticides)
Seaweed
Tea leaves
Vegetables & peelings

Brown Compost Material:
Buckwheat hulls
Coffee filters
Coffee Grounds
Corn Cobs
Cotton/wool/silk scraps
Grass clippings (dried)
Hay
Leaves (dead)
Peanut Shells
Peat Moss
Pine needles
Sawdust
Shredded paper egg cartons
Shredded newspaper
Straw
Tea bags

Do NOT Compost:
Pet Feces
Meat and Bones
Diseased Plants
Seeding Weeds
Wet Grass
Inorganic Materials 


As you add materials to your compost, you will want to turn your pile periodically. Every 3 to 5 days tends to be a good amount of time. If you have a spinning composting bin, the turning will be easier, if you have a compost pile then you will want to use a pitch fork or shovel.

Previous Compost Posts:
Composting
Revisiting Composting

Revisiting Composting

This morning, while checking my email, I was made aware of a very informative article on the art of composting. The article is called 10 Rules to Remember About Composting. It can be found on nannypro.com

Photo from nannypro.com

We will give you a little teaser of this article by sharing 2 of the rules with you here:

Rule # 2:

Remember to turn your compost pile: As the ingredients in your compost pile start to biodegrade they will start to get hot.  To avoid your compost pile rotting and stinking you need to turn the pile to aerate it.  This addition of air into the pile will speed up the decomposition.

Side note: Rule 2 can be made easier with a spinning composter.

Rule # 6:

Never put trash in your compost pile: Just because something says that it is recyclable it doesn’t mean that it should necessarily go into the compost bin.  For example, newspapers will compost and can be put into a compost pile, but you will want to shred the newspapers and not just toss them in the bin in a stack.  Things like plastic and tin should not be put into a compost pile, but can be recycled in other ways.

Be sure to check out the entire list of rules:
http://www.nannypro.com/blog/10-rules-to-remember-about-composting/

Composting

Composting is a wonderful way to naturally give your garden the fuel it needs to thrive.  Composting is also environmentally responsible, as it is using things that ordinarily would find their way into the landfills which are already full enough. It can also save you money on buying compost in the store, and by lessening the garbage that you need to haul off each week, if you also recycle your metals, papers, and plastics, adding composting to your routine can save you quite a bundle in what you are paying to the landfills (if you live in an area that charges for garbage pick up or drop off).

Just what is so great about composting anyway? Well, composting is great for many things; it is good for your garden and the environment. Compost is good for the soil in your garden as it gives your plants a slow, steady, nearly continuous stream of nutrients that they need while they are growing.  In addition to the reasons that we already mentioned that composting is good for the environment (less waste going to landfills) it also improves it due to creating less of a need for chemical fertilizers. And less chemicals is almost always a good thing.

Well, we’ve been convinced that composting is a good, no a GREAT thing. So how does one get started composting?

To make compost you need to bring together items that are mainly green and moist, such as grass clippings, weeds, kitchen scraps, etc. Also you will need to add in some brown ingredients like dead leaves, hay, wood shavings, saw dust, hay, and so forth. Make sure that your items stay moist and turn every few days to make sure oxygen is getting reintroduced to the pile. You can do this with a pitchfork or a compost aerator. However, if you are using a spinning compost container, the action of spinning it will aerate your compost for you. 

Now, you might want to reduce the size of your compost ingredients by chopping them up, or in the case of leaves you can use a lawn mower or mulcher to decrease their size. This will help your compost break down more quickly.

When you add your ingredients together you will want to layer them in 3 to 4 inch think layers (however if using a spinning container you can just chuck them all in there together). The ratio you will want to stay close to is between a 5:1 and 8:1 by volume of brown materials to green materials. However, if the ratio is off then there are ways to tell how to get back on track.

If after 24 hours your compost pile has not heated up you most likely need more green material. The best way to gauge whether or not your pile is getting warmer is by using a thermometer, or more particularly a compost thermometer. 150-160 degrees Fahrenheit is where you want the temperature of the middle of your compost heap to be. Now on the other end of things, if your compost smells like ammonia then you need some more brown materials. Once these are added and mixed into your compost then that smell should dissipate.

Your compost mixture should remain moist throughout the process (not sopping wet however). Between the moistness and the oxygen that the compost is getting from you aerating it your mixture will soon become compost. The more frequently you aerate your mixture the quicker your compost will be ready.

Now, once your compost is done there are several uses for it. You can add it to garden soil, container mixes, or use it as mulch. If there are still coarse pieces in the compost you may want to sift your compost through a “riddle” or garden sieve. Any large pieces that are left can be added to your ingredients for your next composting adventure.

Composting ingredients: (a few ingredient ideas to get you started)

Brown Ingredients:

Leaves

Paper

Cardboard

Hay

Woody Prunings

Straw

Eggshells

Tea Bags

Corn Cobs

Saw Dust

Green Ingredients:

Vegetables

Fruit

Grass Clippings

Fresh Manure

Coffee Grounds

Young Hedge Trimmings

Seaweed

Feathers

Plant Cuttings

Hair

More Composting Info

Red Hill General Store's Outdoor and Gardening Blog

We are bringing you a blog that ties in with several of our sister sites. Sprayer-outlet.com and Earthway-outlet.com are just two of our Web sites that we will feature products, projects, advice, and ideas from on this blog.

Once harvest season rolls in we will also feature some tips from Pressurecooker-outlet.com.

We want to know what kind of blogs and information you want to see about the outdoors and gardening. What type of information are you needing this coming year?

Some great places to start:
Starting a Garden
Urban Container Garden
Harvest Time