I don't compost meat scraps or bones, figuring that they would attract the attention of rats, skunks, and raccoons. The squirrels take a look in the compost bin every so often, and during the winter, the birds will raid the bin for fruit/vegetable pieces, but I haven't had any rodents (knock on wood), and the bugs I see are just usual garden insects. Just make sure that you balance your kitchen scraps with browns - torn-up newspaper, fallen leaves, torn-up cardboard, stuff like that - so it doesn't just sit there and stew.

As for returning the barrel, one big problem people in our (probably identical) climates have with piled compost is maintaining enough moisture to make composting feasible in a limited amount of time, and unless you're willing to wait a long time, that barrel can help you out there. I have a bin and a pile that get mighty dry, so the manure and scavenged plant matter don't compost or rot so much but they age (mellow, disease and drug-wise) over time and break down mostly in and on the soil.

In your climate, if you bury garbage, it will most likely vanish within weeks. Even the egg shells, the filter paper, and the apples.

Mary, I get manure from many places and in this aridity there are no weeds ever. 'Shrooms, yes. Weeds, no. I think it's entirely in the watering.

Thank you for the response.

Can cardboard and papers with ink go into the composter? I read somewhere that black print was fine but colored in was not. I have a bunch of moving boxes with the size printed on them. Can the moving boxes be composted?

Lynn

Yes.

I think the ink you want to avoid is that shiny stuff. The size stamped on the side of the box is most likely just fine. Printers started using soy based (I *think* that's right) a few years ago so there's not so much worry - just avoid the shiny ads.

Thanks grubby. I've been really leery so have avoided getting any. But I have an excellent source for fully composted livestock manure: goat, chicken and horse. They have a very cool setup for working the animal manure. I'm a lucky girl. I trade her tomato starts, I get a front loader scoop or 3 of compost. Lucky girl I tell 'ya.

Even the shiny pages are soy-based. They top the normal ink with a shiny layer of clear soy-based "ink".

Some people using tumbler composters have had problems with unwanted insects and rodents being attracted but that is most often because the material is too wet and is attractive to them for that reason. Others do not have that problem. That sometimes compost might be attractive to some insects and rodents has little to do with kitchen scraps and more to do with getting the ratio of material, and moisture, close to what is optimal.

Horse manure can be a good addition to material to be composted and if done properly, the right ratio, can help the bacteria generate enough heat to kill any "weed" seeds the manure may contain, although the volume of these tumbler composters usually is not enough to generate that much heat.

The "shiny" pages (more properly glossy) that are the ad inserts in newspaper are still printed using metallic inks, not soy based and the shiny layer over the print is lacquer, not a soy based clear ink and is there to keep the print from smearing. Because of cost most all printing today is done using soya based inks, except for those ad inserts, and that would include cardboard boxes. Cardboard boxes used for food packaging has been printed using food safe inks for over half a century now. So, yes, most cardboard can be composted, but some packaging (toys, cosmetics. etc.) should be looked at with a jaundiced eye since they may be printed with metallic ink, yet.

kimmq is kimmsr

As an artist and gardener, I avoid all printed materials in my compost.

The inks' binders may be made of soy, but the pigments aren't. And those pigments are just as toxic as ever.

Black ink pigment is nothing but finely powdered carbon, though. Harmless in the garden.

You need a large volume of material with that new house. A little barrel machine is fine for being a 'green' person and maybe to maintain a few square feet of garden. But that's not you, at least not right now.

Get the largest pile of whatever cheap organic materials your neighbors will tolerate.

I get the free wood chips they give away at the transfer station. I bet you have the same deal in Las Vegas. Mix in your nitrogen source in the proper proportions and keep it moist. Given your situation, we are talking about a couple of pickup truck loads of wood chips or whatever, plus nitrogen.

Nitrogen source? I use urea. A Trader Joe's coffee sample cup full is equal to two pounds (about a shovel full) of chicken manure, to put things in perspective. No smell, no trouble with the neighbors. If anyone asks questions, its a pile of wood chips you are planning on using for mulch. You get something like that stoked, and it will break down in a couple of months. You are good to go by October. Having a surfeit of compost is a great luxury.

Yeah, I know. It's not organic. Get the chicken manure then, it's pretty much the same thing.

P.S. plan on getting a sifter. You will find all kind of uses for the stuff that has been sent through a hardware cloth mesh screen.

Coffee grounds have about 2 percent Nitrogen, probably not nearly the same as 2 pounds of poultry manure, and a cup of liquid coffee, while a good source of Magnesium and Potassium has little Nitrogen.

kimmq is kimmsr

I think koko meant that the cup in question, as a measuring cup, filled with UREA, was equivalent to two pounds of chicken manure.

Yes. Urea is a non-organic highly water soluble commercial fertilizer compounded from natural gas. It's almost 50% available nitrogen (and nothing else).