I started my compost with dried oak and maple leaves that I raked up in the fall and added leftover topsoil from planting time. In spring I turned it over, chopped it up with my hoe and piled it up nicely and walked on top of it to flatten it down. I keep adding dirt, pulled weeds and greens from the kitchen. I bury the greens deep in the pile and shovel a little dirt on top of it, and cover it up with the leaf mould. I do water it now and then and forget about it.
I do get a nice crumbly compost at the base of the pile but I know it harbors a lot of weed seeds because it just doesnt get hot enough to kill the seeds. But the compost pile does break down no matter what I put on the pile. Corn husks take a long time as do egg shells so I do not overload it with those materials.
My compost pile is just that, a pile that I turn over in place and keep adding to. By the end of the growing season the previous years fall leaves are greatly reduced and the ground is soft and dark underneath. it is also where we go to get worms for bait.
I don’t think it matters much how one composts, just remember to maintain an adequate carbon (“brown”) to nitrogen (“green”) ratios for best results.
How much is “a little”? I guess that we won’t produce much ash, even though we do grill a lot. I live in Fort Worth, and I have the dreaded Texas hard clay soil. Part of the reason I want to compost is to loosen up the topsoil, instead of having basically a concrete yard.
Fire ants have very few redeeming qualities, but they do seem to improve clay soil a bit. Of course, when fire ants are in the area, one doesn’t want to do ANYTHING with the soil there.
One thing I didn’t see listed here is egg-shells and shrimp tails/exoskeletons (don’t know how often you eat shrimp, but it’s a way to get them out of the house quickly, and the raccoons don’t go for them). Also, it really helps if you cut up stuff before you chuck it in. This goes for hard stuff (carrots, watermelon rinds) as well as soft stuff (banana peels). The smaller you cut it, the faster it composts, but we generally settle on slightly-larger-than-bite size. Also, I wouldn’t recommend corncobs, as they take forever (at least in our pile).
As a rule of thumb I’d say half an inch of ash to a foot of compost, but if you just toss in the ashes when you have some available and they just make a thin covering over the top of the heap, and next time you’ve another thick layer of vegetable waste then you’re probably not doing badly. I imagine your composting bacteria don’t mind the nutrient boost.
Can you fork over the soil and mix in a little sand? Humus is good for water retention, but sand might help with drainage at least and discourage the soil from drying out rock hard.
So I’ve bought two five-gallon buckets with lids. A friend in another place tells me I might need to put holes in the buckets for air, but if I just loosely cover the buckets (just to keep out floods of rain, when the rainy season starts) will I be okay without drilling holes? I really don’t have a place for an on-ground heap, and no money to buy a big, expensive barrel-type one.
Oh, and since I’m in Florida, where it’s really freakin’ hot most of the time, how quickly can I expect to be able to use compost that’s made mostly of kitchen scraps, coffee/filters, and dead leaves?
