FluffyAngel
Senior Cook
Help! Guidelines, tips, etc. What to add, what not to, store or keep in plastic or metal drum. I don't know where to start.
Help! Guidelines, tips, etc. What to add, what not to, store or keep in plastic or metal drum. I don't know where to start.
You are correct, TL, there are a lot of worms!
I do love worms. Makes for really good compost!
Some folks actually have a bucket under the sink and practice worm composting. We haven't quite gotten to that.
taxlady said:I've been thinking about worm composting myself, for winter.
Mine has more sow bugs and other bugs than worms.
My composter was from the city. There is a minimal charge. They subsidize composting because it saves on garbage collection. It looks like a headless Dalek
Add grass clipping but not leaves or chipped wood and no hay. May tend to attract and breed fruit flies, so locate away from the house if that's a problem. If you decide to compost all the vegetable waste from the kitchen, go with the pile as described, or prepare two bins. I made mine from the common blue plastic 55 gallon drum. Drilled holes all over. Cut and hinged a door in the side. You can roll it back and forth or mount on a cradle made of old casters on treated wood. It sits out by the chicken house. They keep after the flies, and some things get diced up for chicken treats, beef and lamb trimmings and egg shells, making it one trip to dump the scraps.
taxlady said:???
It would help if we knew more about where you live. Is it rural? Is it suburban? Urban? How big is your yard/balcony? What's the wildlife like where you live? Do you get raccoons? Skunks? Bears?
What will you use the compost for? Growing food or just for decorative plants?
We live in a rural area in SC. We have a little over 5 acres. There used to be racoons here & there but haven't seen one in ten years. Now we have rabbits, brown bears, Bobcats & coyotes.
We will use the compost for growing food.
Why no leaves or hay?
Thanks GLC. I was thinking of straw bale gardening and I completely forgot to think of herbicides and pesticides. Yuck.
Actually this is regulated in Canada, here is a document from Health Canada.
Regulatory Directive: Pre-harvest Intervals for Grazing and Cutting for Hay of Immature Crops Treated with Pesticides (DIR93-18, October 28, 1993) [Health Canada, 1993]
To me, it looks like hay would be labeled, not for use for feeding cattle if it was immature hay treated with pesticides. I would think if it was healthy to feed cattle, it could be used for hay bale gardening. (all paraphrased)
Opinions?
Probably, but I would want organic.
And, it's straw bale gardening. Hay is full of nutritious seeds that sprout.