Okay, I hope I don't gross anyone out.

I added:

coffee grounds
grapefruit rinds
zucchini ends
one moldy piece of yellow squash
several cardboard toilet paper roll holders
wilted lettuce
peanut butter jar wash
banana peels
hackberry clippings
shrimp
alittle urine and...
one dead rat buried in the pile deeply.

Not far from where I live developers cleared a large area of land which caused all of the fox, deer, snakes, rats, and raccoons to move into our neighborhood. Most of my neighbors feel very sorry for these animals and several of us have had problems with rats. My cat killed this one, so he went into the pile. (I didn't handle him with my bare hands though.)

No need to feel sorry for the rats.

Yesterday:

a few dead blooms
some type of fungus/moss/or whatall that was growing in a sempervivum I repotted.

This morning:

two toadstools.

Now that I want to add more material, I have a dearth of green stuff. We need to either clean out the fridge or go shopping.

pulled weeds
mexican sage trimmings
california poppy trimmings
avacado peels (chopped up with scissors)
citrus peels (scissored)
the contents of a can of bean that seemed "off"

five gallons of coffee grounds and filters
(coffee dug right into soil)

I live in an apartment, and garden behind the warehouse where I work. I actually bring my compost to work with me.

And I am on green overload! I had a happy garbage day yesterday, as a neighbor put out four black bags of grass clippings, and I still stopped by SB for UCG. What's a girl to do?

I started a garden expansion sheet compost area. :)

For my pile,

OP grass clippings
OP old leaves
OP UCG and filters
My personal banana peel

this afternoon:

a pot full of rotting garden scraps (blooms, leaves, stems, etc.)
an old quarter of a canteloupe.
a tea bag
several end pieces of bread
some left over canned peas
plate scrapins- mostly spaghetti and tomato sauce
one garlic bread stick
a few dead or dying dracanea marginata leaves
hair from my electric razor
a banana peel
a shredded paper towel

Luckily I'll have teabags UCG and an old bag of baby carrots I saw in the fridge tomorrow- the green drought may be over.

more pieces of old bread
left over bagel pieces, with cream cheese
old shredded cheese
old tomato sauce
two old pickles
half a can of chef boyardee meat ravioli
half of a big sugar free chocolate easter egg
a brown paper bag
various paper towels
a few generous handfuls of chopped up tee shirt
two toadstools
dead flowers
shed exoskeleton from a locust
two japanese beetle corpses that ants were trying to carry off
a dead moth

I have been interested in composting for a few months, can I just pile stuff up on the ground,(in back corner) and add to it each day, or does it have to be in a container. I did put down cardboard boxes then top soil then grass clippings then scraps in between. Was trying to kill some grass. Picked up a bundle of news papers from the news office. Do they have to be shredded, I have added lots of the items everone has mentioned on here. INformation please.
Thanks in advance

green and red pepper scraps
dog hair
brown paper bag
onion peel and scraps
ends of 4 pounds of collard greens
eggshells
old hot dog and hamburger rolls
rose stems and leaves from bouquet hubby bought me
contents of a full kitchen crock
water and more water

a gallon sized bin of chopped corn husks and silk
same sized bin of shredded newspaper and shredded cotton cloth.
a few ounces of old vegetable juice

Regular compost bin got lemon and grapefruit peels, apple core, coffee grounds, salad fixin's scraps, and some fresh grass clippings to top it off.

Big ol' compost pile got turned and layered with 3/4 of a big bag of coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings, and a few handfuls of alfalfa pellets to try to hurry it up as it's not doing much very quickly. Also got watered.

I played with alfalfa tea also today - watered a few special plants with the few gallons that were left and started 6 new buckets. If my compost would hurry up I would quit doing this - it's stinky stuff!

Sigh. Yes, unfortunately a couple of squash plants. Stems are rotting in the ground. Way too much rain last couple of weeks. Near 8in in last week, standing water in the yard for a couple of days. Good news forecasting a dry week ahead.

Then the usual, coffee grounds, lots of shredded paper, veggie peelings.

Today I tossed in a biobag of kitchen leavings and yet more weeds.

weeds
spent daylily scapes (lazily snipped up with pruners)
spent cornflower plants (even lazier-ly snipped up with pruners)
two brown papers used to dry my hands in Starbucks bathroom
uneaten black beans from last night's taco salad supper
a few bits of burlap I noticed in the garage corner
dryer lint
bucket of aquarium water
junk mail

Starbucks coffee ground (added to expansion sheet compost)

****caroline- pile it, and tear it, water it, and wait

yesterday:
several feet of pothos vines
more banana peels (my kids go ape over bananas)
UCG and filter
tea bag
an african violet leaf
a dead spider the girls found
some sedum flower stalks
plate scrapins- some scalloped potatoes and sausage grease
leftover canned carrots
junk mail
a gallon bin of torn up paper towels

Okay, I hope I don't gross anyone out.

I should know better than to read about compost while I'm eating!. Yesterday read all about SNAKES (yikes) in compost and today it's rats. At least the rat was dead. :)

Come to think of it, today I've composted nothing! Oops, gotta remedy that.

Only a peel from a half of banana.

My bin is a living, seething pile of sweet decomposition. It's a bit wet, but it's hot and with only a slight whiff of manure. I little more paper tonight and it should be a-okay for a week or so sit while I'm on vacation.

Today: more weeds (I'll never run out of those!) and a Watchtower that was left inside my screen door.

I deadheaded the garden today plus pulled a few weeds then covered with a bit of fine wood shavings and some fresh grass clippings. Later DH will add our day's accumulation of kitchen veggie scraps. I've asked him to dig them into the center of the pile but he was not overly impressed! :) I'll do it tomorrow if he doesn't. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will my compost be, or DH's compost epiphany. He's mostly very helpful.

We picked up 3 bags of UCG from the coffee shop so I'll put some of that on top.

Torn up printer paper "extra pages"
round cardboard from a frozen pizza
paper sacks from Sonic
tissue from my nosebleed---now, all I need to do is cry in it!

some dead blooms
left over wax beans
tomato sauce and grated cheese from dinner
a burnt english muffin
parts of a sub roll from lunch
a paper bag, part of which had some salad dressing on it
a paper towel
two live sempervivum leaves

I was going to put some dead bugs I found in it, but I got distracted.

...and this morning:

a few ounces of tea and milk
crumlblins left in the bag of 'meatless breakfast bites' I had this morning.

junk mail
icky uneaten cat food (it's so hot here even the cats aren't eating!)
2 squeezed-out lemon wedges
used paper napkins from lunch
used tea bags/coffee grounds/filters from yesterday
trimmings from hollyhocks & mums

Yesterday I added:
biobag of leftover kitchen scraps
lettuce
grapes
grass clippings

Can't get it to heat up so I will go to Starbuck's for some UCG, and hope it helps.

Just now I added:

biobag full of kitchen waste, mostly garlic scraps and stems from the garlic I've been harvesting

cut up cardboard

cut up junk mail and sales flyers

cat fur from one of my long haired cats

some of my hair

used paper towels

more weeds

I found out the name of the weed that has been the bane of my life and my yard -- prickly lettuce. My yard has more of this stuff than grass.

UCG and filter
2-3 tea bags
a feather

It's toooo hoooooot..........outside, that is. Pile is good.:)

6 popscicle sticks.

That's it.

torn-up cardboard
stale crackers
water from rinsing out peanut butter jar
1/2 can of Coca-Cola
usual tea bags/coffee filters/grounds

Today was a big day for my compost tumbler. I emptied it out for the first time- the compost is mostly done, and I'm putting in fruit trees next week. My son helped me hold it steady while I dumped it, and he was quite unhappy with the smelly stuff at the bottom. Apparently I needed more dry stuff in there!

Fresh stuff went in:
Baby carrots
spoiled apples
pineapple rind and core
small piece of lost cucumber
junk mail
tissues
used paper towels
a wooden skewer
shredded cardboard boxes - paperboard, corrugated goes to the worms
dog hair
vacuum cleaner harvest
nicely chopped broccoli stems
trimmings from my bird of paradise

Now I get to go get a little horse poo from the Lippizaner stable, and maybe they will have some spoiled hay for me, too. That horse poo heats my bin right up. Maybe this time I will manage it properly to get a batch in one month instead of six.

Just set up my second compost bin. My current compost census is as follows: Two Garden Gourmet formal bins, a free-form leaf-mold pile in the corner near the brush pile, the brush pile, two little free-form piles that fall where they lay and/or where they get water, a windrow in the side yard and a worm bin. Whew!

Recent additions:
* Comfrey leaves
* Borage leaves and stalks
* Urine-soaked shredded junk mail
* Leaves and vines from out of control squash vine
* Leaves from out of control zuke
* Gross tomatoes
* Blackberries the slugs beat me to
* Six bags of leaves and brush from the side of the road
* Gross plums and apricots
* Grass, clover and misc weed clippings
* Goose feathers from cushions of a down sofa we got rid of. Four cushions to go before the side yard stops looking like I blew up a goose with dynamite!

cali-

your post reminds me of the "I Love Lucy" episode where they all decided to re-do the Mertz's apartment;

They painted the walls & ripped apart the upholstery at the same time, & someone turned on a fan to dry the paint!

Let's see...

Sunday I added UCG and grass.

Today: temp is finally up-130! I added biobag of kitchen scraps and shredded paper. Will add more later.

Monday I added
-week's worth of UCG and some filters from office
-old oranges and grapefruits (cutup)
-soft apple
-rotten potatoes
-tomato stems
-cucumber ends and skins
-dryer lint
-poptart box
-sweet potato skins
-onion skins (saved by hubby!)
-torn cardboard that had been outside through several rains and was wet, so I could tear easily
-office paper shreds to cover
-paper towel and toilet paper rolls
-meat thermometer from walmart to try to get a temp reading. Need something longer.

Tonight I'll add (couldn't take it out last night)
-strawberry tops
-grape stems
-cut up corn husks
-broken up corn cobs
-corn that the kids didn't eat
-tomato bits
-leftover green beans
-apple juice from sippy cups
-paper towel roll
and whatever comes up at dinner time.

Now, if I can just find a stealth way to get urine out there. Hubby is mostly on board at this point -- don't want him to freak out. I think he thinks I'm joking when I ask him to go pee on the pile.

just collect it in a bottle or bucket & maybe add some other stuff (shredded paper, torn-up cardboard, food scraps, etc) for disguise!

Thanks, Sylvia. That's what I was leaning toward -- opaque container and picking my times to carry it out there. Bizarre idea that probably qualifies me for the wacko level: dedicated funnel for bathroom use and empty soda bottles. Just have to make sure to remember which bottle is soda and which is donation.....

Just the usual:
misc. food scraps
melon rind
coffee grounds and filter
headless dead mouse (I hope this doesn't become "usual")

Big compost day today

Corn husks
Green bean clippings
Zucchini Peelings (lots of them)
Cantaloupe rinds chopped up
Crushed eggs shells
Tea bags
Garden weeds
Tomato clippings
Shredded newspaper to balance things out

Stopped at Starbucks and got 3 bags of UCGS to add tomorrow. ItÂs pouring rain now.

Scott

Sylvia---just can't resist----care for a cup of coffee? lol

this weeks list

coffee grounds
egg shells
grass/leaves(mowed after our light blow sun evening with 94 mph winds-lots of small twigs and leaves)
garbage bag of rotting, shredded leaves from last fall
cleaned out fridge, what a haul!
dryer lint

Wow do you all really keep that much track of what you throw in there? Here's my list...

A ice cream bucket full of house scraps. Don't ask me what's in there because I don't do the cooking but I'm sure it can be anything like tomatos, apple cores, banana peels, and almost anything else in the kitchen except for the sink. ;) But I told the wife no meat so I know that's not in there.
From the garden I threw in grass, some very rich and gooy moss from our ditch that doesn't drain, some weeds pulled from the gardens and a bag of leaves from last year to off set the ooy gooy moss.

What I took out earlier this month was my first harvest of wonderful smelling and feeling compost. Got about 20 or so gallons out of it. Wow my plants love it.

By the way what is UCG that everyone talks about?

UCG = used coffee grounds

UCG's and 4 bags of banana peels from Starbucks, along with the regular veggie scraps and basil stems from shearing down the plants.

Starbucks uses bananas??

We have had so much rain here, I haven't been out to the pile in a few days...
today I will be adding dog hair
dryer lint
vacuum cleaner contents
icky strawberries
eggshells

Will add more later on today..

I guess I will jump in here.lol

For the last 3 days:

Coffee grinds
grapefruit peelings
eggs shells
banana peels
parsnip and Carrot peelings
left over ranier Cherries
Wilted endive from the garden
brocolli and Zuccini scraps
leftover coffee from the pot
apple scraps
watermelon rinds
onion pieces
cabbage
and later today:...Chicken manure with the shavings from the coop...cleaning day in the coop.
I know there is more,,but can't think of them all.
=)

Bag full of OLD ornamental corn- mom grew it 7 years ago and put it in her freezer to make a wreath. Pop wanted room for ice cream after 7 years....

torn up newspaper
torn up pizza boxes x 2
bf's beer soaked limes from date, brand new item for my pile! :))))) Can you say wacko?
UCG filters from the SB run- ground went straight in the garden
quilt fabric bits
old daylily leaves
2 toothpicks

This morning it got kitchen scraps - bell pepper scraps, onion scraps, mushroom scraps, ucg, tomato scraps, used (uneaten) dog food, left-over coffee, tea bags, and shredded paper to add some browns to it. I then added more water to the container before taking it out to the pile - it helps get everything out of the container, wet the papers down to where they'd stay with it, and helps with the current dry state of my pile.

Then all of my piles got watered, because it's been a couple weeks since our last rainfall.

I do very passive composting, but whatever I'm doing seems to work, because when I turn the piles, it smells like earth. :)

Came home from vacation on Sunday and found the pile shrunken noticeably.

Yesterday...

Garden scraps
a locust exoskeleton
one large sansevieria leaf, chopped
one of those postcard inserts you get in magazines, shredded.

Kitchen scraps
2 gallons of pea pods
Deadheadings from the daylilies

I hit the jackpot today and found 19 trash bags full of brown magnolia leaves that water from the heavy rains have gotten into and I got 2 big bags of UCG from Starbucks. A Dunkin Donuts just opened in town and I asked them to start saving UCG for me too. :) I also dug some cannas and ginger that had root rot, so the compost tumbler will get that and some banana peels and a brown paper bag too.

I won't put all the leaves in at once - they won't all fit anyway, but I've got a good supply of browns sitting there for when I need them.

I'm glad for this forum because no one around here gets why I'm so excited.

I had turned the pile yesterday and things seemed fine, but when I turned the bin on its head- wheeewwww, just a TAD manure-y.

Despite this, I had the following to add:

four banana peels
a used tea bag
leaves from the carnage I found after my vacation: pothos, dracenea, peace lily, birdsnest fern.
a few dead headed blooms.

I did add some browns:

a few used paper towels
a small amount of pasta that fell on the stove when it was transferred from colander to pot
one chopped bamboo skewer.

I am busily shredding junk mail and newspaper to balance things out tomorrow.

Besides the daily coffee grounds and kitchen scraps:

a loaf of brown bread turned an interesting shade of green
1/4 box of powdered milk labeled "Best before 9-12-2003"
*another* headless dead mouse

a few dead headed blooms
a shopping bag full of shredded junk mail, used paper towels, a paper bag, a thank you note, and some paperish odds and ends
some left over cooked pasta with tomato sauce
some uncooked pasta that fell on the floor.

I think I really need more browns, but I'll be gone for the next week. Stirred it really well, and flipped the bin. There has been a decrease in the odor since I turned it yesterday, perhaps some aeration was required.