Egg Shells
3/27/2008
If you took a look in my Kitchen Compost Crock, no matter what day of the week it was, you'd probably find coffee grinds (with the filters) and egg shells. In fact you could even rename my crock, the coffee grind and egg shell holder and that would be okay with me.
These are the ingredients that get me going in the morning and these are also the ingredients that get my compost pile going.
Now you've probably heard people say that you should never put meat or fats in your compost bin because they'll attract little critters and I agree with that. But I know some people who actually wash their egg shells before adding them to their compost. In my opinion, those people are crazy people.
I just toss mine in there and I'm done. Most of the time, I'll bury the crock contents under some leaves to keep the yard looking neat. But this time I wanted to get a few pictures first.
Posted by Anthony 9:44 PM 12 comments
Labels: compost, compost pictures
The Other Compost Bin
12/11/2007
Now this compost bin may look like almost identical to the other one but it's contents are very different. The big bin is 100% leaves. No grass, no coffee grinds, no plants, no boat, no life, no motorcar. Now this smaller compost bin is a completely different animal. It starts with a generous base layer of leaves, then the core is almost completely vegetable garden waste, and I top it off with more leaves. Sort of a end of the season garden sandwich. And that's a great way to make compost.
That core has already gotten this bin to start cooking. I know this because if you stick your hand inside it, you can feel the heat. Yes, it may sound odd but it's one of my hobbies to check the temperature of my compost bin. I've accepted it, let's move on.
Underneath all of those leaves are a bunch of pumpkins, some giant eggplant that I didn't notice until they were too big (and seedy) to eat and tons of peppers that were rendered tasteless by the first frost this year. Vegetables are great for compost and so are the plants that grew them. My tomato plants were strong, healthy and completely disease free thanks to my constant attention and new pruning/staking techniques. No Blossom End Rot, no Black Spot, nothing. So these healthy plants that were still loaded with green tomatoes will help out and decompose to make some more healthy plants next year. 
And a new comer to my compost bins this year is banana leaves. I'm a big fan of my Hardy Banana plants (Musa Basjoo). My three plants all had pups this summer and now I'm overwintering eight of them in my garage. And all those extra leaves make for great compost.
Posted by Anthony 12:05 PM 5 comments
Labels: compost, compost pictures
Where Have I Been?
12/10/2007
I've been raking leaves.
Sorry about the unannounced hiatus. A basement remodel and two computers needing repairs got the best of me. But I'm back now and holy cow, I've got a lot of leaves. I had better start drinking tons of coffee because it's going to take a good amount of coffee grinds to get that pile cooking. 10 feet by 5 feet sounded like a great size for a compost bin when I was setting it up. Oh well, I guess I'm going to be highly caffeinated until spring. At least I'll be able to stay up late and do a lot of blogging.
Posted by Anthony 11:38 PM 5 comments
Labels: compost pictures
Compost Picture
10/09/2007
When I check my blog stats, I notice that Google sends lots of people searching for "pictures of compost" to my blog. They usually see my Compost Pictures category which is mostly pictures of silly things I put in my compost bin. There was beer, champagne, 5 gallons of peanut oil, apples and some others.
I've thought about it and I think that these random web surfers probably aren't very happy with my site. All they wanted was a picture of compost, not some silly gimicks that were fun for me to blog. So random web surfers, this post is for you.
I recently moved my compost bin from one spot in my yard to another. My wife complained that you could see the "crap box" from the french doors in the living room. And she completely ignored me when I replied that I thought the compost bin looked impressive and made a great conversation piece. Sure thing, honey, I'll move it right away.
The bin wasn't too full, so it wasn't a huge chore. The pile was only about 4 feet wide and a couple of feet tall. So I got my pitch fork and shovel and loaded up my wheel barrow with the 1/2 finished compost. It's new home was only about 30 feet away and out of sight from the living room.
While I was digging in the pile and taking pictures, I though to myself that this picture really illustrates how composting works.
You can see the layers of leaves toward the bottom of the picture. That's the new raw materials that I just added to the bin. Then in the middle is a layer of 1/2 decomposed leaves and they look sort of brown and moldy. And finally above that. (which was really at the bottom of my compost bin) is the layer that's almost finished decomposing. It looks like dark brown dirt that still has some recognizable organic matter in it. And to me, that's a great picture of compost.
Hopefully this will satisfy the random web surfers and their desire to look at pictures of compost. And people who like pictures of compost, sound like my kind of people.
Posted by Anthony 12:32 AM 12 comments
Labels: compost pictures
What's Decomposing - Lots of Stuff
8/13/2007
What's in my compost pile today? Well it's the middle of August, so that means that apples are dropping like raindrops onto my lawn. Unfortunately they are pest infested apples so there's no eating but as I've mentioned before, they're great in the compost pile. I like to flip them into the compost bin with my hockey stick and make a game out of it. By the end of the summer, I make Wayne Gretzky seem like an underachiever.
August also means that I've got plenty of other greens like grass clippings. I have a mulching mower but every once in a while I'll pull out the mulcher thingy that keeps the grass from going into the bag and I actually let the clippings go in bag. Why do I do this? Because in the fall I have nothing but leaves so I like to stockpile my greens while I have them. And I usually have enough apples and grass to get my pile cooking a little bit before the winter temperatures roll in.
And the vegetable garden is mostly jungle-like this time of year, so I like to trim some stuff back to keep the paths between my raised beds walkable. I also pull some plants out completely to make room for fall plantings. And they all go into the compost bin.
So even when I'm not composting exotic ingredients like beer, 75 pound pumpkins or champagne, there's still a lot of activity in my compost bin.
Posted by Anthony 5:37 PM 5 comments
Labels: compost, compost pictures
What's Decomposing - Apples
6/28/2007
What's that old saying, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well it's something like that. I'd like to update the saying to, when life gives you a giant out of control apple tree, make compost.
There's an old apple tree on my property that I was very excited about when I first bought my house. I had big plans for those apples. Sure there were apple pies to be made but I was combing the internet for a cheap apple press to
make my own apple cider
Since I bought my house in December, I had that whole winter to channel Bubba from
Forrest Gump
Apple Pie, Baked Apples, Apple Turnovers, Candy Apples, Apple Cobbler, Carmel Apples...
Well guess what you get from an old overgrown apple tree, especially if you don't spray any nasty chemicals on it? You get a lawn full of pest infested apples. I did some organic apple research
Now here's the lemonade part, these apples are great for my compost bin. I usually collect a few garbage cans full and dump them right into my bins. They're especially great in the fall when I'm low on greens and have giant piles of leaves to compost.
So how you like them apples? :)
Posted by Anthony 9:46 PM 9 comments
Labels: compost pictures
Compost Tumbler Tumbling
6/15/2007
Google has just announced a cool new sandbox type of place where Blogger.com bloggers can try out new features before they're ready for primetime. It's called Blogger In Draft and it's sort of a beta, laboratory type of environment. And the first new feature that they're testing out is video upload. I don't know about you but when I think of uploading video the first thing that comes to my mind is compost.
What better way to test out this new video feature than to post a short video of my parent's Compost Tumbler. With regular images it's hard to capture the true beauty of making compost. Now with this new Blogger In Draft feature I can post a tumbling tumbler video all from within Blogger. No more uploading to YouTube or Google Video and then adding the codes to the blog posts. Everything's all in one place now.
Yes my Mom and Dad are turning into quite the green parents. In fact my father is planning on installing a 40 foot, 2KW wind turbine at his house in CT this summer. And raising the tower will definitely make for an excellent video too.
I'll be sure to provide windmill updates this summer but this video is of an Urban Compost Tumbler
Posted by Anthony 9:06 AM 6 comments
Labels: compost, compost pictures, video
What's Decomposing - Egg Shells
5/16/2007
Here's a lonely egg shell sitting on the top of my compost pile. It looks like it has some coffee grinds sprinkled on it but that makes sense because my kitchen compost crock is usually full of coffee grinds (with the filters) and egg shells.
Weekend breakfast in my family of four is great for the compost bin. During the week it's we'll eat cereal or toast or something quick. But on the weekends we like to sit down and eat a hearty breakfast together. And hearty is good for creating compostables.
My wife and I will have two cups of coffee and that means 4 coffee filters full of coffee grinds. 4 filters you say? Yes, we don't use a regular coffee pot anymore. We find it easier to make each cup individually with a Melitta Cone Coffee Maker
And then we'll have 2 eggs each. So that's 8 egg shells in one sitting. And since I eat like piggie, let's just say that I have a few more than my share of two. Egg shells are loaded with great stuff that's good for plants. I know of lot of people who crush the shells and put them directly in their garden.
But that's more work than necessary, so I just like to toss mine in the compost bin as you can see.
Posted by Anthony 6:36 AM 11 comments
Labels: compost pictures, kitchen compost
What's Decomposing - Snow
3/22/2007
It's depressing that spring is here but my yard is still full of snow. It was 60 degrees today and now it's raining tonight so I'm hoping the snow will be gone by the weekend.
It's good to keep the stuff in your compost bin moist but I don't think big wads of snow make for great microbial activity. Today I stuck my hand deep down into the compost pile and there wasn't any heat what so ever and that's just depressing.
Posted by Anthony 10:58 PM 2 comments
Labels: compost, compost pictures, weather
Composting In Winter
2/11/2007
There's not a lot going on in my compost bin right now. As you can see here, there's some snow, remains of a big pumpkin and lots of leaves.
Once spring comes though, things should get cooking in a hurry. I can add a ton of coffee grinds at any given moment because I drink a ton of coffee. Then leaves, pumpkins and coffee will turn into black gold just in time to feed my vegetable garden.
Posted by Anthony 9:06 PM 8 comments
Labels: compost pictures
What's Decomposing - Pumpkins
1/21/2007
The 75 pound pumpkin that I grew this year is decomposing nicely in the compost bin. When I first tossed it into the bin, I debated whether or not I should smash it up into little pieces. I decided not to and just placed my pumpkins in the compost bin like eggs in a nest.
After about 2 months, they have all turned to mush. Hopefully the birds and squirrels will dig out all the seeds so that I don't have volunteer pumpkins where ever I use the compost.
Posted by Anthony 3:51 PM 4 comments
Labels: compost, compost pictures, pumpkin
Compost Bins Of Yesteryear
1/09/2007
I was looking through some old photos today and spotted this picture of my very first compost bin. No, this isn't going to be one of those posts where I tell tales of life before the automobile and running water, I'm not that old yet. Actually it was only six years ago that I built this compost bin after watching Paul James build one on an episode of Gardening By The Yard.
That old bin was a massive wooden structure that I built with 4x4s and deck planks. It was actually two bins that were four feet square each and probably weighed a few hundred pounds. I only built one door because I ran out of lumber that day. The other door went on the To Do list of things that I never get around to.
Anyway, the bin was butt ugly but it got me hooked on composting. I discovered how fun it is to recycle leaves, kitchen scraps and eventually tons of other stuff that I've composted.
I get a lot of people coming to this blog looking for pictures and plans of compost bins. Here's my advice to them. It really doesn't matter what it looks like (or if it's missing a door). As long as you put your stuff in a pile, it'll turn into compost eventually.
Posted by Anthony 11:35 PM 2 comments
Labels: compost, compost pictures
What's Decomposing - Pumpkins
12/02/2006
It's seems like every post I do lately is a "What's Decomposing" post. So far I've shown pictures of my compost bin with hot peppers, leaves, and 5 gallons of peanut oil in it. Who doesn't love pictures of compost?
With halloween now over and having grown that great 75 pounds pumpkin the question is, what should I do with it. Well since this is a "What's Decomposing" post I guess it's not a question at all. Pumpkins are a great "green" source for making compost. A lot of people cut the pumpkins up so that they compost quicker but I don't bother. These pumpkins will get soft soon enough on their own, without any help from me.
One problem that will definitely have is with pumpkin plant volunteers. My compost bin is going to become a pumpkin patch next spring. That means I'll have to turn the pile a few times until these volunteer pumpkin plants stop volunteering. As long as I turn the plants into the pile before they get too big, I'll be okay.
Turning a huge compost pile is not a fun task so I probably should have passed on these pumpkins. But when you're low on greens, you do what you have to do.
Posted by Anthony 4:20 PM 3 comments
Labels: compost pictures
What's Decomposing - 5 Gallons of Peanut Oil
11/28/2006
After Thanksgiving most people have leftover Turkey, I have leftover peanut oil. You see I deep fry my turkeys in peanut oil. I've been doing it for about 5 years now and I don't think I'll ever cook a turkey in the oven again. You can deep fry a 12 pound bird in roughly 40 minutes and it's juicy and delicious. That's so quick that I usually cook two turkeys for my Thanksgiving guests. But the leftover peanut oil is usually a hassle to get rid of. They say you can strain it through cheese cloth and use the oil again but that just sounds gross to me. The oil is pretty dark after frying two turkeys.
This year I watched Alton Brown of Good Eats deep fry a turkey and he just poured his used peanut oil in a corner of his yard. So I figured why not dump it into on of my compost bins. They say that you should add meat or fat to your bin or else you'll attract pests but my bin is so big (4'x 8' and 4 feet high) and so filled to the top that the oil will only be a small percentage. So why not try it and see what happens. 
With this cool spigot that I have on my fryer pot, I was able to slowly drip the peanut oil into the center of my pile. If I can find enough greens to get my compost pile hot, I'm going to have some deep fried compost.
Now that the leftover oil is taken care of, I can start working on that leftover turkey. It's much easier to get rid of.
Posted by Anthony 12:08 AM 4 comments
Labels: compost pictures, peanut oil
What's Decomposing - Leaves
11/24/2006
Leaves, leaves and more leaves!
Since my lengthy pool renovation destroyed my yard, I am in desparate need of compost & top soil. The Bobcat and Backhoe scooped and dug all over the place until I didn't have any top soil left. The "dirt" that was left was similiar to concrete. Just rock hard and you really couldn't even get a shovel into it.
I already had 30 yards of top soil blown in (with grass seed mixed in) just to grow some sort of lawn before all the rain and snow this winter created mudslides into my driveway. Now I just have to get started on my new garden border beds. And what better way to improve soil that with compost.
I have two of these temporary compost bins in my yard right now and they're both filled to the top with leaves. Each bin is about 4'x8' and 4' tall. That should be a good start. Now I'm going to need lots of greens to get these piles cooking. I'd better start drinking more coffee. 48 cups a day should be enough.
Posted by Anthony 2:23 PM 1 comments
Labels: compost pictures
What's Decomposing - Hot Peppers
11/05/2006
With a blog named Compost Bin, I thought it was time that I started talking about composting. Today I cut down the last of my veggie garden and tossed it into the compost bin. All that was left was some hot pepper plants that didn't make it through the frost one night. Unfortunately I didn't have time to pick all the peppers before the frost but I'm not complaining because I ate enough peppers this summer.
This was an especially good peppers season. I grew Jalapenos, Caribbean Red Habaneros, Giant Marconis and Thai Dragons and they were all very productive.
So instead of feeding me, these plants can feed next year's garden. Into the compost bin they go. With all the leaves that are going in there lately, it's good that I had some greens too to add too.
Posted by Anthony 9:52 PM 3 comments
Labels: compost pictures
Champagne Compost
5/16/2006
After my recent experience with Beer Composting, I've decided to try composting something a little more upscale. This time I have some leftover champagne from Mother's Day so into the compost bin it goes. Cheers!
Posted by Anthony 1:20 PM 0 comments
Labels: compost pictures
Beer Composting
5/01/2006
Was there a party in my compost bin? Nope, I just found some skunked beer in my garage. I think it was leftover from our Christmas party and I must have put it in there while cleaning up. The garage got so messy this winter that the beer was buried under some junk and I didn't notice it until some recent spring cleaning.
Since my compost bin is in serious need of greens, I figured why not put the beer to good use. Now I just need some onion dip...
Posted by Anthony 10:33 PM 0 comments
Labels: compost pictures
