Compost Q's

[Sunnydaydreams]

I moved to a small house & want to start a garden in the spring. I want to cut back on trash so I'm making a compost pile, but the temperature is in the single digits to teens. What food scraps work and will the temperature affect the composting?

Peace & Love

[Pedata]

Peeling, cores, rinds, stuff like that from fruits and veggies. Coffee grounds, tea bags, eggs shells. Dead leaves. Animal poop (not cats if you're pregnant).
Everything slows down in the winter. You could rake lime through it to make things decompose faster- if you want it by spring.
Expect your final pile to be about one third of what you started out with. They shrink as they cook.

Peace :)
Pedata

[delta9]

And don't throw meats in unless you're ready to deal with the smell *eeewww*, though more of a problem when the tempurature is higher (it'll also more likely bring insects).

[Sunnydaydreams]

What about chicken bones? Or will that just attract coons & such?

Peace & Love

[Pedata]

What about chicken bones? Or will that just attract coons & such?

Peace & Love

Probably. You could put a lot of lime on it to cut down any odor.

I don't put bones in mine but I still get coons and possums in it. However they make life more interesting :)

During the day birds poke around in it. In the warmer weather even snakes nose around in it.

You can pretty much put any food item in a heap, as long as it's not salty or pickled.

Peace,
Pedata

[Sunnydaydreams]

Thanks! It's been cold & snowy outside so I've been throwing the scraps on top of the snow. Last Thursday, I got home, opened up the frig & was shocked to find that it was warm! The thermometer read 80 degrees, warmer than my house! My family doesn't respect my wishes to stop eating meat for ethical reasons and GIVE me meat :mad: As it turned out, I had just received a package of turkey & bacon, now spoiled. Oh well, now I didn't have to explain why I didn't eat it! There was also some gross cheese in there and I threw the meat & cheese on the compost pile. Today I noticed the everything was gone and as it turns out, birds ate all of it! My grandparents noticed huge groups of birds around the pile. I never would have thought starlings & other birds would eat meat & cheese like that. Who knew?

Peace & Love

[Pedata]

Birds are something else, they eat lots of things. Even each other :eek:

Peace :)
Pedata

[treehugger]

Sure...if birds are going to eat worms, what's to stop em from eating Oscar Mayer???

Actually, you probably did them a favor...they seek out fats and proteins in the winter...their bodies burn it off and it helps them to stay warm. And there's a shortage of insects...so...

Or so the rumor goes...I'm not a bird, of course.

[Pedata]

Sure...if birds are going to eat worms, what's to stop em from eating Oscar Mayer???

Actually, you probably did them a favor...they seek out fats and proteins in the winter...their bodies burn it off and it helps them to stay warm. And there's a shortage of insects...so...

Or so the rumor goes...I'm not a bird, of course.

Treehugger, yeah, you've got it right. Birds will eat just about anything. They love fat and meat. They will even eat egg shells (the calcium helps them form thier own egg shells).

Don't tell anyone but there's a species of endangered woodpecker living in the woods around me. I used to see just one, during the past 15 years, now I've been seeing two of them :D .

In the heat of the summer, when it hasn't rained in a while, you can set up one of those garden sprinklers and turn it on low. Before you know it all kinds of bird species will show up and play in the water. It's wild to watch them. Set it up against some trees or bushes, preferably against some thick woods. They like to have a quick safe place to get to.

Birds are a trip :)

Peace,
Cassandra

[darlinred]

This is for Sunnydaydreams and any other composter -

I wouldn't recommend composting feces in your pile if you're using it in your garden. Regardless of how hot it gets, feces (especially cat) has lots of nasty bacteria that can spread disease to humans. There's a couple of sites online that have feces composters. Here's the link to it if you want to check it out http://www.composters.com/main.shtml. I've got one and it works pretty well.

Also, if you're just composting food waste, I'd recommend putting together a worm bin. Those little buggers will devour just about anything except meat products. Otherwise, make sure that you bury your food scaps deep in your compost pile (helps to deter rodents and such).