Bird bones (like chicken and turkey) are lightweight and hollow and will decompose especially in a hot pile. Beef and pork bones, not so much. Some people dry/roast them in the oven and pulverize with a hammer. If you have acidic soil or low calcium it is a good source. I have limestone based clay so I have all the calcium I need and my soil is neutral so I don't work that hard at it, but I put in chicken and turkey bones. Even large quantities of meat can be composted IF your pile is big enough, hot enough and they are buried deep enough. Dead animals have been composted in large piles of sawdust. Just not something you want to do at home. :-] But it will certainly turn to compost, and those scraps you are putting in are just fine as long as you don't have animal problems.

No need to add N, but pee is great, since it is essentially wasted down the sewer. Watch out you don't overload it - if you're in a dry climate and try to make up all the moisture needs with pee, it's a losing battle and you'll end up with salty compost. I assume you're adding all your kitchen scraps, they have good moisture and N. Most of us will kinda look at you funny if you propose adding any kind of purchased fertilizer to a compost pile. The idea is to recycle wastes to make free compost, and the env. and $ benefits are lost (or at least reduced) if you buy manufactured products to put in. It does work in a pinch, but this does not seem like that kind of situation. grossepointe: Definitely compost your plants at the end of the season! You don't have to chop them if you don't want to, but tougher ones will compost faster. Snip into 6" pieces with clippers, or cut them down with a hedge trimmer taking 6" whacks. Or if you have a lot, get an old stump and a $10 garden machete (military surplus is a great place to find them), and whack away. Also, feel free to post your questions as a new thread, it gets more attention that way.

Sassy, My husband made the planter. It's part of a larger one. I'll post pictures of the whole thing soon when I get to some of the projects we've been working on this year. Janice, My Frosted Jade always seems a little frosty and certainly lighter than Francee. That may be because I have Francee in more shade. Sometime it looks a little blue but sometimes it doesn't. The margin is different, thiner and turned up. I'll send you some pictures. Silly Me, Your Gin and tonic is beautiful. I'm looking forward to mine getting round like that. Firethorn, Leather Sheen doesn't have a white edge. It must just look that way in the photo Flower Child. I don't know which picture is yours in the library but I'm happy to have Joshua's Banner this year. With three leaves, it has a ways to go.

I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but it spoke to my heart and I had to share... You spend three years in school, graduate, fly out of state to attend a certification hearing in which you are approved by unanimous vote of over 100 people and you call your mother (who is waiting by the phone on pins and needles) to tell her the good news and the first words out of your mouth are "How are my worms?! Have you been feeding them like I showed you?!" You cannot enter a restaurant or cafe without wondering if you could get them to hand over all their fruit and vegetable scraps. You actually feel gleeful when you accidentally spill an entire one-pound bag of frozen peas all over the kitchen floor, because you know your worms will love them. And to Alabamanicole: I have made myself late to class because I had so many worms to rescue.