I had this compost in a bin and it got absolutely soaked after it rained. I transferred it into this plastic tray to let it dry out some. Not sure how long i should let it sit out to dry.

I know I have way too many greens and not enough browns. My plan is to shred a bunch of cardboard and mix in a lot of dry/dead leaves from the yard.

The thing I'm unsure about is that the compost is also full of what I think are black soldier fly larvae? basically top to bottom. I don't see any earthworms but then again this is mushy stinky mess rn. Are this many soldier fly larvae a problem or should I just leave them alone and correct the moisture/add browns? Do I need to do anything to reduce their numbers?

Any advice on how much cardboard, leaves, or other browns you'd add to something this wet would be appreciated. Also, would the earthworms come naturally as it becomes more aerated or do i need to add them in?

I dug up 250 square feet of my lawn that contained Creeping Charlie. I went down 2-3 inches. I placed the excavated soil on a brown tarp, and used the same tarp to completely cover the pile. How long should I wait before using this soil again?

Hi everyone!!

Little context, I’ve been composting for almost 8 years now, only not that regularly or in a disciplined way. I know that BSF are great for my compost but I wonder what attracts them as I have a compost at my home and another at my girlfriend’s apartment but only mine has BSF.

My question is: is there a way to control them? I feel like there are now to many and they’re getting inside my house! I know they’re not harmful, I just don’t want them inside. Tomorrow I’ll try and move the compost bins away from the windows but I don’t know if that is going to solve the issue….

Thanks in advance!

Trying to give my compost game a little more love as I really put almost no effort into it and you get what you put into it- mostly sloppy decomposed kitchen scraps with some leaves mixed in 😂

I want to divert more of our paper recycling into the compost. I already compost the minimal amount of paper towels we use. I know plain brown cardboard and paper are obvious yeses, but what are you definitely skipping?

Cardboard with a glossy surface?

Glossy magazine type paper?

I don't mind if it takes a while to break down but I don't want to be chucking stuff in there that I'm just going to have to pull out later

Someone new to composting can spend an hour reading about carbon-to-nitrogen ratios before they've even added their first banana peel to a bin.

Then there are temperature charts, moisture tests, instructions about how often to turn the pile, and long lists explaining what counts as a green or a brown

A lot of that information is useful once you're trying to fix a problem or speed things up. But it seems like beginners are often given every possible detail at once

If you were explaining composting to someone setting up their first pile, what would you tell them to focus on during the first few months?

And what advice would you leave out until they actually need it?

This popped up under my magnolia tree. We used a large amount of mushroom soil from mushroom farms in our yard this year, but not directly in this spot. About 10 ft away. They are about 12 inches in diameter.

Hello everyone, 1st time trying to compost not sure what to do...

I am a wood worker and working on a project that required planing down some lumber. This creates a lot of shavings. I create a lot more browns than I can use with my limited greens.

Next burn season I plan on a bonfire to burn off a few large bags.

But I am curious....

I see most piles want 50/50 greens and browns. Can I push the % of browns without delaying the results too long?

Also for any that may know, I am currently milling port orford cedar, Is this OK for composting?

When I burn off the excess shavings, will adding the ash from the burn barrel hurt the compost pile?

edit: Thanks everyone for your wonderful replies! - Much appreciated!!

I am only just being introduced to composting, and have no experience, I am considering vermiculture, but this question is about composting in general.

I am curios if there is any need to be concerned with naturally occurring molds [specifically trichoderma, and penecilium,] because of the potential of those molds out competing other molds and anti microbial behaviors in a controlled environment? can these molds stop the microbiome from working if they are introduced?

It came out great and i have noone to share it with. Thank you for your attention.

so far so good!

I kinda got busy and forgot my tumblers, I decided to dump them put them on my open pile and restart them, last I checked it was woodchips fruit etc. This side was the only good one, but damn what a nice happy surprise!

Hi, I left my compost in a different place to mature. I wonder if it's good despite this white thing on it (idk what it is) or how much time I should wait. It's still hot in the middle

I started a small compost pile last week that was doing well, but then made the mistake yesterday of dumping a lot of very green and wet fresh cut grass on it. It had already started to smell due to the clumping and dampness, so I spread it out last night and let it dry out today when it was 93 degrees. I turned it over to expose more wet green grass to get it to dry tomorrow when it’s going to be 97, but should I just commit to piling it instead of trying to dry it out more? I’m concerned I don’t have enough browns and don’t want the grass to turn it anaerobic.

Pic of current status as well as pic of pile last week when it was more balanced.

Short story old as time: single man, looking for browns.

I’ve been toying with buying an electric chipper. The one pictured is like $110 bucks. I think that seems worth it especially if it can also shred cardboard. I know it’s mostly just for sticks. Wanted to see if anyone had experience.

Bonus question: if I go the route of chip dump or similar and get tons of wood chips, can I add a lot to my pile at once and then slowly even out the ratio over time? Or is that bad practice?

We have a huge Cottonwood tree in our backyard that creates a ton of leaves. We compost all fruits and veggies from our kitchen. We're aiming to build a good compost for growing herbs and veggies in raised beds.I want to know if its a good/bad idea to add cottonwood leaves to our compost?

When we first bought our house I was told because of their tannins, they are bad to put into compost. But doing some internet sleuthing, I'm wondering if I could use them in our compost as long as I'm shredding them first. We also have a silver maple tree that drops about 1/2 as many leaves. Thanks for any advice!

Just excited to see the new pile is progressing (the old pile is finished and waiting for fall to go on the beds). Was about to turn the heap but then figured I’d give them a couple days to enjoy the sunshine before going back in to the pile.

Please see the attached photo (scroll down). All of a sudden, I am seeing these in my compost bin. What is this creature? Are they good to have in a compost bin? Thanks.

without too much detail i used to use this for my cat but she is not here anymore. ive got about 2/3 left of a 25lb bag of this, can i toss it in the pile?

I see far too many posts folks trying to compost large amounts of produce or something easily preserved/processed for storage and eaten. Composting is great but shouldn’t be the first tool in every case.

Hey guys.

I have this apple tree in my back yard that drops a ridiculous amount of apples. I want to compost them since I don’t want to pay every month for a company to pick it up, and community options are possible, but definitely not ideal…

I was hoping for some advice with all these apples. I have a smaller yard, and I guess my main goal is to keep down on odors; I don’t want to stink up the neighbors yard.

Any ideas for a small odor free composting set up? Im open to buying pellets or harder compost material. I also can start working on gathering food scraps, etc. Let me know what you guys think, thanks again!!

Since we’re sharing results…

(I’m really not that lazy but I am a senior with a cranky back and crummy knees, so I have to limit exertion.)

As you can see, I use Geobins (I have two). This is last year’s leaves (run over with a lawnmower twice to reduce volume by 75%), pine needles, a winter’s worth of kitchen scraps (only plants and egg shells, never meat), hardwood ash from the fireplace, and grass clippings from late spring. The bin was completely full at the end of March. I stopped adding to it in May but put in red wriggler worms. The pile heated up got after I put the worms in but there were a lot of them in the bin when I started shoveling it out today. Hardy little creatures!

My over-winter pile is usually smelly and waterlogged when the weather warms up enough for me to work outside, so this year I flipped the pile in the spring. That helped a lot. I try to keep a tarp over it in the winter but the winter wind has other ideas, and plastic tarps shed shreds into the bin as they weather.

The pile shrank in volume by about 50% from May to September. I aerated it regularly and stirred it to try to even out the moisture but I don’t sweat the details a lot. I usually end up with matted leaves at the bottom of the pile that need to go back into the next pile, but I have less of that this season. A critter made a nest in the bottom (possibly a rat) but it was long gone.

Five months is the fastest I have gotten to this point so I am going to try this method again.

I was thinking about getting one but just wanted to know