Got this off of Marketplace today for free, have
been looking for an excuse to begin composting.

Generally, should I be worried about microplastics leaching into the compost, since it is a plastic bin?

What are these flying beetles and why do they always go for my compost bin?

Someone sent my wife a picture of some old manure in a pile they recently moved, and their son suggested I might want it for my garden. I did some light reading and found out they’re notably different materials, but how can I tell which it is? If they didn’t move the pile in gases, that probably means it’s aged, right? So I’d be good to add it to my compost to actually process down with my microherd, right?

I can share the pic later if you can tell visually. It’s on my wife’s phone, and she’ll have to send it to me later.

I thought they might have been fly eggs, but after mixing the compost and closing it up again, more and more kept showing up in the top of the soil. Also, just now I realized that at least a few of the "eggs" are moving. Any clue what these guys might be?

Lol voles that my kids want to keep for pets! Guessing that's why all my worms have disappeared.

I have three compost makers. Two plastic tumblers and a pile that I placed a tarp on in the back of my backyard. My tumblers take forever to produce anything good. They require lots of work to maintain an optimal moisture level. I honestly can’t remember the last time I harvested any uniform nice looking compost out of either one of them. Lately, though I have been adding green material to one of them in particular while the other one has been idle and halfway full of material that I’m waiting for it to finish. The pile on the ground has been there for about a year and a half, and I have only added green material to it a few times over the summer. It has been mostly ready for quite a while, but decided today to screen it for use in some pots that I want to plant for vegetables. I’m really happy with the material. I got out of it today. I found quite a few grubs in there. The hornworm is from a tomato plant that I’m ready to chop because it’s pretty much done. I definitely like the pile aspect of composting better than the tumblers.

Curious what makes specially composted material better than regular organic material that has been left to rot?

For my herb and pepper garden, I usually have a few buckets of organic material (leaves, pine needles and kitchen scraps) that I set aside throughout the year and then mix into my garden pots the next year to restore lost nutrients. The second half of it is in a low oxygen decomposition state (rotten egg smell), which I know is supposedly “bad” but it doesn’t seem to adversely affect my garden pots when mixed in with the soil the past 2 goes.

What makes compost better than normal rotten material?

Behind me lies an entire mountain covered in pine trees—they’re very close by, and there’s an endless supply of pine needles—but I have no idea how to put them to use.

I've been sifting this morning, clearing out the bottom of one heap before starting a new two heap system. I filled this tub 3 times, and it's glorious! Just the right smell and texture.

I only started composting in spring, and I'm utterly hooked. The difference it's made to the plants has been incredible.

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?

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

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...🪦🪱

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 😂🫡