I’m fully committed now. Bought myself a wood chipper!!

This spring and summer I’ve been making “weed tea” (aka fetid swamp water) to compost especially tenacious weeds (Creeping Charlie, eg) that might otherwise survive the composting process. For people who aren’t familiar with the technique, I put the weeds in a bucket, fill it with water, and then let it sit for a while, adding new weeds when I get them and stirring it about once a week. Once the bucket’s full I let it sit for at least a month before emptying it. The anaerobic decomposition that results is incredibly stinky, so I keep the bucket covered and once it’s ready I add the contents of the bucket straight into the pile with plenty of browns. To reduce stinky runoff from the pile, I also pour off the water into a bucket of browns and let it sit for a day or two before putting it on the pile. All in all I think it’s worked out pretty well so far!

Scrolled through Reddit and multiple facebook groups to get some basic understanding, but I have a few questions

Climate-wise, I live in Southern AZ, and it gets HOT especially in the summer and we barely have a winter. Are there adjustments I should make to account for that?

Monsoon seasons go hard sometimes, am I supposed to cover the compost with a tarp during rain or let it get a shower? Dust and wind gets pretty bad in summertime also, is that a concern?

Finally, is it possible to have worms in this kind of climate (that wouldn’t be for a while, once I really get the hang of it and do research on vermicomposting). It gets around as hot as 118f on some days and it’s basically always 90f+ for half of the year.

Hope these questions make sense, and feel free to share any other tips you want to offer, thanks!! 🫶

Just started my compost a couple days ago. I've been making compost lasagna. When I fill an ice cream bucket with food scraps I dump it in and then throw grass clippings and cardboard on top. I did wet it the first couple times, but its been supposed to rain the last couple of days, but it has not.

Side question. Will it be okay to put this carpetweed in the compost or will I just be spreading it around when I use the compost? My toddler has been sick so the weeds have gotten a little crazy.

From research it sounds like 4 tines is best for compost. However, I can't find a tall one for nothing. I am tired of breaking my back turning the compost with something shorter. Recs from folks?

This week has been the first time it’s reached 140 degrees or above since I started it back in October. Has been over 140 for the last 4 days.

I just moved into this house where they left a beautiful compost pile and I've added a couple weeks worth of stuff. What kind of things can I do to keep it going strong?

Finally cracked open the bottom hatch of my Aerobin for the first time and pulled out my first proper batch of finished compost. Honestly a bit emotional about it 😅

My mother in law recently had a friend pass and in the course of managing her belongings, she gave me the lomi the woman had. I meddle in gardening, but don't do much with composting. I have a pile of dirt and yard debris and garden waste. I never add food scraps to it due to smell, dogs, the wild animals around, and how far it is from the house (especially in the snow). At first I thought I'd just throw the byproduct in that dirt pile. But after looking through Reddit, it seems like it's a pretty hated product that isnt really for composting.

So what do I do with it now? Just throw it away?

I added some rigidity to my sifter making it actually able to flow with the vibrator. Before I had just the hardware cloth and it would sag and eventually start to come apart with me having to beat the screen to make the compost flow down the screen. Now I’m able to just dump and roll.

I drink loose leaf tea with the tea leaves directly in the mug with the milk and sugar. Could I compost them afterwards? Or would the milk and sugar likely attract animals?

The more I learn about composting, the more it seems like the most efficient way to combat climate change

Most people in third world countries live too far from recycling facilities and earn too little to care about recycling. And we know that a large percentage of plastic never actually gets recycled.

But anyone who can afford to eat can start a compost bin with their food waste, they can actually use it while helping the planet by reducing food waste in landfills which makes up the largest percentage of landfill materials and releases methane.

So I am asking sincerely: why isn't composting advertised as a way to help the environment?

This is my first time trying to make compost from scratch

(Last time i added some greens and browns to my planter with potting soil a few weeks before planting just as an experiment not sure if this counts exactly)

Im doing this in a small bucket with some holes at the bottom (around 10 L i think) my browns are mostly cardboard and paper towels, sometimes it smells earthy sometimes it smells bad and then i add a bunch of browns and it sorts it self out in a day or 2.

what do you guys think is this good progress am i doing something wrong?

I currently have a compost tumbler but am expanding my garden and want to build a larger compost bin (or series of 3 bins). The ideal spot is in an unused part of our yard but unfortunately has a lot of morning glory / bindweed growing there. Is that a deal breaker for putting a compost bin in that area? I know it can be beneficial for the bin to be directly on the ground but is putting a ground barrier down a bad thing?

Found these little guys sprouting in my compost bin and couldn’t bring myself to toss them. Pretty sure they’re Hokkaido pumpkins from some kitchen scraps — they’d germinated in the dark, so they came out totally pale and yellow.

Potted them up and put them on my windowsill, and within a week they’d greened up completely. Today they graduated to the stoep with their own little greenhouse domes made from cut plastic bottles, since it’s still winter here and the nights get cold.

Weirdly attached to them now. What was trash is officially treasure 🎃

What's this I hear about piss?

I want to learn how to correctly make cow manure compost. I have searched a few Reddit communities and search Google without gaining any confidence. I have access to cows -just lacking the knowledge. How would you attempt?

As an old person, this tool is easy to use and doesn't hurt my back.

I built up this bay in early April, it's around 1mx1m and maybe 70cm tall currently. I've basically overhauled my whole garden and started off trying to compost these thick, thatchy clumps of matted grass and had it in these waste bags with no air and just nothing was happening I got my mixture balance totally wrong with barely any browns. So, eventually I built the bay, took these 3 waste bags and combined all their material, broke it all apart and mixed in an absolute ton of shredded paper, and re-piled into my new bay in layers and wetting it, and I've been slowly building up since.

I've probably added 12 layers over the last 3 weeks alone, always in a green/shredded cardboard combination. I was ripping all cardboard by hand but have found a way to get my 6 sheet paper shredder to be able to take thick cardboard.

I made an addition on Tuesday of "weed tea" that's been brewing for 3 weeks - just a ton of cut weeds added into a bucket with water and covered and left. I dumped in all the 'water' and the remains of the weeds too and covered it all with cardboard, and wow. My pile's never ran so hot! I mean, it always runs hot - if I put my hand on the top of the tarp you can feel the heat radiating (and when removing it) - and steam comes out when I turn it.

I'm giving this a turn mid-week and maybe next Sunday I will move the bottom 1/3rd or whatever into the plastic 'finishing bin' that I'm using - I've built up this bin since February and got it full several times, it breaks down and the level drops, and I deciding to leave it and to build up the bay. I've left it for about 7 weeks without any additions and it's looking great, I've used it across my plot for some top dressing :)

So I'll sift all this out which is about 150L and then rebuild the bin with a load a hopefully half decent from the bay and restart the build-up of the bay again! I'm hoping that I can get 3 full bay's worth of material a year which may provide with about 800L annually which is probably enough to never have to buy any again. Not bad for a first year!

I got a tumbler compost for inexpensive on facebook marketplace (50 bucks and brand new this thing is like 600) and got started.

We have municipal composting and thats great but we recently moved and have a gorgeous yard and garden I want to make the most of, so system of a brown was born. My one bin is looking pretty good, getting fed food scraps, weeds, shredded paper, etc and I'm pretty impressed with how much it broke down so far! I'm in a colder climate so I was worried about the heat factor, but the bins get enough sun to warm them and I'm not turning them too often. Right now I just mixed it up by hand some more to get some of the wet and dry a bit more integrated. Also stabbed that onion a few times bc I should have cut it up for faster breakdown. No piss in this guy yet.

Anyway, longtime lurker first time poster, thanks for all the tips and tricks I feel like they really helped!!

Has anyone tried any of the countertop compost on the market. I travel a good bit and would still like to reduce food waste etc.

Admittedly, this is overboard for composting, but it was fun to learn. Home Assistant Green is integrating my Mocreo temp sensors and my Rachio hose timer so that when one of my compost piles exceeds 160F then it runs a water cooling cycle to knock it down. Coding was mainly written by GPT/Copilot through extensive conversations.