Composting questions!

[Orrex]

Just getting started. We have a very basic compost heap in the back yard, filled mostly with leaves and a minor assortment of other goodies. We've lately dedicated an official compost pail for the accumulation of degradable bits, and we came upon two items that we weren't sure about.

Banana peels. Do they compost well? I've heard stories one way and the other, and I'm just not sure.

Pasta. Specifically, wheat-based spaghetti. Drawing a blank on this one.


Thanks for any insights and suggestions you care to offer.

[conscious evolution]

1. We have both in our piles

Doesn't seem to effect it one way or another that I can tell.
Both definitely compost away,though.Never have dug up any remnants of either one.Just rich dirt.
The leaves from the banana trees take longer if they are not shredded first.But thats probably not a problem for most people.

[Orrex]

2. Thanks!

I probably could have Googled that, but I find it more satisfying to pick the brains of actual people.

Thanks for your help--we'll throw them both in the pail and thence to the pile.

:hi:

[HamdenRice]

3. I've been composting for years -- makes great top soil!

Both are fine. In fact, if you manage your pile well, there are more things you can usefully compost than are normally listed.

For example, we love clams and mussels. The leftover shells are an excellent source of calcium, and act like crushed limestone (lime) as a soil supplement. Cooked chicken bones also compost well and also add calcium, but should be covered both to prevent critters from getting them and to avoid smell. unlike vegetable matter, you will definitely see remnant bone and shell fragments in your garden for a while.

All kinds of fruit peels and grain products (like pasta) are compostable.

Ironically some of the things that are most often thought of as easy to compost are somewhat difficult. Regular leaves tend to mat together and deteriorate anaerobically into sludge if they are not mixed well with soil. They are high in carbon and low in nitrogen and can take a while.

Grass clippings are supposed to be the best -- they certainly heat up quickly under the right conditions -- but again they easily mat and turn into green sludge if not mixed well with soil.

Sugar (not very much, like a cup) is a great (if pricey) accelerant of tough compostables like leaves.

If you find yourself, as I did, taking up more and more grass and replacing it with vegetable and flower garden plants, you'll end up with lots of sod. That is one of the very best compost materials you can find.

Go figure!

[jillan]

4. I always cut up my banana, orange, etc peels.

I keep a small sharp knife and a scissors out by my compost pile and cut everything up to make them easier to break down.

[Kolesar]

5. Next year, I am going to run over my dried ornamental grass stalks with my car tires & compost them

After I cut them down and lay them in the driveway, of course.

[conscious evolution]

6. Here is a tip for

the kitchen scrape bucket.
We use old coffee cans.They have reusable tops and are small enough to put beside the sink without taking up much room.When they get to funky to clean you can then recycle them.

[hippywife]

7. That's what we do.

It gives you an easy place to cut all the scraps into smaller pieces and they don't smell up the place.

:hi:

[ThomWV]

8. Anything but metal or meat.

[dgibby]

9. I "plant" banana peels at the base of my roses. They love them!