A box of spoiled veggies from the grocery store, big bushels of dead flowers and plants from the cemetary, grass clippings. Tomorrow more of the same with some of last falls leaves, oh and I better empty the bucket full of kitchen scraps.

Lots and lots of well aged PEE. Ahh the elegance of compost

UCG, kitchen scraps from work, kitchen scraps from home, strawberries & watermelon leftovers from coworker, globs of frosting from my birthday cake that were just too rich to continue eating, RAIN (finally), napkins, TP rolls, torn up egg cartons, and DH's daily dose of liquid gold.

I think I spied some icky greens and old yogurt in the back of the fridge so I might clean it out today and feed the CP again :)

I've seen it mentioned before that people get spoiled produce from the grocery store. How? Every time I ask I get told it's against company policy :(

"a 2" square piece of 20-something year old wedding cake, with a faded, carmine lipstick smear."

sounds like something Sam Spade would say...
quick! somebody write the book!
lol!

Today I fed the compost pile

a bunch of 4 o-clocks

cardboard tp cores from office

coffee grounds & filters

torn-up newspaper

banana peels

PEE??

5 gallons fresh horse poop

old celery

coffee grounds and filters

a newspaper

deadheads from various flowers

lots of fall leaves

pine needles

In order to get spoiled vegies from grocery stores you need to go to little independent stores. I live in a rural area and get my spoils from a little grocery store in our small town. They set them out by the loading dock, first come first serve.

Kitchen waste from my home
Kitchen waste from the people whose businesses border on my tiny urban garden

I think I need to add sawdust/wood shavings to counteract all those veggies

I'm delighted that my neighbors are adding to my compost pile

4 kg of Sevruga Caviar, Gold Label. A touch too salty, I thought, and the expiration date was Aug 2009.

well, it's a shame, david, but, really, what else could you do?

I fed my compost pile

a bunch of torn-up & water-soaked cardboard boxes from the dollar store dumpster

coffee grounds & filters

used teabags

torn-up doughnut boxes from the office

Sylvia, I did, of course, drive over to the recycling center to give them the tin that caviar came in, and told them to watch out for the sharp edges. I'm pretty sure they heard me over the roar of their car crushing machines.

Today, on the menu for the greedy, voracious maw of the '52 compost pile, is all the tiny little wild purslane in the new green onion bed.

Pea vines, shells from the last batch of peas, onion tops and skins from the green onions that went into fried potatoes last night, potato peels since DH prefers them peeled, egg shells, coffee grounds and filter paper from breakfast coffee, toast crusts, (yes, I put bread in the pile), egg shells, drippings from yesterday's pork shoulder roast, (yes, I put FOG [fat, oil, and grease] in the pile), leftover seedlings that didn't make it to the veggie garden, the larger stuff left from an earier batch of compost, the tall and flowering tops of several last year's parsley plants, and probably some other stuff I've forgotten. Pile was hungry and now it's well fed and happy.

Sandy

Within the last week my compost piles got: The neighbor's lawn clippings, a large branch of the neighbor's olive tree (shredded), my lawn clippings (baby's first hair cut!), the debris from 20 pounds of tomatoes I processed, a smallish pile of dog droppings, assorted kitchen waste and coffee grounds, lawn weeds, and everything the pool skimmer collected including the dead baby bird :(

My only rule is: if it's organic (in the chemical sense) it can go in the piles.

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden blog :)

Lazygardens, the dog poo is interesting. There is another discussion going on about composting dog poo. I just always thought that poo from an animal with a protein rich diet was a no-no. I'm not worried about pathogens, and my dogs eat a VERY premium diet, but their poo stinks to high heaven. Is dog poo green or brown?

"a 2" square piece of 20-something year old wedding cake, with a faded, carmine lipstick smear."

Miss Havisham, I presume?

Here is a link that might be useful: Miss Havisham

Just the usual stuff as DH refused to put the dead marmot he shot in the compost. I told him some of you guys compost all sorts of dead animals but I got "the look" and he wouldn't do it. Besides I think he wanted to leave it as a warning to the marmot family that has invaded his shed. Hope it works. While I don't like the critters near the house I don't like to see them killed.

Compost is heating nicely anyhow.

about 7 gallons of weeds with dirt attached to roots
ucg's & filters
egg shells
ripped up "financial report" (one of those huge ones you get that no one ever reads...at least I don't)

tore it apart this evening----gave a good mixing and then added a bag of shredded leaves from last fall(rather wet and stinky from all the rain and the bag having torn), fresh lawn clippings, some dasies that didn't get to stay in the garden, some canna rhyzomes that didn't make it to the garden, mixed that all up then added a 5 gal bucket of UCG from Starbucks--------bet it's hot tomorrow!

More weeds...lots of those when you don't do Roundup!
Dead brush cleaned out of Clematis when re-attaching it to shed.
More weeds...
cardboard paper roll from inside used up weedblock fabric

dumped some kitchen scraps in the pile---checked the temp and was right---its up to 150 tonight after yesterdays additions and mixing :-) gotta love it!

The result of soaking 1.48 lbs of organic garbanzo beans in a gallon of water, with the idea of making a huge amount of humus to use up some of the garlic scapes, for about 12 hours too long, a total soak-'n-ferment time frame pushing 36 hours.

Oh, my, when I took the lid off, the reaction of young DD was considerably different than when I popped the lid on two quarts of last-years early summer apple sauce that, somehow, lost their seal over the winter, and were turning into apple wine, rather a heady whiff of alcohol, but not unpleasant. The two qts of boozy applesauce and the humus-bound, over-fermented chick peas fed the monster, covered by several large hand fulls of dry grass.

Lots of weeds, usual kitchen stuff, and DH dumped all the residue from his wine making in the compost.

Two of the bins got covered with old plywood to keep the moisture in.

Two smallish dead trees that I bought from Lowes :-(

At this point I doubt I'm going to buy any more bushes or trees from the big box hardware stores.

I have much better luck buying from the local nursery Nick's Garden Center. Their prices may be about double but at least most of the stuff lives.

abolivigail - Dog poop would definitely be a "green" because of the high nitrogen content. The trick is to mix liberal quantities of dry leaves into the poop as you collect it and a layer of dry leaves over the top.

Our dog makes it easy because she prefers to use an area where there are a lot of dry leaves, so I scoop leaves and poop together.

If it's stinking, you have too much poop and too little dry stuff in the layer.

HEY, GJCORE...RETURN THOSE STUMPS TO LOWE'S IF YOU HAVE THE TAGS AND/OR RECEIPT. If you have anything that says they came from Lowe's at least give it a try. DH works there are they love to please customers...at least his store does!

Turned my piles today...added sticks to bottom of 3rd and empty bin and covered with @ 6 gallons of weeds.

My what exotic diets some of these compost piles have.

Mine eats a very plain and ordinary ration of kitchen scraps, fuzzy, green things from the back of the fridge (plant-based only), weeds, eggshells, the neighbor's grass clippings, birdcage cleanings, and last fall's leaves.

Carrot peels, celery pieces, tomato ends, lots of strawberry ends, UCG's, onion skins, garlic skins, avocado seeds and peels (2), egg shells, several TP rolls...a few weeds.

The stem and blossom ends from the first picking of yellow squash, cucumber peels, (also from the first picking), a bunch of aucuba seedlings, and some weeds that managed to sneak into a flower bed. Short rations today.

Got a large garbage bag at the grocery full of corn husks, veggies, and fruit trimmings. Some of the fruit is still in plastic bags so I'm going to make bug juice with it.

Also added more weeds and a dead plant I'm tired of waiting on. It ain't gonna come back.

lazygardens - thanks!

On Friday I added a couple of "financial reports" as another poster mentioned. Took me a while to tear that one up.

A whole bunch of junk mail and bills

green kitchen waste

several bags of UCG (I just figured out what that is!!) that I collected from work.

Couple of scoops of nice fresh horse apples and spoiled hay

Topped with grass as a cover.

I checked it this evening, and it was almost 140F!!

Everybody who comes over gets an offer to "stick your finger in my compost." Most decline. I don't know why.

Trout entrails and bones.

coffee grounds
egg shells
banana peels
wilted flowers

I got 3 boxes of books to take to the VA Hospital, & I took out the ones that were musty, stained, or had already been colored in (our VA Hospital has a daycare center), tore 'em up, got almost 1/2 a box of paper out of the project, put it in the pile with the usual teabags, coffee grounds, & such.

I only recently started visiting this forum, and I admit that for a while (viewing from the outside) didn't see the appeal of these "what have you fed your compost?" threads. Now I've actually read one, and I totally get it. :)

From me today: weeds, tea leaves, carrot peels, shredded junk mail.

Hi all, newbie here! I am in the process of starting my first compost piles (2 or 3). Can you direct me to a good link (besides this one of course) that tells me what browns are. We have 2 acres of compost ready material plus forest goodies...yay!
I never had time to do yard sale shopping but this compost shopping is right up my tree... ha ha...I love reusing stuff. I am hooked, I even asked my dh to share his part (gold deposit) and he said get lost...hmph.

Here is what I have to put into it to start it:
2 bales of part moldy straw with grass and mushrooms growing on top
coffee grounds and filters
pop tart box
13 gal bag of tp and pt carboard tubes
newspapers
kitchen scraps from the last month
3 ft tall by 6 ft wide sod with weeds attached
a 1/2 acre or more of 3' tall weeds with clumps of aged horse manure attached, all organic
willow tree twigs
wood stove ashes
garden weeds
a bon fire sized pile of ash, moldy hay, burned stuff, bark, limbs, leaves, etc. that is water logged and can't be reburned until Oct (new use for it now!)
grass/weed clippings
wild mushroom varieties
different stages of aged horse manure (no longer have horses)
egg cartons
junk mail to shred
chainsaw/axe wood shavings
etc. etc.
I have a trash can started, a lasagna style 6' square started (can I cover it with clear plastic sheeting to help heat it up) and my huge sod pile that is too heavy to turn (I want to gradually add 1/2 of it to the lasagna pile)
My goal is to have some ready this summer, this fall and some for next year.
Any advice would be much appreciated, this is my first year at gardening. My garden is growing and has never been composted, I started it from tilled/chopped weed sod. We have 3 great mouser cats keeping their eye out for critters.
Thank you all...I love this thread!!!!!!

Two heads of slimy celery that I bought on sale because DH swore he would eat it and he didn't. Half a cabbage and half a head of bok choy that has passed their useful life hiding behind the uneaten celery. The trimmings from my first picking of summer squash. Assorted egg shells, coffee grounds, and the rest of the usual suspects in kitchen scraps.

Then I topped it off with a layer of very twiggy birch leaves.

2 torn up TP rolls
one Totino's 3 cheese pizza box (don't judge me please)
neighbors fruit scraps
gallon of grass clippings

"A 2" square piece of 20-something year old wedding cake, with a faded, carmine lipstick smear."
Aw, that's kinda sad. Hope it was nothing more then a case of a really full freezer being cleaned out...

Recently the compost pile has eaten a big ol bag of UCG from Starbucks, kitchen scraps (mango peelings, strawberries, tea bags, UCG, onion tops, tater peelings, etc) the broccoli plants I yanked out of the garden now that they're done and of course a constant supply of weeds. I seriously need some browns!! Might have to buy a newspaper. 0.o (or actually deal with the mail piling up in the office.) Heh.

lots of air (good mixing)
egg shells
pepper trimmigs
dryer lint
watermellon rind
some weeds pulled today

I love all the ideas here....I never knew about toilet paper/paper towel tubes and other cardboards. Didn't think about shredded newspaper before, either.

But my list for the day:

Some spoiled hay
Bolted lettuce from the garden
Two way-overripe bananas
Coffee grounds/filters
Carrot tops after pulling and eating carrots
Deadheaded flowers
Old dried up potting soil from old pots
Kitchen veggie scraps
Corn husks

I need to heat it up so I just emailed a friend with horses and offered to clean a stall..... :-)

shoveled out the car today, so added

paper napkins

used scratch paper

liquid chocolate bar (Between May & November, you *cannot* leave candy or-electronics-in the car in Texas!)

plus the usual

banana peels,

apple cores

eggshells

coffee grounds & filters

used tea bags

Yesterday: old broccoli (don't ask, don't smell...), coffee grounds, asparagus, apples, weeds, shreded newspaper, paper towels, lemon half, corn husk, watermelon rind. There will be corn cobs and more husks tonight.

Bolted lettuce, kitchen scraps, and handful of weeds, a basil stem, coffee grounds, and half a loaf of bread that got moldy.

BTW -- is moldy bread a brown or a green?

Turned 3 compost bins today, layering with fresh grass clippings and weeds, then added about 4 gallons of UCG from the coffee shop, our daily coffee filter w/UCG, 2 egg shells, 1/2 bucket full of deadheaded flowers. Also buried some grass clippings in the middle of the other 2 bins.

More stuff to add tonite.

Where's everyone, too busy gardening to post? Makes me feel like a slacker. ;-)

Got another 1/2 garbage can of veggie trimmings from the supermarket. Mostly outer leaves of romaine lettuce, 2 "bouquets" of parsley that looked good enough to eat but I couldn't bring myself to eat something that had been in a garbage bag(!), some turnip trimmings, and a few other goodies - I didn't want to "play" too much in the scraps, just threw it in the bin.

It's been busy here! My bins are nearly full. I get a very satisfying stretching of the back muscles when it's time to turn 'em lol. This past week has added the following:

few large bags of Starbucks UCG
kitchen scraps from work, home, and coworker's
bird cage linings
some baby mice found in the basement
grass clippings, weeds, and garden trimmings
~8 gals. mixed UCG and fruit pieces from local coffee/smoothie shop
shredded packing paper (which was very theraputic btw)
fries of unknown age, various paper products, and old sodas from cleaning the cars
TP rolls, PT rolls, and pizza boards all shredded to satisfaction
leftover cherries, potatoes, apples, and celery not to mention the stripped bare bones from a Wing Ding (kinda like a Hot Wings cook-off w/o a winner but with plenty of beer)
recycled beer from above Wing Ding lol

Next week I'll be getting 2 truckloads of yard trimmings from a neighbor! Even after it's all shredded I think it might be time to start a new pile :)

Pulled 1/2 of the contents out to "age" a bit in another cage

added to the "old" pile:
gal bucket from kitchen--egg shells, grape stems, pepper trimmings, bannana peels
trimmed small tree branches--chopped with lawn mower while mowing lawn---3 bags

5 gal UCG
5 gal weeds pulled this evening
5 gal bucket grass/dirt from edging a border
lots of air in mixing it all up

Junkmail
bills
an old calendar on recycled paper
2 t.p. rolls
Spaghetti & cereal boxes cut up
an old school handbook
a gallon of kitchen waste (produce, UCG, etc)
a pile of partially decomposed leaves from another location
some garden lime that got wet & stinky
leftovers from cutting my niece's hair
several handfuls of weeds
Covered/layered with part of the HUGE pile of last fall's leaves

large amount of finely shredded paper from work
Kitchen waste

Question: My pile is now about 3X3 inside my pallet bin. Is it time to let it cook and start another one?

Its time for the weekly cleaning of the fridge so the compost pile is licking its chops waiting for the mysterious things from the back of the shelf as a supplement to the day's ration of weeds and vegetable trimmings. :-D

I got the kids to rake the last section of deciduous tree leaves so I have about a month until I have to find an alternative brown to use between the layers of green stuff.

Lots of kitchen scraps, shredded newspaper and cardboard, ucg and filters, tea bags, weeds and tp rolls.