Composting Basics

I wrote this for a school I helped get into composting. Most of it is borrowed from other handouts I've made, but I think this version finally covers how to operate your bin. May it serve you well!

~~~~

Welcome to your compost bin! It’s a great place full of lots of activity, so enjoy it! It will give you fertilizer, worms, and freedom from the landfill!

To get started, you’ll want a collection bin for indoors. A two gallon bucket fits nicely under a sink and is small enough that it won’t have time to get stinky before it needs emptying.  You’ll also need a cover material tote. This will be outdoors and will house some sort of airy material, such as straw, leaves, moss, shredded paper, sawdust, or weeds. Having cover material is crucial to your composting success, so always have some on hand.

The process of composting is simple. Place your compostable scraps into your bucket. When the bucket is full, empty it into your bin and cover it with the cover material.  With the next addition, pull back the cover material already on top of your pile, dump your bucket, and re-cover. The cover material acts as a biofilter--it will filter out the smell so flies, rodents, dogs, and bears won’t be attracted to your pile.  Pieces of cardboard serve as a nice liner for your bin to keep all material in. 1/4 inch wire mesh is also a good liner.  Cover material along the sides is a good idea if you tend to have food poking out. If you have pest problems, chances are you’re not using enough cover material.

A variety of materials will make the best pile. In composting language, you have browns and greens. Very loosely, if it's dry it's a brown and if it has moisture it's a green. (More accurately, browns are mostly carbon and greens are mostly nitrogen.)  Usually, cover materials work out to be the browns of the pile. Browns provide carbon, add air space, and manage moisture, so don’t forget to add them if your cover material is fresh green weeds. 

Sort for the Bucket & Bin 

What to put in:
Moldy food
Fruits and vegetables
Breads and grains
Egg shells
Dairy

Coffee grounds

Liquids
House plant leaves
Garden debris
Small pieces of paper (not glossy)
Used tissue
Finger nail clippings & hair
Dog fur
Dryer lint
Dust pan & vacuum contents
BioPlastics (labeled compostable) 

What NOT to put in:
Meat scraps/bones
Fish
Fruit/vegetable stickers
Plastic
Metal
Glass
Anything that’s toxic    

Composting is a natural process. Microorganisms will appear and multiply in your bin and break the material down. If you’ve set up the right conditions, there will be billions of microbes working and they will create heat. Hot composting is great because it is fast and it kills pathogens and weed seeds. Cold composting works, but is slow, doesn’t kill weed seeds, and may create a slug problem.

If you are hot composting, the material will quickly heat up to 150 degrees F. It will hover there for a while, then slowly decrease. Once cooled, macro-organisms will appear to further decompose the pile. (This is when fungi and worms will appear.) You can either let the pile sit or turn it to restart the heating process.

When the bin looks full, keep filling it! It will magically take more material since the pile is constantly decomposing and shrinking. When it stops accepting additions use the second side of the bin. Once the second side is truly full, the first side should be done and ready for use.

Using compost is easy. Simply mix it in the top few inches of your soil. It’s good for potted plants, raised beds, and anything you want to have a boost. For creating a new bed, simply mix it with some sand.

If a problem occurs, do some trouble shooting. Composting isn’t supposed to stink, have flies, attract bears, or be difficult!

Pile is Stinky

• too much nitrogen (food scraps or animal manure) Add carbon, i.e. straw, leaves, shredded paper, sawdust, wood chips. 

• not enough biofilter. Add more material to top/sides of pile.

• pile is too wet -  If it's wetter than a wrung out sponge it's too wet and will compact into an anaerobic stink! Add more carbonaceous materials. 

• not enough air - jam a piece of rebar into the pile and wiggle back and forth to make an air hole through the pile. Make several holes. Next time add more bulky things like fern stalks or straw.

Pile is not heating up 

• not the right mixture of greens vs browns. Add greens (food scraps or live plant material)

• pile is too dry - add some water to the pile

• not enough material added at once. Add 10+ gallons at a time for a kick start. You can back off once it heats up.

Pile too hot (>160 F)

• too much nitrogen and microbial action . Split pile in two to avoid killing microbes. Add more carbon.

Basics to keep in mind:

• Acknowledge that a compost pile is alive. It needs nutrients, fiber, air, water, and protection.
• Put  a mix of traditional greens and browns in the pile. Divert stuff from the landfill or find stuff in the wild. Manure adds microbes.
• Add lots of material at once. Get scraps from neighbors--the more the merrier.
• Give the pile air. Layer bulky things in the mix to add pore space. Feel free to  turn it.
• Monitor moisture. Add  water as the heat evaporates some; add dry material if the pile is soggy.
• Have a big, covered pile. This protects the pile from the rain and makes it self-insulating from the cold.
• Have a biofilter. Put several inches of dry material on top of the pile to filter our smells and keep critters at bay.
• Have a composting thermometer (~$25). It lets you know what is going on so you know what to do. If it's not heating up, check the above list. If it's too hot split the pile in two and either cut back on greens or add more browns. 

It looks like a lot to think about, but once you are actually composting with your own hands you will find that it‘s a snap!  Composting can be as easy or hard as you make it. Don't worry about what you NEED to do--just experiment! You can read about lots of things NOT to do or ALWAYS to do, but it comes down to this: No one is the boss of composting! Every situation is different: different climate, different resources, different schedules, different set-ups.....Be creative, get to work, and see what you can turn into soil!

Have fun, and let me know if you need a hand!

Ideas for Child Involvement:

• Make signs for the bin - general “Our Compost” or one for each side, e.g. “Aging,”  “Add here,” etc.
• Empty the bucket into the bin and cover it with cover material
• Collect browns for cover material with their families and bring to school
• Offer to rake neighbor’s leaves as a community service & way to get browns
• Shred used paper for cover material
• Keep track of weight and volume in composting log - weigh full bucket on a scale and estimate gallons.
• Keep track of bin temperature in composting log - can make line graphs of temp vs. time to see the curve
• Start seedlings in trays on the surface of the bin - compare to seedlings started in areas of differing temperatures
• Attach window boxes to side of bin and plant something to eat
• Dig for worms in the finished compost
• Use the finished compost on classroom plants
• Observe finished compost under a magnifying glass
• Analyze the stages of compost - Adults can prep three jars with perforated lids:
• 1. food scraps layered between browns,  
  
•  2. material breaking down,
•  3. finished compost. (I can give you some)
• They can look at and smell the jars to note their similarities and differences. Be sure to remind them that all jars started with the same thing inside--the stuff  in jar #1!

• Read composting books
• Make a book on how your school composts using photos or drawings.
• Tell, draw, or write compost-related stories. I.e. The worm who at my banana peels, The day the cheese disappeared
• Share their knowledge--Invite families and neighbors to see the system
• Talk about garbage - What really makes something garbage? Categorize objects into where they belong if you don‘t need something -
•     -recycle center
•     -salvation army, freecycle, a friend
•     -compost bin
•     -art project
•     -landfill
• Grow a garden!

• help apply the finished compost in the yard.
• grow window boxes of herbs, veggies, or flowers in the classroom
• plant spring veggie starts for children to take home

Want a Job? Try Composting!

One day's worth of food scraps 

 

I've been community composting two days a week for 15 months now. I've put in well over 200 hours of volunteer time into the project, and hauled some 30,000 pounds of material.  But now, I'm tired. I'm over the constant urgency of piling material, and--the worst--washing buckets. I'm done saying "no, I need to compost" when my family asks me to do something fun. I'm ready for something else. I feel like I've proved the point that community composting can work in Juneau. It works in our climate. It works with our wildlife. It works for our businesses. It works in the garden. It works fiscally. I'm just not at a place in my life where I need to start another business. For now my family and commercial fishing is enough. And I need to walk the dogs more.

So, is anyone interested in composting on a large scale? I'm ready to step down and am looking for someone to take over the route! I can provide hands-on "training," and supply logistical and composting advice throughout the process. It's a fast way to build up your compost reserves!

Another idea I've had to handle all the compost is opening the cooperative part up on all ends. What I envision is an online database of businesses who produce compostable materials (food scraps, shredded paper, garden refuse, etc), how much they produce, and when it's available for pickup. Then, users could sign up to pick up so-and-so's buckets every x day. I think it could be a great networking tool to help businesses manage their waste and help gardeners garden better. Even if someone wasn't interested in large scale composting on a continual basis, they could at least acquire material to start a big, hot-composting pile, and periodically add to it as needed.

Broadening off the database idea a bit, if we could end up with site (say a spot out at the Juneau Community Garden) where people could compost, it could really get things rolling. If someone wanted to make some cash picking up food scraps they'd have a place to pile it, and there would be a very local market of buyers right at hand.

In any case, my last official pick-up is next week. If you think you might be interested in picking up some scraps, give me a shout! 

 Goodbye scraps, Hello fertilizer! I've got tons (literally) of finished compost to harvest!

Sustainability in the Barn

I mentioned many months ago that I wanted to stop using purchased straw in the chicken coop. At $25 a bale, I tend not to keep the barn floor as clean as I'd like. My current floor space of 8x12 feet requires quite a bit more straw than my old 3x8 coop. I also wonder about where the straw comes from--what kind of pesticides am I adding to my compost pile by using this mystery straw from down south? Is it from GMO wheat? Also, the thought of having something trucked and barged up here just so my chickens can poop on it seems a little extravagant if you really think about it.

Thanks Nicole!

When you need to find something it seems like you can always count on Freecycle! I posted an add for bulk shredded paper and had a response within a day. A friend at the Dept of Labor has been graciously calling me when their "file consolidation" pile stacks up.

Of course I'm always skeptical--even of my own ideas. I was worried about the shredded paper matting in the coop. And when on the first day the chickens had paper sticking to their legs, I envisioned them eventually becoming entirely covered in paper mache. But, after a month of using solely paper for the bedding, it's worked out even better than straw!

Over-flow

A couple of times a week I fluff things up with the pitchfork and occasionally toss in tote-fulls of new paper. The only down side is that it is a little unsightly in the pasture. Like straw, it spills out the doorways when it sticks to chicken feet and boots. Another concern is the toxicity of ink and bleached paper in the compost. In my research on composting paper, it's hard to find definite answers. In some instances it seems as though the composting process has the ability to cleanse toxins from the heap, which would be desired when using either paper or straw. For now, I'm simply hoping that is the case.  I plan on getting my finished compost tested for toxins and for nutrient content in the near future.

To me the pros of eliminating straw from the barn far out weigh the cons. 

If you need bedding for your critters, consider networking with a local office for their shredded paper!

The Fertility Facility

It started with one small bin. I built it out of the heaviest, ugliest pallets you've ever seen. It was my first pallet project, and at the time I didn't know there was a patient art to pallet scrounging. Armed with a skill saw, hammer, and crow bar, I used a full pallet for the back and cut another pallet into pieces for the sides. It measures 18x41x48 inches. I rested a scrap piece of tin roofing over the top to keep the rain out. Surprisingly, it took my family of 3 and flock of 9 chickens almost two years to fill it! It looked like it was full after about a year, but when the contents got to the lid, you could actually see the magic of composting: One week you think you've poured your last bucket of slop in as the lid teeters over the mound. The next week the pile has settled a few inches allowing for another addition. This happens from week to week as the pile is continuously breaking down. It's feels like such a magic show to keep adding to the pile, and it's a wonderful confirmation that your pile of scraps is indeed a compost pile. 

Bin #2

The Fertility Facility began out of necessity. The two sheep and two goats I was raising in 2010 made for a lot of dirty bedding to take care of. I built bin #2 and started adding our food, garden, and barn scraps to it. It soon became "full" as it was mostly barn litter (poopy straw) and didn't quite have enough green to keep it composting quickly. So I built bin #3, which became a holding tank for barn litter. I continued to add greens to bin 2 for about a year. Eventually, I came up with the composting co-op idea, but I was working full time, had a two year old, and was milking the animals twice a day. It just didn't pan out to put more on my plate. In mid-2011 I became a bona fide stay-at-home mom and starting drawing out the plans for mass composting. In January 2012 the program started and I gradually expanded from composting for nine households to composting for 23 households, a preschool, a bread bakery, a bistro, a grocery store/deli, and a food bank. So I did some more building:

 

#4, the first co-op bin, & #5

 

 #6 & #7

 

#8 & #9, which form the northern fence around my garden

 

 

#10 & #11, continuing the fence

#12 & #3, which are a separate experiment

#13 & #14, waiting to be needed and completing the north fence.

 The storage bin, packed full of leaves for future use as biofilter

Some Numbers:

Now, February 2013, just over a year after beginning, I have filled (to ultimate capacity,) 10 bins.

• Two bins are actively getting added to.  
• Three bins are starting to cool, meaning they're about half way done. 
• Two bins are mostly done and are getting finished by worms (who just show up when it's time)
• Five bins are completely composted and are awaiting spring use.   

     Spreadsheet Totals

• 220 hours (not counting building, turning piles, and record keeping) on the project.
• 5269 gallons of material collected 
• 19,661 pounds of material collected
• ~11,500 pounds of additional material from my barn
• ~600 pounds of cover material (collected leaves, garden debris, straw)

Surprisingly, this doesn't take up much space in my yard, considering how much material has gone in. Volume wise, the break down of the material is astounding. The first round of breakdown has a shrink rate of about 50%. The reheat and final breakdown shrinks by another 33%. 

So I started by piling up 1188 cubic feet of material and ended up with 392 cubic feet of compost. 

Last summer I saw bags of 1.5 cubic feet (~2 5-gallon buckets) of compost selling at a store downtown for $20. That means I created about $7920 worth of compost. In other words, if the market was there and I could sell everything I produce, I actually could make a fair wage! Collection fees could also boost the $$ potential. 

So after it all, I've got a huge accumulation of greatness just waiting to grow something delicious. It's been fun, and I don't see reason to stop! If I could just get my paperwork act together to get the license/permit, I could "open" for official business and make some $$. For now, I'll just keep composting!

Recycling Projects

I'm obsessed with not throwing things away. I always look to pass unwanted items on to others, repair the damaged ones, and re-purpose the things that don't fit into the first two. Here are a few recent projects:

Worn Out Socks

When we wear a hole in a sock, I simply tie a knot in it and throw it to the dogs. They love to play tug with it and throw it around. Not only do you get to keep your spent sock out of the landfill, but you also bypass having to buy faraway-made toys for your dogs! If you wear natural fibered socks (pure cotton, wool, or bamboo), you're in extra luck. After your dogs have demolished the sock, you can just throw it in the compost pile!  If you don't have a dog, simply cut the sock into pieces for easier decomposition by your hard-working microbes.

Nappy Pot Holders

So I've had the same pot holders for about 7 years. They had a ridiculous amount of stains and burn holes. Most First World people would have thrown them in a landfill long ago and purchased new ones. Most Third World people would be grateful to simply have pot holders, ratty or not . At my place in the Fourth World, I can use a few scraps of fabric to revamp the old into new:

 1.  Wash potholders, measure dimensions, cut fabric, and make a pouch.

 2. Add loop of ribbon, sew pouch shut with old potholder inside. Quilt stitch an X across the square. Voila!

This one is made from an old wool sweater. I used the bottom of the body to make a couple of potholders, the top of the body to make a purse, and the arms to make some awesome volcano leg warmers. Scraps went into the compost. 

The result of some old potholders, a few cotton scraps of cloth, a holey sweater, some ribbon, a sewing machine, and 30 minutes of my day. What can you save from the landfill with a simple upcycle?

Hello Again

Welcome to a new year! Three months have passed since the last post and, really, I have no excuses. I'll say I was hibernating. Here's a short recap:






October saw commercial shrimping for Atlin and Huck....tasty! 

 Every year we spend Thanksgiving week out deer hunting on Chichagof Island. This year the weather made things really tough--with two of us hunting for 7 days we only got one deer. (We saw upwards of 35 does, but only two bucks.) Atlin made jerky out of the whole thing--delicious, but meat sure doesn't last very long that way. It's a good thing we still have moose and goat in the freezer! The best part of this trip was that Huck hiked with us for 4 days. It was his first deer hunting season where he didn't have to get carried at all. Things sure are coming together now that he's four!

Dressed female turkey

November also saw the butchering of our two turkeys. The Thanksgiving female was quite a bit smaller than the Christmas male. She was about 20 pounds and he 40. They were amazingly delicious, and provided an abundance of leftovers for extended family and ourselves. I boiled the carcass down and made several batches of stock to freeze for soups, and I bagged 8 meals worth of meat. We've been eating wonderful, fresh soup with homegrown potatoes, carrots, parsley, onions, garlic, and turkey. Too bad I have to buy the celery.

 

December has been the month of eggs--I'm selling 6-10 dozen a week! When we returned from our hunting trip the refrigerator was packed with a couple hundred eggs. Luckily, this town has a high demand for fresh eggs!

 January brought me full circle with my composting co-op project--ONE FULL YEAR of community composting! It was long and hard with it's ups and downs, but I made it. About two months into the project, I thought,"Can I really do this for a year?! Now I feel like I can go on forever!

More about these and other projects in the near future--I'm going to try to get back to doing weekly posts. It maybe be winter, but the harvest isn't over!

Hanging Up Some Buckets

Unfortunately, my life is much more hectic now that my son is out of school for the summer, the garden is booming, fishing is underway, and craft fairs are in full swing. At this time I simply don't have the time to pick up buckets and clean them. The residential aspect of the co-op is now suspended.  I will still continue composting for 4 Juneau businesses, as they require little time and provide lots of composting material. I'm am truly bummed to end my Monday composting run, but that's what my family needs for now. 

So that brings my experiment of six full months of composting for 20 families to a close. I spent 75+ hours on the project and have accumulated a lot of important data and experience. Here are the final numbers for the residential component:

486 buckets collected and hauled
2644 pounds of kitchen scraps
1002 pounds of yard debris
1076 gallons of material

The material is breaking down quickly with the first cubic yard done, the second cooling, and the first one hot. I'll be able to make many, many new fertile raised beds this fall.


A big thank-you to all members for doing your part to reduce your landfill usage. Please continue to do so by forming your own compost pile or getting a worm bin, and also tell the city you think they should compost!  If any of you would like help setting up your own composting system, however big or small, please let me know. I'm more than happy to help anyone get started with composting and can provide support along the way. It really is easy, can be done on any scale, and works in just about any space. I hope that after six months of composting you all cringe at the idea of throwing your food in the landfill and take the composting plunge for yourselves. My goal is to open a composting business in the near future. I've seen that it's possible to compost on a large scale in this town--now I have to convince the city of that!

Composting is an amazing process that turns would-be garbage into a fertile medium for gardening. It's easy since it's a natural process that happens on it's own. This place can grow tons of food if you provide the soil. Compost makes things taste good, and it shows your compassion for Lemon Creek and the Earth!

Happy composting!

Composting Progression and Digression

Feel my bulging arm muscles! 

We've saved 8,075 pounds of food and yard debris from the landfill!

Composting is going well. I have 7 bins in progress and microbes are turning all that would-be landfill into beautiful fertilizer. Compost is actually more than fertilizer in Juneau--it's an outright growing medium! The second (albeit smaller) dump truck load of topsoil I got recently is just as horrible as the last lode. The few vibrant transplants I planted in the stuff promptly died within a week. You can't grow anything in a solid cake of muck. It has terrible structure, no porosity, and no nutrients.I don't even know how these places can call their product "topsoil." I wouldn't be so disgruntled if they called their load "dirt." It's like a bakery saying they'll deliver cookies and they drop off some flour and butter. It may help you make cookies, but it ain't cookies!  ANYway, mix in a bunch of compost, rabbit manure, and leaves into it and you can grow something. Once I start harvesting all my new compost I'm going to skip the dirt and fill my new beds with a mixture of sand and compost. 

Just over a month ago I picked up another business in the co-op: B's Bistro and Bakery. They're  located downtown on 2nd street. Stop on by and tell them how great they are for composting. You can thank them by purchasing something delicious.

a new peace magnet

I also have been composting for Helping Hands, which gives food to people in need. They collect outdated food items, including produce, and redistribute it. Whatever doesn't get handed out before true expiration now gets composted. The former waste of a store turns into the gold of the needy. Then the waste of the foodbank turns into the gold of my garden. This interesting chain of passing food on got me thinking about extending it even further by turning the gold of my garden into the gold of the needy. I recently heard about the Plant a Row program. Basically, a person or organization plants an extra row in their garden for charity. It's an easy thing to do and does a lot of good for others. I set aside a plot and am putting my thinnings in it. So far I have lettuce, parsley, kale, carrots, and--I think--broccoli (they're mystery plants that got passed on to me).

Consider planting a row, a bed, or just a pot!

A New Stage....and more

This composting project has been so interesting for me! Besides all the amazing science of live composting before my eyes, I've been inspired to do research on composting on all levels, from the back yard bin to the giant commercial factories. I  guess what I'm doing would be called commercial composting, though it is on a micro level and all (except for the actual collection in my car) is under human power. There are some monstrous operations out there!  Edmundton, Alberta has a facility you can take a virtual tour through. It's on such a large scale that the process is exceedingly technological and expensive. What I like about what I'm doing is that it requires hardly any technology (a thermometer) and it's economical and earth-friendly to run. If I can get more people doing micro-commercial composting I think we can get city-wide composting in Juneau to work! And actually, I was picking up buckets a few weeks ago I was greeted by a member who said she didn't need a bucket because she started her own compost pile! She also said she got inspired and will be composting coffee grounds from the Rookery! Wha-hoo!

Opening the bin

Mostly gone!

In new bin to reheat and age.

So in this experiment it's been a lot of collecting food scraps-- 4771 pounds in 4 months to be exact! It took

3 months to fill the Residential Bin, and I'm now on to a new phase. A month ago I pitch forked the entire bin out into a different bin to turn it and let it age. All food scraps except for a few avocado pits and egg shells were gone! I knew stuff had been "disappearing" quickly, but it was so wonderful to see that it had all been transformed, and all so quickly! The straw was still visible, but I'm hoping this second round of thermophilic action will take care of it. I'm going to let the new pile heat up again then age for a few months. I went out to Swampy Acres and got some pine pellets and I'm going to try that out for chicken bedding. I'm sure sawdust will compost faster than straw, but I'm slightly concerned about it compacting too much in the bin.  But how do you know until you try? So I'm going to try.

I'm also experimenting to see what happens to Bio Pac boxes and bio cutlery. I have a feeling that, if done right, Rainbow Foods can have a self-sustaining compost of it's own, i.e. it can supply the whole mix of browns and greens. I need to find some sort of shredding machine for the boxes/paper..... The Rainbow compost bin is also full and I'll be turning it out into a new bin once the top half cools down a bit. So much material is added to that pile at once that though it's full there's still a lot of digesting to be done in the top half. It's only taken a month and a half to fill.

Neat Facts:

A whole, unrotten spaghetti squash will be half a paper-thin rind after two weeks
Small Biobags are completely gone in a hot pile after two weeks
Produce stickers remain completely unchanged indefinitely.....



Oh, and did I mention that I'm also composting for the Wild Oven Bakehouse? Daniel Martin runs a neat bread bakery downtown and calls me when he has leftovers. What I'm so jazzed about is the fact that he doesn't have many leftovers! If bread is still good but not in prime selling condition, it goes to the Glory Hole, the homeless shelter downtown. If they can't pick it up or can't use it all he calls me. My chickens eat well and the compost grows. Every business should network like the Wild Oven does!

 

It's spring--what better time to start your pile? I recently made a new bin using some--gasp--purchased roofing. I threw down $45 and I made a clear cover for my newest compost bin. I have enough left to roof one more bin, so it was a pretty economical impulse buy. My plan? I'm going to harness the heat from the pile and the light from the sun to grow my seedlings in flats directly on the compost surface So far, so good--kale seeds took 3 days to sprout! We'll see how they like growing there for a few weeks. I have a tray of oregano, a flat of two different kinds of kale, and a flat of two different kinds of sunflower. Yes, sunflowers can grow here! Get out and try something new!

April 2012 Composting Co-op News

Wha-hoo for spring and the thawed out hose! It's great to rinse buckets outside.

After 185 buckets, we've kept 1194 pounds of food out of the landfill! Thanks for doing your part to eliminate waste and cycle nutrients into our soil!

If you haven't heard already, I started composting for Rainbow Foods. Their staff has graciously loaded up buckets, and after one month we've kept 1015 pounds of food out of the landfill. I'll be expanding to pick up their paper waste in the very near future. I'm so happy to be working with wonderful people who are willing to make composting work in the workplace!


Housekeeping:
Please, please, please remember to take the plastic stickers off your produce. They really are plastic and really don't decompose. If you have trouble remembering, try pealing them off before you eat your fruit! It will be very tedious for me to pick thousands of produce stickers out of the finished compost.

If you forget to put your bucket out I will no longer be able to leave you a new one. The co-op is up to 20 members, and I can't keep track of who has multiple buckets. If you want to bring your missed bucket by my place you are more than welcome to, but please understand that I can't run around doing pick-ups on multiple days. Monday is the day. If you want to keep composting but your bucket is full, simply use your own (labeled) bucket.

Remember that any food or drink except for meat can go in your bucket, cooked or raw. Paper napkins, towels, and tissue are welcome! Also, if you add a scrap piece of paper or egg carton to the bottom of your bucket it makes cleaning so easy for me!

If your pesticide-free yard generates leaves, grass, or weeds, bag 'em up!



If you're interested in helping out with the project, there are a few simple ways you can:

1.  Score some buckets & lids! When you're at Costco ask at the deli--they usually give them out two at a time. You can use them when you forget to leave your bucket out, or leave them for me at pick up to give to new members
2. Tell your next-door neighbor about the co-op! Wouldn't it be neat if your whole apartment building or street composted? Most of time I spend on this project is the actual pick-up of buckets. If I can pick up two or more buckets at the same stop I can efficiently expand my services!
3. Consider composting at work! If your office/place of work is interested in composting, consider being the bucket person! I can provide you with a bucket (5 gallon if need-be) then pick it up from your house.

Thanks so much for making composting in Juneau work! If you have any questions or comments about the project, please feel free to contact me. Feedback can only help the process. Keep up the good work and have a great day!

How I Hot Compost

I wrote this brief "how-to" for the March edition of the Southeast Master Gardener newsletter:

How I Hot Compost

• I acknowledge that a compost pile is alive. It needs nutrients, fiber, air, water, and protection.

• I put a mix of traditional greens and browns in my pile. I divert stuff from the landfill or find stuff in the wild. Manure adds microbes.

• I add lots of material at once. I get scraps from neighbors; the more the merrier.

• I give my pile air. I layer bulky things in the mix to add pore space. Sometimes I also turn it.

• I monitor moisture. I add water as the heat evaporates some; I add dry material if the pile is soggy.

• I have a big, covered pile. I use four pallets for the sides and plywood, metal roofing, or tarps for the top. This protects the pile from the rain and makes it self-insulating from the cold.

• I have a biofilter. I put several inches of dry material on top of the pile to filter our smells and keep critters at bay.

• I have a composting thermometer. It lets me know what is going on so I know what to do. If it's not heating up, I need to check the above list. If it's too hot I split the pile in two.

Composting can be as easy or hard as you make it. Don't worry about what you NEED to do--just experiment! You can read about lots of things NOT to do or ALWAYS to do, but it comes down to this: No one is the boss of composting! Every situation is different: different climate, different resources, different schedules, different set-ups.....Be creative, get to work, and see what you can turn into soil!

A New Composting Project!

So I've been running a composting co-op where I pick up food scraps from my neighbors. It currently serves 17 households and a preschool.  I'm doing it for the finished product, to keep stuff out of the landfill, to help educate people on composting, and to get people thinking about the landfill. It's been a great project. I'm still working on this one with gusto, but now I've got a new baby!

For this second project I've selected a business to compost for. Rainbow Foods has graciously and gratefully decided to fill buckets with deli and produce scraps and set them aside for me. I will be picking up about 15 gallons every other day. I'm keeping the two projects completely separate so I can have two different sets of data: one where material is added once a week and one where material is added every other day. I keep notes on weight, volume, and temperature to make sense of this all. I like to know exactly what is going on, and I also want these volunteer projects to provide solid data that can be used to create composting co-ops all over Juneau. It's exciting!