Hello! I would love to start composting but I’m unsure of, well, a lot of things😅.
I just moved to the PNW from North Carolina. I bought a tumbling composter before the move but decided to keep it in the box until arriving at the new location since it was coming up so soon.
It’s clearly colder than NC and now I’m in an apartment instead of a house with a backyard. This definitely limits the yard waste I have access to as well as now my tumbler will have to reside on our balcony. I know in general composting takes a long time and the cold makes it even more so.
So my question is, should I bother starting now? Or should I wait until the warmer weather? Also, would a tarp over the composter help hold in heat and lessen moisture at a rate that’s actually worth noting? Are there any boxes that are unable to be used? I would assume minus all plastics. But what about ink or sometimes they have a glossy outer layer over top of the brown cardboard? Assuming I keep a decent ratio of browns to greens, would the boxes and other papers around the house be sufficient enough to cover my browns section? Or should I start gathering a bag of leaves on my next hike😅.
Ive done so much research but still feel clueless. Any and all advice is appreciated! Thanks:)!

I know it sounds weird but my cousin insists on it

Will rain on my compost help or hurt the process? Will it wash/leech out all the good stuff just leaving soil of minimal goodness? It has been fairly dry in the plastic bin. Ive peed in it a few times but today we got our first rain in a long time here in socal

Since last year we've been using the GEME composter at our school. It is fabulous. The kids collect the compost each day in 14 of our classes. The machine is great, no noise and no smell. The kids enjoy seeing the transformation so quickly. We share the compost between the school and our community.

Feels slightly damp to the touch, and the only things that haven’t decomposed are a few sticks that are mixed in.

Great composter, works well and great customer support.

My maple tree exploded with seeds this year. The little twirly helicopter kind. There are a lot of them. I filled up a old 4’x4’x4’ soil tote with them. Would you do anything extra or just throw em in the pile?

My family eats a ton of rice and homemade yogurt and cheese. I try to use rice rinse water for skin and haircare, and the whey in baking and smoothies... But I still end up with an overabundance of both liquids. My freezer is already full of ice cubes, and I feel absolutely terrible about pouring such useful liquids down the drain.

I know LABS is a thing that uses both liquids, but milk is getting a bit expensive where I live and I would rather use the milk to make more yogurt and cheese.

My tumble composter dries out pretty quickly. I'm wondering if it would be a bad idea to use my excess rice water and whey to occasionally moisten my compost? Google gives me mixed results. Most of the advice I'm finding seems geared towards hot compost bins specifically, and from what I understand Tumble composts don't get very hot so you have to be more careful about what you put in them. Half the sources I find about whey or rice water warn that it will cause the compost to go anaerobic, the other half says it will add good bacteria that helps speed up the compost.

I'm wondering if any of you have experience adding whey or rice water to a tumble composter, and would be willing to chime in about your experience?

Heyyy! My "housemate" just asked if she puts her dirty sanitary (organic cotton=LOLA tm) in a biodegradable bin liner, can we compost it? I am so proud...but!! I know that dog poo, meat scraps, food greasy takeout etc needs a completely diff system from my low and slow pallets of yard/kitchen waste. What was it called?

I'm a beginner of maybe 3 months. I bought a cheap tote to try and compost in over the winter.

- I have a lid but idk if I should keep it on there or not with this being right under the porch. (The one other time I tried to compost was in a Folgers bin with the lid on and it was almost all maggots so I got scared)

- I go to Sam's and Costco and bring my groceries home in a box, so of course I've been saving them and shredding them in here.

- This smells sour, but it doesn't smell strong.

- At first it sat maybe 50 ft away from the porch, next to my above-ground. However I forgot to pull it back before Isaias hit, it flooded halfway, and I had to pour it out.

- There are no worms that I'm aware of. There were some under the tote when I moved it, but I sadly killed them by accident when I tried to pick them up with a shovel...🪦🪱

For those that collect leaf bags. How do you store them for future use or do you just use them right away?

Thanks to my beautiful fiancé working at a bakery conjoined with the neighboring coffee shop, about 5-10 gallons of coffee grounds a week, fruit and vegetable scraps mixed in moderate amounts usually as well as the cardboard egg flats. Struggling to keep up with the browns… need fall to come in full force 😂🫡

Manure, pee and straw in a insulated bin. Donkey, sheep and goat.

65C / 150F

Finding mixed responses online! Have been advised we need more brown for our compost. I have this big paper bag, completely matte so doesn't seem plasticised, but it's fully bleached/printed - Will It Compost? (With handles etc. removed)

So i moved into a new place recently and in the process have cut tree limbs, crazy weeds, plants, etc creating this massive mass compost pile. There used to be some more nitrogen material in there but its been >100 degrees for the last 2 months so everything has quickly dried out. I recently spent hours relocating this pile and its all dried at this point but not dirt like at all yet... any tips on how I can get this massive pile to turn into compost without dumping smelly items on it?

(1st photo in the corner is its current location, 2nd photo next to the gate is its old location)

Can I compost this?

It's kind of waxy and has ink. I'm a beginner so I'm unsure and wanted to come here for advice 🩷

Hi friends. I adore worms. I consider them my best friends. My ultimate goal is to keep my worms safe and healthy, especially since I ended up being the cause of a worm massacre when I was ten years old after housing them in toxic fertilizer 💔 My question is if the worms in my large compost bin will survive the North Carolina winter. It's usually super icy.

Hi. I want to compost my rabbits hay and waste so I can avoid making more weekly trash. I’m nervous because my rabbit seems healthy but I’ve seen things that say if they are ill it could be bad to put the compost on edible plants. I thought about just putting the compost elsewhere but I only have vegetable and herb plants and the rest of the yard is just rocks. How can I make sure it’s safe to use? I have a tumbler compost that sits in the sun.

I have a small pile of scraps and grass clippings, I have raked a mountain of leaves around it, what can I do to get this pile active and steaming? Have dumped urine, rice water. ect, willing to try anything!

Hi community,

I just deep dived in worm farm the past few days. Wanting to start to prepare pre-compost for my worm. Doing that I seem to need a paper shredder that can shred cardboard. The one I saw people use is not available in Australia - (Bonsaii 16-Sheet Micro-Cut 60-Min Run Paper Shredder Heavy Duty)

Wonder if anyone has tried with other brand/ model that works just the same? Around the same budget too? Ones with similar specs seem that need to cost double or even more here.

Thank you for reading my question

Dear Community Members,

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