Southern Spirit Hunters
Gardening => Gardeners Chat => Topic started by: Dianna on Jun 30, 2012, 01:27:38 PM
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Jim bought me some raw natural peanuts last night at Walmart because I prefer those to roasted or boiled with salt. While eating some today, I started crumbling the shells into little pieces for the compost bin. Is it considered a green or a brown? :unsure:
I have been hanging on to the paper towels I dry my hands with to shred for the bin. I added some bits and pieces of peels of different veggies when I was making a salad. I probably need to go add it to the bin before it starts attracting gnats into my kitchen now... :BigGrin:
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It is a brown. You are not going to add enough peanut shells to worry if they are green or brown unless you add it by full wheelbarrows. Paper is also a brown.
Don't forget to add the hair you brush out of Angel. (brown too)
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Thank you, Tina. I never thought about Angel's hair in the compost. I have plenty of my own to donate, though... :giggle:
Of course, mine might not be good to add. It has tint in it most times... :BigGrin:
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Yes, your own works too. Dyed is OK.
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Wonder how long does it take for it to break down? Should I cut my hair in little bitty pieces?
I always have a brush full of hair when I brush my hair. I am surprised I have any left on my head at all... :Wacko:
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It breaks down pretty quickly because it is so thin already.
Do you run your compost through a screen of any kind? I have a screen with about half inch squares. But I've never really used it. Just run my hands through and removed any larger chunks to put back to finish. If I found clumps of hair unfinished, I might toss those back in too. But it will finish itself in the soil also. Sometimes I just sprinkle our mostly short ones straight around the plants. I do most the hair cutting here.
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No screen at all, Tina. I would pick it out like you. :grinnnn: The last full compost bin just got emptied right where it stood and spread around. Fire ants took it over and I was fighting with them... :o
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Another question... :grinnnn:
I have started saving my coffee grounds again and egg shells to add to the compost bin. But first I am getting a little ready to mix in the soil when we plant the tomatoes. I am wondering now if I should have picked the skin out of the egg shells before I added them to my coffee grounds. Will it be okay to leave in? I did wash them out, but didn't try to pick all of the membrane that was left on the inside of the shell... :ScratchHead:
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My mom always just threw them in not washed. It didn't seem to hurt anything. I also throw the eggs right out during fall/winter but i guess they would have time to break down.
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It does not matter, Dianna. If they have a lot of egg left in them, they could smell a bit for a little while and could attract other critters. But I have also tossed them straight into the soil with little or no breaking apart and they do beak down on their own. Birds will come along and snack on pieces of shell too. It is good for them. I have also dumped used coffee grounds out around my plants. It is all good.
Bonus: Snails do not like to crawl over scratchy things.
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Thanks, Ariel and Tina. I did remove the membrane from the eggs yesterday after I rinsed the shells, but I just didn't feel like doing it this morning. Now I will just rinse and toss and not worry about it... :grinnnn:
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See, I don't even rinse.
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I just can't stand the thought of anything slimy in the compost, Tina... :giggle:
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and i walk outside and throw old/bad eggs as hard as i can into the over grown yard in front. i usually clear the actual "yard" and get them into the woods. i figure that either a hungry critter will eat them, or they will compost naturally. now, saying that, i won't be able to do that after tomorrow, someone is cutting the front and turning it into yard also.
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I also toss old eggs (floaters) out into the shrubs.
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Jennifer, who is turning the front into a yard? Scott? Matthew? :ScratchHead:
I was going to ask how to tell if an egg is bad, but when Tina said "floaters", I remembered. But what makes you check to see if it floats in the first place? Time it has been in the fridge? :unsure:
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Yes, time it has hung around. But checking for a float is very simple and not time consuming.
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We all know I am detail oriented beyond permission. Because I make some calcium powder for the tomatoes I rinse take out the membrane (because of smell), dry and then run through the spice grinder until the egg shells are a powder. For slug repellent I want large pieces of shell so I don't take the membrane out of those or break them into small pieces.
Easy way I determine what is green and what is brown is the green will get warm and smell up the place and the brown won't.
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I guess I am just a lazy composter. I really don't so any of the above grinding, chopping, rinsing, breaking up of anything tossed into a compost pile. I let mother nature handle most things. I've never noticed a big odor problem. If it attracts gnats and fruit flies, I dampen sheets of newspaper and lay it over it all. They tend not to like that much. I've never had a big ant problem but think I would surround it with orange and/or lemon peels. Or something like that. Maybe mint planted right in it.
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I was going to be the kind of composter that took it directly to the garden and worked it in. That's been done twice now. It's a lot of trouble so I'm changing my plans. Andy tore down the fence I had around the original compost pile and I imagine he'll do it again if I put it in the same place. The new plan is to buy a big dog pen and sit it right beside the garden spot. Johnny figures he can buy one of those for close to the same price of buying stuff to build another one plus it will be half the aggravation.
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I tried the lasagna gardening one time, putting down cardboard, and ended up with a bunch of rolly polly bugs (don't know their real name), which are earth movers but they also eat the roots or tender stalks of new vege plants. When I got rid of the cardboard they went away too - for the most part.
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i've always called them roly poly bugs too! i think they are also called pill bugs. i haven't done lasagna composting, most of my composting is just to toss it in the pile and let it go from there. but i haven't done a lot of gardening lately either.
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sometimes I wonder if it's really worth it but then I get a bite of a fresh tomato and ah ah
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I'm with Jenn I haven't done much gardening lately either.
Peanut shells are brown.
My leaves are all over from the wind storms so they have to be raked up again. I won't mention everything else that needs doing around here but it's going to be busy.
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It's too windy to do anything outside here today. We have so many leaves I can't put them all in the compost pile. Since I'm a retired person I want to get a better handle on this and grow lots of stuff using compost and being wise about it. Wish me luck on that. :BigGrin: I'll say again I wish I had a Robert.
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My compost pile is flattened. I need to get out there and rake up all the leaves again. Then maybe do the grass cutting that I didn't do at the end of last year.
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I plan to keep track of how much compost I pull out of the pile this year. I don't think it will be a great amount but there should be some. It's kind of a cost ratio thing with me. Is all the labor and mess worth what the garden gets from it or would I be better off weeding, blah.
So today I took out 5 gallons of compost from the pile. I wonder what that's equivalent to in Cubic Feet?
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Today I took out another 5 gallons. I didn't have the umph to take it up to the birdbath flower bed but that is where it is headed.
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Each 5 gallons is about .78 cubic ft. So now I know. It looks like I may have several feet this year.
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I've got to get my compost pile started again. I've just been burying stuff directly into the garden.
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That's one way to compost. Of course with the mound of leaves I have every years it would be pretty hard to bury it without a backhoe.
I got out there at noon, wrong time, and dug up another 5 gallon bucket of compost for the sidewalk flower bed. So that's 15 gallons so far at a cost of approximately 6.81 cents. That sounds good to me since I spent 25 on mulch and plants. But the kolrabi is edible so that cancels itself out.
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25 gallons of compost today so that's a total of 40 gallons and I still have more to dig out. So that's 6.24 cf and about 8 bags at 2.27 for a total savings of 18.16 cents. Not bad. To bad I need so much of it.
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There is no such thing as too much compost. You can add too much sometimes but that is a human error, not a compost problem.
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? to much compost?
I have 14 tires that will hold 1.5 cf each of compost and an equal amount of garden soil. I don't think I'm going to come anywhere near that amount. Then I could probably put another 3 cf of compost in the birdbath flower bed without over burdening it. And that doesn't even touch what ever will be needed in the foundation, shade, driveway, or ditch flower beds.
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dug up another 5 gallons/.78 cuft for a total dug out of 45 gallons7.02 cuft. And there is still plenty buried in there.
I'm moved 4x4x3 feet of unfinished compost to the lower end of the pile and still haven't even touched the yard. So I expect to have a very large pile of leaves to work with this year.
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And another 5 gallons/.78 cuft. The total is now 50 gallons/7.80 cuft. That's a nice haul for the year but there is still more out there.
$22.70 in savings is a tidy sum on my budget.
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And another 5 gallons/.78 cuft. 55 gallons total to date/8.58 cuft. I'm very happy. But I'm considering that I didn't pull any of the finished compost from the pile last year so this is actually 2 years worth of finished compost.
$24.97 current cost of compost here multiplied by the number of cuft I've dug up.
I'm turned over almost the entire pile. I should if I'm up to it after the doctors appointments tomorrow to finish turning over the pile. Then I can start raking the yard. Oh Boy!
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well after getting all of the unfinished compost into one big pile I'm thinking that turning it once a week is going to be quite some chore. I don't think I want to add another years leaves to what is there and try and turn it every week. So I guess it's time to think about making a second compost pile. I have several brush piles that happened by accident. Maybe that should be the place for a new pile. One could be where the veggie patch was going to be, before I found out about bunnies. Yea, that's what I'm going to do. There are already logs there that I can use to keep things in bounds so to speak. And it is reasonable without plantings at least the ones on purpose. Of course this means my piles will only get turned every other week and that's a best course plan. Otherwise nothing would get weeded or mowed or raked or...
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Ok 60 full gallons of finished compost. 9.36 cuft total for two years of working. I can live with that.
So now I've raked up 99 gallons of leaves from the area between the shade bed and the fruit trees. This is a very small part of the yard. But I figure if I can do the same amount everyday for the next two weeks that should put all of the leaves in a compost pile somewhere in the yard. Of course I plan to intersperse that with some grass cutting.
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i am thinking it is time to start my compost bin. i've been putting it off.
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Enjoy! I love playing in my compost.
Today before I headed off for breakfast I raked up another 99 gallons of leaves for the upper compost pile. It's not to it's full size yet but I did hit the 3 feet high mark. Funny thing about it is the stump there has started to sprout branches so I'll have to move the compost pile over and debark that stump and try and kill it. I don't want it sucking all the nutriements out of the compost pile.
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I lost track of this for a few days. Lets see I know there was a day of 198 gallons and then today where I did maybe 66. I didn't actually put it in the barrel and transport it I just raked it across the driveway to the upper compost bin.
so that's about 462 gallons of leaves as of today. And there are still leaves in the front that I just couldn't rake all the way to the compost pile and then a little pile from the left foundation bed, and all of the back and side yards. So I would estimate that I probably have as much again of what I have raked. It's suprising that it composts down to such a small amount isn't it?
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duh, what kind of leaves are you composting? We have oak trees and I just read that they are great, not composted, to use to keep grass out of paths and walkways because whole, compacted oak leaves repel water therefore not breaking down quickly so grass and other weeds are smothered out, almost permanently, from an area. Wonder how that would work for the paths between my garden rows.
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Um, I have chestnut oak, big ones. Your right, under my compost pile and where I heap them to fill in depressions nothing grows. But when I let the leaves stay in the flowerbed during the fall and winter they weeds come right through them. The leaves do breakdown so this is something you would have to add to from time to time. Also leaf mulch is spongy so be careful walking on it. I have weak ankles so I've learned to wear my ankle brace out there.
It might work very well. At the end of the season you could turn it into the soil
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added another 99 gallons of leaves to the compost pile. That's a total of 561 gallons. At this point I would need 280.5 gallons of grass clippings to get all the greens necessary to heat up the compost piles. Don't think that is going to happen. Guess I'll continue to cold compost. Which is actually good because the upper compost pile is now 5x5x5 ft.
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I cut back all of the daffodil and tulip stems. Not the leaves, just the stems. I don't need any seed heads forming since they take so long to mature into bulbs. I got maybe 1 gallon of greens. So that leaves me needed 279.5 gallons lol. I put them in the lower pile and then noticed that with the wind and the rain that the pile was compacted. So I just had to pull out the rakes. I've got to do something with that pile. It is about 8 feet long, 3 feet high, and 5 feet wide. I need to split it into two I think. That's a lot of work. Today I just managed to incorporate the green and some sticks into it and to tidy up one of the long sides. If I have any strength left tomorrow after the mowing I'll see what I can do.
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Took a good long time for tomorrow to get here didn't it? lol.
Today I cut grass and raked up 15+ gallons of mixed greens and browns for the compost pile. The excessive rain has gotten the piles to an acceptable size, less than 6 feet x 3 feet x 3 feet. So 264 gallons of greens left for the season lol.
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I'm going to count the pine tree and the prunings from the chestnut oak as 2.5 gallons of greens. So I am now at 261.5 gallons left. The pile has really shrunk which means that it is doing what it is suppose to.
I wish that it would be small while raking and mixing and large when it is time time to harvest the finished compost rather than the other way around.
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Ok, I'm counting the rakings as three buckets which is 15 gallons. So 246.5 gallons of greens left to bring the piles up to the ration I would like to have. I will say after the mixing today there is alittle grass combined with all of the leaves in the bottom pile. Not anywhere near 25 to 25 percent but at least 1 percent.
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Today was a good day for rakings. I got 3.5 buckets of mixed greens. So 17.5 gallons. That brings down the total to 229 gallons left to rake this season lol.
Interesting thing today. When I was raking up the waist high grass it balled up in the bucket and didn't want to break up when I emptied it in the compost pile. I decided that I would just leave the bundle all together and toss leaves on top if it. Will see what happens with that.
The lower compost pile is currently 4x4x4 now that it's all been put together after the mixing job yesterday.
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duh, last Saturday I was listening to a garden show on the radio and the master gardener said she doesn't recommend using grass as mulch in the garden for just the reason you mentioned above. She said some times it clumps up and won't separate no matter what which makes it too slippery to walk on and can keep oxygen from getting to the dirt underneath it. I had always heard that grass was great as compost in the garden.
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There is a significant difference between mulch and compost.
Mulch is the material that you place over a garden bed for weed supression and moisture retention.
Compost is a mixture of bio-matter that has broken down to a soil like consistance that is pH neutral and can be added to enrich soil.
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I meant to say mulch in both places. She didn't like grass in the garden after the plants were there.
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I wouldn't use grass as mulch either.
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Well yesterday I put a pine sapling and a chestnut oak branch in the compost pile and covered it over with leaves. Today I just tossed another chestnut oak branch in the pile. It was raining so I didn't stop to try and cover it over. Moving the pile when it is wet is difficult at best. So all together maybe 1 gallon of greens? Which puts me down to 228 gallons I think still needed.
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raked up 2 buckets of greens so 10 gallons. That leaves 218 gallons go go and it's still may. I just might make it if we get rain through the entire summer but that's not likely. it's nice though. I'll have good compost in a year or two.
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I'm still working on it. I've made a great deal of progress but I don't have the numbers with me so I can't update. Maybe next time I'll remember.
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Ok as of yesterday I still needed to add 179.5 gallons of greens to the compost pile. I have some to rake up today but then I'm out of luck for this year because I burned up the motor in the weed wacker. Always something isn't it?