Veggie scraps! potatoe peels, carrrot tops, apple cores, anything that has no fat on or in it (like salad dressing and leftover fried eggplant). Ask your supermarket veggie manager for rejects, the local Starbucks for a bag of used coffee grounds and your neighbors for their grass clippings.* If you've been composting in NY you know that good compost isn't smelly. Same here. Granted,a lot of the leaves are big and hard, but the addition of all your vegetable matter should help, and turning the pile is a must as those little oak leaves are determined to stick together!
* if you are in to organic practises, I'd check with those you get crass clippings from. Some people would have no grass if it weren't for all the chemicals they pour on their "lawns".
cora

Hi Jane, are you on the coast? Plants that grow on the coastline tend to have thicker leaves (seagrapes, buttonwood, etc.). If this is the case, they will take a long, long time to break down. I agree with Corar. Get two compost bins. One will be active and you will keep putting kitchen scraps in, the other will be full and cooking. When you see a bag of leaves on the side of the road (usually February-April), grab a few and leave them next to your bins for adding as browns periodically. Compost made from kitchen scraps tend to be very high in nutrients- especially potash which is lacking in our soils. You won't make a great amount of compost, but it will be high quality gold. We just sifted the contents of one of our bins and it looked incredible. You have to know that the volume in these bins is low, so it will not get hot unless you fill it all at once. So, don't put seed things like weeds in it.

Anna

And when you finally get a little finished compost it will mysteriously disappear into the sandy vortex.

I don't try to compost palm fronds. They would take forever. If all you have is fronds and sea grape, I'd skip trying to compost leaves. Maybe just do your kitchen scraps in a worm bin, or buy black kow. I have started composting since moving here in January, but to get started I've had to buy a lot of black kow and alfalfa. I also get Starbucks coffee grounds. It is a big learning curve.

Everything'll break down eventually, but it's coming on winter now & that slows everything down IME. Chopping 'em up, whether by hand or machinery, makes the process go much faster. I have a small electric chipper/shredder & it's perfect for those seagrape leaves & palm fronds, which I then spread around as mulch. Before I had the chipper, I would use clippers/shears to cut stuff up - def. slower & more labor intensive, but it worked = )

& just wait 'til summer, the sun & weather decompose organic matter @ high speed then.

We too save all our kitchen scraps - an excellent 'green' for composting.

Hi Jane, I'm lurking here because planning to move to Florida soon. What to do about woody waste:

Ya, a shredder would help a lot. But what you need is high nitrogen waste to balance the high carbon in the woody leaves. If you've got fresh animal waste, chickens, goats, horses, etc. that's great, or if you have access to blood or blood meal.

But for free additions there is nothing better than urine. Especially if you're just planning to use the compost on ornamentals, pee in a bucket. A good mix is 10 to 1 water to urine. Pour it on the compost - could be even stronger if you need it to be.

I got the idea from a book called Sol Viva, written by someone who gardens in New England on one of those famous islands I always forget the name of. I live on a unfamous island on the west coast.

Anyway, I've been using this as fertilizer for the past several years and it works great. Because our soil is acid I usually mix in a couple of teaspoons of washing soda in the bucket before pouring it on the garden. No odor once in the soil.

To put it on tough compost you might want a stronger solution than 10 to one.

They're pricey, but a couple of compost tumblers will speed things up. I cycle mine about every three months, but when I was religiously turning them every evening, I got usable compost every six to eight weeks (meaning it took twice that long from empty to nice crumbly black compost - though mine do not heat up enough to kill all seeds.)
And Starbucks isn't the only place that will give you coffee grounds. Most locally-owned coffee shops will too.

Thanks, but I don't think I'll be using urine. I don't have greens as the property is mostly gravel, no lawn or grass. The shrubs (which I don't know yet) have tough leaves and just seem to dry out and blow around. I haven't added coffee and always have a few pots each day so I'd have enough grinds to add. Will do that tomorrow.

Most of these leaves are very thick and woody. The palms are like wood. A guess a shredder would be the way to deal with them, but I still think they'd be hard to shred. It would be like shredding wood!

We are staying at our daughters house on Siesta Key, so I don't want to overstay our welcome by building a large pile. Once we find a house I can get more involved. Their house is on a salt-water canal and its always windy, drying out the pile very fast. I'm afraid to get involved with food scraps because there are Palmetto bugs out there and I'm totally afraid of them. Can't deal with them at all. I'd be afraid they would be attracted to the kitchen scraps. Horrid creatures!

Thanks for all the great info. I have a lot to learn about growing here. It is a totally different environment and I feel I have to learn everything all over...the plants, the insects and the weather.

Jane

I have the same problem, plus a critter problem. I solved the critter problem by buying two compost tumblers from Lowe's. My chipper/shredder doesn't work well on sea grape leaves, so I bought a leaf blower that, used on reverse, will such up the leaves and shred them. The larger ones get stuck and I have to unclog it often, but it works better and faster than doing it by hand or waiting several years for whole sea grape leaves to compost.

One question, is there any truth to the rumor that sea grape leaves are salty?

Waste Management in Sarasota County gives away as much free compost as you can carry. Just take a pickup truck or trailer out to the landfill and help yourself!
They used to truck it to cement bins in parks all over the county, but they stopped doing that recently.
I've brought literally tons of the stuff home over the years.

We used to bring home compost from the dump, but we also got bottle caps, plastic and God know what with it. I wouldn't try to compost sea grape leaves. We do our oak leaves and other similiar trees. Sounds like too much work to me. I used to live in northern Pa, then Southern Pa, then central NJ then central Florida and now the southern most tip of SE Ga. Lots to learn each time I move. Do you plan to live near Siesta Key? I must say I'm jealous! I miss the weather and the tropical plants and I was only living in Vero Beach. I still don't like palmetto bugs and I've seen them for almost 25 years. I guess they have there place onearth for a reason though. Lots of decaying matter that something needs to eat. Veggie and fruit scraps compost the fastest. We pick up our grass and let it dry and use it for mulch. We don't fertilize or spray our grass with anything. We live out in the woods and whatever makes it as lawn makes it. Why encourage it to grow? I love living without chemicals for the most part. Good luck and welcome to Florida.

Thanks for the advice. Brute I will look into the compost but have run into problems like zakey describes, up North. Main problem was weed seeds and chemically treated greens. Our town, in NY would also collect horse manure from the neighboring stables and compost that separately. We would help ourselves to that each Spring.

We also try to grow mostly organically. We were successful in NY and our soil was beautiful from years of composting.

Florida seems another story. The soil on the Key is pure sand and I can see will take years to build up a thick layer of organic material. There is less rain and everything dries so fast in the heat. On Siesta, the wind blows off the water constantly which also dries out the soil and compost pile. Add to this, the plant material seems very tough and difficult to break down.

Zackey, I would love to live on Siesta but prices here are above what we could afford. We are thankful our daughter and husband own a house here and we can stay until we find a place for ourselves. I'm practicing my gardening skills while staying here and have a lot to learn.

Water is expensive to use. I would use rain barrels when I find a house. Sunlight is so much stronger than what I am accustomed to. Bugs are plentiful and have done a lot of damage to some of my houseplants. I have always had success using my homemade oil/soap sprays but these bugs seem to enjoy it.

I posted a question above about moving my plants back inside as I am afraid of bringing bugs in the house. I am still terrified of Palmettos, but we seem to have won the battle inside the house. Haven't seen one in a month. The organic pest control seems to have worked. But, outside is another story. I see them at night on the patio and near the house. I do not venture outside at night.

When we get a house, I would prefer to stay away from lawns. That will limit a large amount of greens for composting. If there is a lawn, I will collect the clippings for compost - even the grass here seems tough compared to the soft grasses up North.

Sorry for the long response, so much to learn!

Jane

Jane, gardening in our area (I live 10 minutes from Siesta, is not gloom and doom. Your soil can be improved in a couple of years by composting in place (sheet composting or lasagna gardening), and plants will respond. Alternatively, we have lots of native and Florida friendly plants that grow just fine in our native sandy soil. There are plenty of pretty gardens on Siesta, so look around to get ideas. Hester and I live on the mainland and would be glad to show you our gardens (sorry for speaking for you Hester), so you can get ideas also. The worst areas of my garden are the two grassy areas. I too am just about all organic, excepting and occassional chinch bug treatment of my two small grassy areas. I hate that and it never looks as good as I'd like. If you can stay away from grass completely, you can easily be organic.

Anna

I never seem to get enough real compost, I have so much garden-area, I find myself going to HD and Lowes and buying those 40 lb. bags of cheap compost and mixing my other stuff in it, and it works just fine... Black Kow, Black Hen, Alfalfa pellets, it all makes a good compost when mixed together in the garden.. no need for any granular-fertilizer.....the palmetto-bugs are a small annoyance to pay for getting away from the snow and sleet and slush up north.... sally

We moved to the Space Coast 2 yrs ago and are getting into planting in our small yard. I like reading what others post about composting because we want to have a place to compost too, but have not set it up yet.

I lived in Fort Lauderdale for 13 yrs then moved to Virginia and now we are retired back in Florida. I love this state, and everywhere has its problems, takes a while to get used to the bugs. But that means, more for birds to eat too!

Thanks, Anna for the invite and I would love to take you up on it. That is so kind of you. I bought a few books on Florida natives but they only give small pics of a leaf without the whole plant. Same with shrubs. They show a picture of a flower without the whole shrub. I need to visit a nursery and write down names of plants and their growing conditions. I've been trying to find the names of the trees and shrubs on my daughters property, but so far the only ones I can identify are the Oaks and the citrus.

Saldut, thats a good idea. I'll have to check that out. You are right about the snow and slush. We are loving this weather and spending time outside. The weather makes me want to work outside, but I need to navigate the new growing environment. It feels like Spring here, although the daylight hours are getting so short, I feel like planting.

I'm just trying to start a small compost pile at my daughters house as an experiment. I realize this is not the ideal time of the year because there aren't enough greens.

Maryruth, not too sure about the Palmettos and the birds. I only see the Palmettos at night when the birds are sleeping. They don't appear to have any natural predators. I think the more you work in the garden, they stay away. At least I hope so!

Jane

Putting up with Palmetto bugs is much easier than driving in snow. I kinda got used to them. There are alot of veggies you can plant now. Lettuce is one of them It grows well from seeds. I have given up on transplants here. I'm always getting bugs and diseases with them. Costs more money too. I was thinking Siesta Keys was in the Florida Keys. I know where it is now. It still seems like a nice warm place to be. Do you have an ag. center near you? You can get alot of good info from their office and ask all kinds of questions. Or maybe find them online? We have a site called Solutions for your life that might be helpful to you. It's good for all of Florida.

Thanks Zackey, I'm not sure I agree about snow vs. Palmettos. I'll choose snow. We are staying at our daughters house until we find our own place. I'll wait until then to tackle vegetables, although it seems most people in Florida grow them in pots.

I did go to the local extension office to identify a bug which was eating my houseplants. They were very friendly and helpful.

What is solutions for life? Besides plants, we need a solution to find a house as soon as possible. We just haven't found anything we liked. Now, with the holidays here, the Realtors think we should wait until January.

I love living here on Siesta Key, but we need to find a place for ourselves. Thanks for your help,

This is a photo of our driveway the day before closing on our NY house. I think I'd still prefer this to those bugs!

Jane

Jane, that photo looks so like the home I had in Ohio, that I did a double take! Just keep after the realtor to show you homes - there are still people out there that want to buy and sell homes this time of year. I've done both myself. Tho the moving isn't fun, it can be a nice change of pace. Think: no long hours in the kitchen cooking and baking, dreaming and shopping for a few things to spruce up the new digs, invites out over the holidays from people who know you just aren't in a position to entertain right now. Take a break and enjoy the change of pace.

Randy

Randy, I like the way you think...sounds good!

Jane