Eggshells, leftover salad, some rotten tomatoes and zuchini, vacuum innards, TP rolls, leaves, pulled up zuk plants, coffee grounds, leftover soda. I think that's it. NT

Because it's fall and the bears are actively feeding I'm burying all compost as deeply as possible between plants. The usual daily accumulations of egg shells, tea bags, veggie/fruit peelings, and paper towels as well as about 8 gallons of UCG from the coffee shop which I just spread on top of the soil.

The other day I pulled a bunch of petunias that were still blooming and piled well rotted manure on top of them right in the perennial beds. New experiment for this lazy gardener, hope they decompose quickly once it warms up in the spring. Had earlier piled a bunch of dried old weed-whacked plant material from the perennial beds and the horses ate most of it! Oh well, I'll get that material after it's passed thru them and it'll be a nutritious addition to my garden.

Moldy 3/4 of a loaf of Italian Bread, acorn squash skins, onion skins and trimmings from green peppers.

Cheating again! A summer's worth of browns. A couple of pounds of urea! Followed by a 1.64" slow rain. Yesssssssssss.
hortster

@connie - is moldy bread a brown or green (not the actual color but in the compost lol)?

...and a hush fell over the assembled...

Old potatoes, a dead bromeliad plant and a layer of leaves.

UCG, the pulp and skin of buttercup squash, and a mix of shredded leaves and hayscented ferns.

More chopped leaves and grass than I could ever imagine, and the trees are still dropping them as I write this. Will probably have to rake and shred again tomorrow to keep up with them.

On Friday afternoon I purchased 2 x 18ct of eggs. I was planning on using 24 of them to make 48 deviled eggs for the football tailgate I was going to on Saturday.

After I cooked about 30 eggs (I wanted a few extra for myself), I started to try to peel the eggs and it was going terribly. My technique failed me and the shell and membrane were pulling bits of egg away as I peeled and the result was a slow-going mess.

So I went back to the store and purchased two more 18 packs. It is a good thing that eggs are cheap! I cooked another 24 eggs and although the result was a bit better, it was still kind of terrible. But I eventually got my deviled eggs made (mash the yolks with salt, pepper and bleu cheese dressing, top with a green olive) and now I have many many many eggs shells to add to my pile. Plus a lot of calcium-rich cooking water!

I'm new to composting, just started my first pile about a month ago. Today I added some moldy lettuce, tomato pieces, and a bucket of water. Smelled very "soily", and saw a worm or two :)

rmontcal,

As I understand it (my sis used to have an egg farm, 30K chickens & I heard it from her) the fresher the egg the harder it is to peel. You might try buying your eggs a week or so earlier next time you want to have boiled eggs. You could still compost the shells but you would then have more time for turning them into your pile if you don't waste the whole day peeling.

@scotty66 Re:is moldy bread a brown or green (not the actual color but in the compost lol)?

It goes by what it is cut as so say with grass clipping even if they sit for 1, 2, 3, weeks it will still be a green, even if it starts to turn brown it will aways be a green. so bread im thinking brown when weat is cut it is brown I think Im in CA not a lot of wheat out here lol.

@rmontcal re: Eggs

Good trick it to boil them and once there done have a bowl with lots of ice and half filled with water lower the eggs in to the icy water and let them sit for 7 mins and then take them out pat try them put in fridge for and hour or two and they peal so easy. Start at the bottom where the air pocket in and tap it lightly all the way to the top and run your thumb or finger under the shell and membrane(light paper thing) and it will peal off like a button up shirt.

I mixed this x2 for my 2 worm farms: 2 egg shells, 1oz of beach sand, 8oz of 3 week old grass (thats turned weekly) 5.7oz of carrot matter's from my juicer and 5oz of moldy coffee grounds. (Made my hands smell from the old dieing grass cliping but I tested it with a few worms to make sure they would like freak out and they loved it they were digging all through it. Any one have an idea about using gloves other then latex something more earth friendly?

Two gallons of dried garbanzo beans that I put to soak overnight and then forgot about. I cooked them after they had soaked for about 36 hours, but they had a distinct sour fermented taste that rendered them inedible.

Would you like a little hummus in your humus?!

"Would you like a little hummus in your humus?!"

LOL! Good one Tracy!

Today I added some moldy bread and dog poo. Don't tell anyone about the dog poo. Don't tell Miss p about the bread.

Leftover vegetable soup (son turned up his nose & ordered pizza) dryer lint, coffee grounds & filter, remains of bok choy & green onions, broccoli stems, apple peelings.

Shredded newspaper, cardboard, and paper, cabbage and carrot peelings from coleslaw, some uncooked rice that spilled on the floor, and a pair of my husbands old socks and blue jeans that I spent forever cutting into small pieces.

I have added: Blackberry vines (chopped), poison oak brush (chopped), dried grass, and sticks sifted from the old pile. No leaves yet, my trees are being unreasonable- but we are in negotiations and I have saws and loppers.

I also started a "hugelkultur" bed - mounding a bunch of rotted firewood that I was given and burying it in soil, finished compost, grass clippings, with just a hint of lime. I am a bit skeptical of any chance of success after reading dozens of excited online accounts of hugelkultur bed construction - most from several years ago - without any follow-up.

Good luck out there!

5 bags of leaves from the next block up the street, a bunch of orange peels, ends of celery and carrots, egg shells, olive pits, onion skins, just your general kitchen debris.

Dead flowers and an old banana from work, roasted peanut shells and egg shells from the kitchen and leaves form the yard.

Olive harvest time!! Bagful of buggy olives, branch of bad fresh dates from the tree (how long will it take for all those pits to break down?), regular UCG's peels, corn, veggie soup leavings, all covered with shredded office paper.
Dug up the trenched half finished stuff from Spring - it was dark brown and I found (1) worm. For planting in construction rubble, I'm pretty pleased. Shoveled it all out to hill for taters, tomorrow I'll re-fill it with the half finished new pile, and leave it again till Spring. Lasagne beds worked very well, ready to plant winter veggies.
*** Was gone to the States for two weeks and DGF emailed me that although she had planned on not composting anything while I was gone, she became unhappy at throwing stuff out, and began thinking of all that compost going to waste! She even got a bigger sink-side container and faithfully saved kitchen leavings. My first thought was "oh, that's my gal!" and my nearly simultaneous thought was "aha! another victim gets the bug!" I bought her special treats for this very special way to say I love you.

Three bags of rotten apples that I collected from under a tree at a party. Also banana peels, soiled bird cage lining, a ton of coffee grounds from the local cafe, orange peels, and a used tea bag.

Pumpkin guts!

Dry leaves, egg carton (ripped into bits), bad oranges, banana peels, avocado peel and pit.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's Growing On?

couple weeks ago I placed a 5 gallon bucket half full of shredded paper, banana peels, cucumber peelings, tea bags and cucumber peelings on the patio and forgot about it.
Today I opened the bucket and boy was it ripe!
I buried it deep in new compost pile of grass and leaves from this past weekends mowing.

Today in addition to the usual paper tissues, napkins, toilet paper rolls, used coffee grounds/filter & kitchen waste we had a few unusual additions:
-leftover hummingbird feeder sugar water
-beet & carrot tops because the moles had eaten the roots underneath
-cotton q-tips

Left the lid off the earth machine so the rain will moisten it.

6 pick-up loads of pumpkins, bags of leaves, bags of shredded paper, and sweat.