I have small compost pile I started last month by bagging the front yard when i mow (we don't water the backyard, so it's dead). I also mowed up an equal amount of oak leaves to mix in with the yard clippings. (I have a lot more oak leaves, i will bag/chop those with the mower and start an "leaf only" pile and slowly add to the primary pile as needed.

Today the compost pile got -
the rind from: half a watermelon, 2 lemons, and a apple core.

it's a small compost heap, but it's growing.
dog was chasing a grasshopper, she hasn't shown any interest in the compost pile 9yet).

{{gwi:308822}}

Dead flowers. Unfortunately greens. Waiting for leaves to fall.

Watermelon my sister brought us-----whole thing was over ripe when we sliced it open ....was it wrong to feel a bit excited cause I knew the herd was gonna be happy that night ???

Thanks, Lloyd!

Yesterday's addition to my compost critters' feast was:
eggshells
coffee grounds & filters
tea bags
scraps from dinner
a few bits of cat food that the cat shoveled out of his dish & left in the floor
grass clippings & zinnia "trash"

Was out playing working in the compost area the other day and an elderly lady drove up and asked if she could get a couple of ice cream pails of finished compost. During the discussion she mentioned she still thinks of my property as "McIntyres' place". Doug McIntyre being the gentleman I bought the property from in '79. He was a WWI vet with no living relatives and is buried just a few plots over from my grandparents and parents. I stop in at his grave to place a poppy every Remembrance Day when I go to put a poppy on Dad's grave. Turns out this lady sang in their church choir with Doug. Had an interesting conversation with her and (just to keep it slightly on topic) she brought out a pail of peelings and kitchen scraps for my tumbler. I thought it was very thoughtful of her.

Lloyd

I fed the new pile an old pair of jeans and while turning the old one found the ghost of a top I'd thought was pure cotton.
Obviously not!

Dryer lint, last years leaves that got hidden away, cantelope rinds, torn up toilet paper tubes, green bean plants, coffee grounds, bits and pieces from the vegan girl's meal, some shredded paper towels and some shredded newspaper that I line my can with. NT

We have started using Seventh Generation (brown, unbleached) paper towels and napkins. They all go in with the kitchen waste.

Great idea Mark. Well, 2 gallons of apple cores and peels from my drying racks. The ever present UCG and filters. All the dead plants and pods from my Great Northern and Black Bean harvest.

Curt

grass clippings from mowing the front yard, half dozen lime rinds, shredded junk mail.

Hmmmm...I just started my first compost bin and am learning about how to balance the C:N ratio. So far I have the following in the bin:

dirt, of course
small amount of grass clippings, fallen plant leaves
bad fruit (strawberries, cantelope)
fruit peels (bananas, oranges) and cores (apples)
coffee grounds
egg shells
bad bread

Am I off to an okay start?

Spent basil plants, spent green pepper plants, old and spent corn stalks, used coffee grounds, a couple of orange rinds, egg shells. Still got plenty of one year old composting leaves too in which I added these to.

wife's watering too much, had to mow front yard again. I love the grass clippings but going to hate the water bill.

I turned the compost pile before adding new grass and found everything in the middle in pristine condition (could still read newsprint on shredded paper) :(
I watered the pile heavily, raked up leaved and layered leaves and grass clippings with each bag load as i mowed amd watered more.
hope it gets "cooking" this time! I also fed the pile some more limes (love that lime-aid), tea bags, shredded junnk mail and lemon peels.

This thread is really useful for me! For years we have been "composting" by dumping grass and leaves in piles in the woods, but we have not been adding anything else to the piles, or using the compost. (I feel ridiculous in saying that with 9 acres of space and all the grass and leaf clippings I could want, I have been buying all my soil amendments.) I want to plant more than just my two 4' x 8' raised beds next year, and I have just started "actively" composting. I admit that I have already gotten pretty obsessed. This thread is giving me some great ideas.

Today (actually last night):

coffee grounds
tea bags
peas

P.S. speaking of shredding...

Is it "safe" and desirable to put shredded paper from a shredder on the pile, if plastic envelope windows have been removed prior to shredding? What about glossy paper and colored inks?

You're off to an *excellent* start, Scarlet!

Best thing my compost has gotten in ages....*RAIN*!

Woo Hoo!

ahem.

and some eggshells, vegetable peelings, coffee grounds & filters, cooking water, & the leftovers from last week's office luncheon-a big tray of shredded lettuce, pickles, ripe olives, & cucumber slices.

A rotten eggplant
Apple cores
A squashed plum
Several used tea bags
A couple of pounds of coffee grounds from the local cafe
Pineapple peels, cantaloupe rind and seeds, Lettuce cores, tomato cores, and onion peels from the local cafe

Well the past few days I have added spoiled veggies from the frige, old bread, fruit rinds and veggies scraps from cooking, grass cuttings and today two 5 gallon buckets of horse manure (of various age, but mostly "apples"). My wife bought a bag of pine cat litter (100% pine pellets) for one of our cats and she was not of fan of. I put them out in the rain and added that. Will add chicken coop bedding/manure my coworker is graciously giving me in a few days.

OT, but I'm always keen to push my ink barrow...
Lizzie, feel free to remove the envelope windows, I don't, but mine tend to go in whole and any plastic that comes out the other end goes in the rubbish.
As for using paper, generally speaking, you'll get a resounding 'YES'. Inks (including coloured) are practically all soy-based and non-toxic. It's easier to clean machinery with water-based inks...
Shiny paper/card is coated in kaolin (clay).
You will read and hear other opinions, but make sure they're based on up-to-date info, as things may have changed.

mr. compost is going to like me (or is it mrs.?)

I found an ad on craigslist for free manure and got 4 big bags of aged horse manure (ran out of time or would of had more). compost will say, "nom nom nom"

the farm has: chickens, peecocks, horses, goats... etc (regular old mcdonald's farm).

so... manure = green correct? so now i can start adding LOTS more oak leaves to the pile as well?
what ratio of manure to leaves do people recomend?

also have kitchen scraps: tea bags, lime peels, apple core, paper towel roll

and a brand new compost fork to break-in when turning the pile.

Our school moved last week into a new building........and would you believe it, they were THROWING OUT rolls of the thin corrugated cardboard used in protecting things during a move. I got some funny looks hauling it around to my classes so no one would toss it when I wasn't looking, but oh my goodness how I love that stuff for lasagna gardens!
Plus three h u g e bags of shredded office paper used for games, and 5-6 large bottled water machine bottles - the thick plastic 10 liter ones - for using as either planters or buried jug watering thingies. Oh yes!!

I had a plastic grocery bag filled to overflowing, placed it on patio table waiting neighbor kids to join in adding it. Well, some 'creature' made a helluva mess, eating a lot of the stale and stinky stuff, also very neatly scouring to the rind the remains of half a watermelon which I had in a flower bed. Long story short, baited my Have-a-Heart and got an extremely ugly young possum. He's a couple of miles away in some thick woods now. The good part of my story is he stayed away from my counter-top container which had been sitting long enough to both stink and be liquified. If he'd gotten into that............huge mess.

Ah, the joys and pitfalls of composting.

Well haven't added alot of things in the past few days but I did add about 5 gallons of chicken coop litter yesterday. Man it was ripe! There was even a chicken egg in the pile when I poured it in the compost bin. I don't know what stage the egg was in cuz I was too chicken "manure" to reach in and check. Was afraid whatever was in there would spill open and coat my hands with the type of "perfume" the wife wouldn't appreciate. So finally for the first time ever my Earth Machine is completely full and it's only job now is to decompose and mature until spring. Do yall think chicken and horse manure will make a good organic combo for some fertile compost?

The large tumblers each got two large bags of perfectly shredded leaves/grass mixture and one bag of fine grass clippings. One tumbler got a big bag of shredded office paper, another one got two pails of kitchen/office scraps and all of them got a few gallons of water. Tumbled for twenty minutes whilst I had my de-caf coffee, all is right with the world.

Lloyd

I have been gone for a spell so this is a retro-post.
SCORE! well, kinda, Two yards of shredded tree limbs from the neighbor. Delivered and dumped free on my pile. All the carbon I need to keep me in business for a year or two. Nitrogen I have, but my carbon source was shut down due to management problems, so I am one happy camper right now.

Curt

I started a new compost pile yesterday:

Mowed the front yard (4 lawn mower bags full of grass).
added about 10 gallons of horse manure.
mixed in about 5 gallons of compost from old pile.
2 gallons of ripe kitchen scraps.
2 lawn mower bags full of chopped oak leaves.
watered as necessary as pile was built up.
(hopefully making the optimal C:N ratio)

New pile is about 3'x3' but hoping it cooks down fast. I'm really trying to find the optimal mix of ingredients to make "fast compost".

@scotty66---Sounds like you're off to a good start. I think a good ratio is about 60/40 (c:n) but it may depend on exactly what you put in. Try to turn 2-3 times a week if time permits. Some people don't even think of it as work. You'll get the "feel" of it as you move forward.

I have not added much to my compost lately because I wanted to rebuild the bin, 31/2 x 31/2 hardwire cloth wooden frame.
Then I needed to get my browns together. Once I have my ingredients together, I'll just pile that thing up to maybe a foot or two over the top to allow for some shrinking. Need some manure. Can't wait to get it going again. I've let some valuable time pass. IALBTC

Smitty

Grass clippings
Green Ash leaves
Bur Oak leaves
Zinnia plants
Celosia plants
Amaranthus plants
Food scraps
Vacuum contents
Guinea pig bedding
Pillaged banana peels, apple cores, citrus peels from work
Coffee grounds