The other day, my friend asked me, " Hey, do you have a hobby?" And I was like, "Yeah, at the end of the day I like to drink Merlot and watch David the Good RU-vid videos and write comments." And my friend was like, "That's cool." And I was like, "Yeah, I know."
Rules can help you make better compost. 30 days I can get you much better results using Dr Elaine Ingham soil foodweb methods. Compost isn't compost, if you know you know 😊
I'm a chef. After reading Compost Everything I realized the resources I was allowing to slip through my fingers. Every day we throw away boxes, so I'll save one or two and fill them with compostables-- vegetable scraps, egg shells, bread, etc. I usually get 20-50 pounds of compostables a day. I also tried burying the bones left over from making veal and chicken stock under a melon patch and boy are those melon plants happy. The most common "weeds" in my yard are now tomato, pepper, and cucurbit sprouts popping up from all the seeds in the compost. I also have plenty of cardboard boxes to lay down as biodegradable weed barrier. I'd urge anyone who feels short on compostables to cultivate a relationship with a restaurant or two. You'll be doing them a favor by saving them dumpster space and waste haulage fees, and they might be interested in buying super fresh specialty produce from you.
I thought about asking the folks at the assisted living where my Mom lives to save the scraps they are throwing out because I know they have a lot of food waste there. Great job using what would normally go to waste at the restaurant! My hubby gets tired of me smuggling out out restaurant leftovers for our compost bin! 😂
So would that mean taking home the plate scrapings from what people haven't eaten, or what? Somehow that doesn't seem to be what I would want my food growing in. 🤔
@@artstamper316 Nope. Once food has been to a table and comes back to the kitchen it is ritually impure and rightfully belongs only to the Dumpster Spirit. For a human to claim it is taboo.
I'm now a near-absolute proponent of "just THROW THINGS ON THE GROUND." I work my tiny little garden in San Francisco. It's nice because it never freezes. Tomato plants last 2+ years (if you keep pruning them back so they don't outgrow their roots' ability to support the big plant). However, it also never gets warm, so plants just put along at a snail's pace all year, and the compost piles don't really get hot, so the carbon-heavy plants break down really slowly. The soil here is awful rocky sand. I have switched to planting many things (like canna lily, and the ever-aggressive mint) just because they churn out organic matter that I can cut off and scatter around the ground. Even with the low temperatures, after one year of chop-and-drop the whole garden has a nice layer of rotting organics where there was, before, just hard sand that couldn't absorb or hold moisture. It's filled with roly-poly bugs, millipedes, and tons and tons of spiders (which I attribute to the presence of all the other bugs, and whom I credit with a noticeable decline in insect pests). The only other tip I would have for those who may not be going full homestead: Plant your trash. All my mint, rosemary, potatoes, onions, leeks (and more) were grown from either scraps, clones made from scraps, or produce that was about to turn.
Lol my climate is so dry that even mint struggles. I like your concept of chopping dropping ’weedy’ plants. In bad soil, all organic matter is good to have.
@@TheEmbrio With the mint, it's more often like dig and drop. It comes back. The rumors of its tendency to spread are, if anything, polite understatements. SF is similarly very dry. One plant I would recommend is Mexican bush sage. It is a favorite here for the planters that people put on the sidewalks in front of their houses. It propagates readily, makes very nice spires of purple flowers that pollinators love, grows fast, and takes essentially zero care. I cut it all the way down a few times a year, and it grows back to a full bush after a month or two.
@@TheEmbrio there's got to be something that grows. Theresa guy that built his garden on tumble weeds. And Geoff Lawton built a garden on an accacia that was prickly. It was the only plant growing from dessert and on little water.
Bagging mower=cheap shredder. I throw it on top of the leaves/grass and run over it with the mower, then dump the contains of the bag in the compost pile. Simple done. Woo! 😃🌱🐢 David, great point about the forest floor and the gutters! Love the new ending of videos.
Similar--I have small bucket in kitchen for *everything* that was recently living, mow leaves, weeds and grass, etc., inputs to 2 or 3 *piles* on the ground, building one or two while pulling from another older one. Or one big pile adding on one side and drawing from the other.
Great video! When I was a child my dad would get a box of last years seeds every spring. Me and my siblings would have a great time going through the box planning our gardens. Then we each got a small garden plot where we could plant whatever we wanted. We grew more food for our family. I remember many meals were centered around what came out of the garden. If a bunch of children can feed their family then I think pretty much anyone can.
I just read a research paper that was studying the reduction of compost gases. They added used cooking oil to one compost pile and left a second pile without the oil. The pile with oil was hotter, ended up with a higher concentration of nitrogen and produced less CO2. I think there is a place for any organic waste if handled properly.
When my pile looked like that i spread it out, fluffed it up with my little electric tiller and piled it back up. Next day it was so hot i couldn't touch it, within a week it was ready to rock. Nice going man, ive been following this compost saga since you started it. It was awesome to see the the change every time you turned it. Keep thowing stuff on the ground!
I often don’t have enough browns. I add soil to the compost pile. Works fine, better than fine. Keeps everything from getting slimy. Makes fertilized soil’directly !
My wife and I just got into composting a couple of years ago. Luckily we watched your videos as well as Scott Head's videos and we knew nothing about the so-called "rules" of composting. We followed your advice and now we have some of the richest, darkest, most earthy smelling compost ever. Our raised beds have really taken off this year thanks to that compost. So thank you David.
We made a version of your swamp water barrel last summer. We happen to have some glass windows to cover it, so that kept it warm and cooking up here in the north country. We took fertilizer (water) out of it a few times last summer and added more weeds and stuff. I assume it froze over the winter, since we had about 3 feet of snow (I think). It thawed out and got warm and we found it bubbly a few days ago! We filled it to dilute the strength a bit and took out several gallons for the new garden plants. We then added tall green grass and shavings from my husband's wood shop, and filled it with water again. I hoope we're doing it somewhat right, but I figure something's better than nothing.
Lol I have a black plastic trash barrel on the front corner of my house that I put random “ greens” in when I water my plants with it it stanks. One day teenagers were walking by and one accused the other one of passing gas (. That’s not exactly what he said I figured I’d keep it PG
You tell 'em David! Can't agree with you more! I compost slower (lazier). In fact, I've got 3 piles. One is a bin next to the chicken coop for kitchen scraps that the chickens aren't interested in (potato and onion peels and flower garden debris (lots of dead roses and weeds). Pile #2 is up near a vegetable garden and gets mostly weeds, and the other one is under a tree near the lawn, you guessed it, grass clipping that I spread to somewhat dry, then pile up. Could it be better if I compiled it all and turned it? Absolutely! Have I got the energy for it ? Huh, no. ( each one is about 150 yards apart and I'm nearly 60)
What I have been using is shredded cardboard, coffee grounds, grass clippings,wood chips, leaves and chicken manure. So far so good. We had rats last year or I would put more spoiled food in the compost pile. I do have a worm bin that takes care of slot of our food waste. I wouldn’t have done any of this with out your videos. But I stay for the music!!
We had a rat problem one winter, too. So we started putting most food waste in a steel trash can and letting it turn to goo. Then you can mix it with the cardboard, etc. It's pretty gross when it's at the "goo" stage, but rodents find it gross too.
I started my hot compost pile and had it going strong then I ran out of space to plant my Starts sooooo I planted them into the compost mound and started a different pile 🤣 If the plants all die I'll add to it and start turning it again but at this point I wanted to give those starts at least a chance at life and production 🤣 Yes I'm a weenie and yes I have the same struggle every season, it never gets easier 🤷♀️😁
Your middle name is Compost. Thank you for the inspiration. I just started my first suburban compost pile and turned it after 4 days. It didn't start because it was way too dry. I turned it and soaked it as I went so I decided to start over and turn in 4 more days.
Exactly what I started doing last fall after finding your videos Wow!! You were, and are SO RIGHT!!! I told of my experience in a video you recently made, and it's amazing what burying your scraps will do for your soil 😊. It was an experiment for me because I didn't have a good place far enough away from the house to throw them without attracting critters. So, I picked the area where I wanted to plant, and that's where I began. I buried "if the ground wasn't frozen," and around here, it's usually not that often. What was red Ga. clay, now had some of the darkest and richest soil.. it was jaw dropping. Yea, I get a little excited when it comes to seeing my clay change to usable soil 😂. As David said.. if you don't want to, or can't compost in piles.. bury those things!!! ⛏️
I was part of a presentation team that had to donate many hours at lecturing venues. We had honed our knowledge and had fun earning the last phase of our Master Gardener certifications from Purdue Univ. At the end of one such lecture, a friend from church, who was older than dirt, whispered to me .... "what do you think we did with dead cows and sheep on the farm?" 😊
I laughed when you talked about all the questions and concerns composters have. That’s me for sure. I also am not a structured person, and appreciate you putting it in the context that we shouldn’t get caught up in the details, just do it however you can. Happy gardening
Dave: so inspiring! I have the challange of all the chip, green coffee grounds, leaves, brush, twigs, 100s of 30 year old wooden planks, worm bins, 20+ trays of starts since Dec, but garden is only 30 x 60, 100 feet of jealous trellis, roof water collection tanks, two cu yard compost bins, ect! Any ideas about making money to pay for fert. Swamp water is free!
I learn a lot from you because I used to be one of those who got hung up about the ratios and just was getting to be to much to keep track and wanted to quit but I didn’t quit because my kids will not let me quit now we get carrots from our tiny garden and other stuff as well. Thank you for your informative videos and keep doing what your doing
Thank you so much for this video. I feel gardening has become so rules based that all the joy of growing stuff and figuring it out from your results have been removed. Just try stuff and yes get info but gardening is experimenting at its core!
I like that “unfinished” compost for building up our sand. Seems to stick around a little longer and I feel it finishing in the soil does more good than using finished compost by feeding the microbes in the soil more.
I like you have very sandy soil. I’ve been 3 years working on that soil. I keep a large pile of soil that I put everything into. So I guess I’m doing more soil amendments than compost. I don’t have any specific ratios of anything. When leaves fall they go in. When grass is cut it goes in. Boxes get empty they go in. Fish, deer, hog and chicken remains go in. What scraps chickens don’t get goes in. Chicken and cow manure goes in. After splitting up worms every few months the leftover worms and compost goes in. It all has made a world of difference. Fortunately I have a machine to turn after every rain.
You really can do it! I compost (and grow!) on my apartment balcony. I even put in used TP. It's an excellent source of carbon. Unbleached is better of course, but actually doesn't matter much. I also throw in some unscented clay-base kitty litter. Thank you David for that tip! I have so much trouble keeping my soil alive with the weather being extra variable and all. Early days in the great experiment yet, but thanks all the same!! It's only been a couple days, but I can already tell it'll make a big difference in holding organic matter in the soil longer term.
Up until Walmart quit having paper bags in the icecream isle i was just tossing all my scraps or whatever i had bread cheese meat whatever in the bag and after a day or so id have a half bag or so full and id just toss it in my pile and toss some studf on it and that worked super well for me. Now i have to use a bucket uhggg
Uh oh, did I hear some calypso music before my favorite song??! Im also using plastic jugs with the top cut off and flipped over like a funnel, holes in the bottom that I put kitchen waste, grass, & dandy lions 🌼🦁🌼 I fill it with water when I water the garden. Sometimes some 5-1-1 fish emulsion. Poor worms, every time I dig a hole for a new seedling I cut at least one in half. I think I may have more flowers growing than vegetables lol. I will fix that with the pattypan squash seeds I finally found locally. 👍🏻
I've just got a couple of conical plastic bins that I top up from a bucket outside the kitchen door. I also put in shredded documents from work, kleenex tissues, brown paper bags that the peelings go into, old newspaper, scraps from cooked meals. The bins never get hot unless they're sitting in the sunshine and normally worms, slugs and snails move in, occasionally a field mouse.i move them round the garden about every year, putting anything not decomposed into the bottom of an empty one. The lovely compost from the bottom just gets raked around where it is, as the soil is very heavy clay and bakes hard in the sun. And a bit like chop and drop, I push weeds under bushes shrubs and herbaceous plants - saves walking it to the compost bin or , like our neighbours, taking it to the local tip. Anyway gradually the soil is improving
for me composting means, basically leaving all the organic stuff into small pieces to dry and then mix it with mulch so it can feed the earthworms in my garden and they give me humus in exchange and my plants are happy. I found out that I could use a part of my garden which is not covered in mulch or has grass to dry organic stuff, leaves, food scraps, flowers, etc.
The Johnson/Su does take a lot of time initially. I got time though so it works for me. I also have normal compost going. I forget to turn it every once and a while.
I'm autistic and extremely structured, but in a good way, which can be explained in its entirety with one word: focus For example, I compost to create awesome soil for my trees. I grow only oak trees in my greenhouse. I'm constantly chided by people saying I'm stupid to have a greenhouse and not grow "food " just oak trees. The simple answer is, I can't eat ANY plants (because I have EXTREME allergic reactions to plants). Who doesn't like an oak tree? I love oak trees, so that's my focus.
Would love to see Dave's homemade potting mis. I make mine with 80-90% palm wood eaten by grubs etc. 10-20 percent compost.Old bed siding from palm logs gotten from neighbors. It works. I spend nothing for it. I must admit it took a lot of testing. I used to add 50-50 but it just didn't do well. Living in the rural tropics I improvise, always. Thanks for all your comedy and knowledge. Forever fan.
You’re so very true very practical very smart and I super enjoyed every video. I watch him multiple times thank you and your family. God bless you. Keep up the good work, David.
Got 3 bin compost using free pallets, i turn it few times a month temps at 120 F in beginning cooling over time, next is I need to get my chickens to turn it for me so less work for me to do.
I wish they would! In fact, the chickens will happily and efficiently scratch down your pile until it's spread out. YOU have to pile it back up again! Recently, I turned my pile which was inside the garden fence. All of the chickens watched longingly from just outside. Poor dears!
Best video ever. Thank you because I definitely have a problem getting hung up on rules and getting overwhelmed so I just never do it. I am inspired to turn my compost pile more often to get it going and add some fresh material to it. I also have a bokashi compost bin I made and it worked great for my little garden beds but I want to make more for my field area. I want to plant alfalfa as a cover crop and to cut down and use for mulch and compost, etc and because I have tons of seeds from my “I’m going to try sprouting” phase lol. I can grow lots of things but micro greens is not something I enjoy nor am I very good at it and it takes too much of my attention! So I will use them as cover crops. I like this approach. Very realistic. I love burying my bokashi compost but I also have a tiny regular compost pile I’ve been adding to since last year. I add my spent plants I pull from the garden too and this year since I’m grown more the pile has grown too! Funny how that works. ☺️Growing stuff is so much fun and I like that this doesn’t take the fun out of gardening AND I won’t have to go buy compost (taking a chance on bringing in foreign matter I don’t know about) and this compost is free and I can trust it because I made it. Love it! Question: is it good to add some wood ash to a compost pile or is that a bad idea?
My ONE rule in life is 'Do no harm to others, without their consent.' I don't need anything else, and I'm free! I can't wait to see how the bread pile turns out!
That is close, but it would still be harm. This sums up the law and the prophets: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Thanks, Dante.
Hey you know what, I just realized something you can use here. When we talk about growing plants. We push back and say we don't grow them, we just create an environment and support nature doing its thing. Composting really isn't different. You're just creating an environment and supporting the activity. None of the other stuff really matters unless you're in a rush or trying to run a business. I broke all the rules when I made my compost last fall. It was mostly blackberry vines and leaves. It really wasn't big enough to get hot. People told me they would grow and spread all over. Nope. Just turn the pile and anything growing gets snuffed out. The growing things contribute to the breakdown in the end. That composted well and no vines have sprouted anywhere the compost was placed or used. I really didn't like the thought of throwing away nutrients I gotta replace. My garden is doing pretty well and I only bought a $10 box of organic fertilizer. Dug a hole through grass/moss. Mixed my compost and a little fertilizer. A good and cheap start. Was too tough for my big radishes though.
Composting is addictive once you start. I can't handle traveling and putting scraps in the garbage. HOAs that forbid composting need to have statutes enacted to outlaw such rules.
You should try Bokashi anaerobic food wastes composting. I'm doing it with Bierkashi Bokashi spent grains. When a 5 gal. bucket is full of food wastes to which you sprinkle in grains once used to brew beer, (my wastes are mostly raw fruit and veg but you can add in animal products too), after 2 weeks of sitting and fermenting, it is ready to be added to your garden. I add another step and add it to some garden soil to further break down before adding it to the garden but it is VERY rich. I'm also finding hundreds of seeds from the fermented veggies have produced volunteer seedlings within days after adding it to my garden...which I have to pull out, leave and grow or transplant.
@@lisakruger5289 Hi Lisa. Here is what I got (below). It is $79. I also got an extra lid to cover a second bucket which I already had to use/fill while the first bucket was sealed and fermenting for two weeks....and some more grains because I wasn't sure how long 5lbs would last. I like that my food wastes are now in the garage in a much bigger bucket and not sitting in a bin inside which used to attract a lot of fruit flies. There is less labor involved composting food wastes this way compared to the way I did it before bringing my little bin filled with stinky wastes out to a compost pile, digging a hole and scrambling to cover it up every few days. This way it is less smelly and I just need to empty a fully fermented bin about once a month into the garden or some container "holding" area I'm using now with potting soil. I got it last September and I am still using the grains it came with. As someone who eats a lot of raw fruit and veggies, I have a lot of cucumber, melon and squash seeds and a lot of plant food wastes. It takes a couple weeks to fill a bucket. Then it needs to sit and ferment for 2 more weeks before you can make the recommended trough and add it to your garden. sdmicrobeworks.com/products/bierkashi-composting-system-with-bierkashi I can't wait to see what comes of all these seedlings. Maybe I will cut back on starting seeds in the winter if these seedlings produce viable food.
This is too funny, I was just in your potato video asking about your compost pile and if the compost pile was done? I finished my comments closed the video and here is your compost video. Now I just answered all my questions except one is that the pile you put all the BREAD into? The Nana's from Central Florida
Thanks for this liberating & encouraging info! Now all my cooked food waste will become part of the circle of life in my compost bin. I like that. ✌💓🥗🍞🍚🥧🍌😎
My biggest problem is critters: wood rats, chipmunks, squirrels, gophers, bunnies and deer and the occassianaI rougue cattle. I got a compost tumbler to keep it secure, but its not big enough. Would love to build a pile, as I save kitcken scraps all winter (near the Canadian border).
I heard that you have to follow the lunar cycles to get good compost, and you should never turn a compost pile between 2 and 4 PM. Just kidding. Love the videos.
And some landfills/dumping stations have rules as to which bin to throw your organic waste away, then they turn around and make huge compost piles using bulldozers, then they sell it to companies that package it and resell it to us and THEY make money on our waste! 😑
Alright.. I've read the book a couple times, I'm starting to have some success.... I have one little problem though... When it comes to composting your enemies what is the proper ratio?
I agree with just letting nature break it down over time but there are certain things you don't want in your compost like meat and dairy. Unless you want rats. Cheese doesn't occur naturally, nor does sausage etc... Sure animals die so there is meat but there are also predators and scavengers to take care of that. I have three big compost bins and I don't bother with the ratio's and water levels anymore. I just fill up my bucket with things that can be composted and then take it out to the pile, dig a small hole, dump it in and cover it up. Keeps the smell down, flies don't bother it and it breaks down pretty quickly.
I tried this few years ago. Didn't work, because wasps made their nest there and I couldn't get close to do anything. And I couldn't pick my cucumbers growing close to it. And I had to pick my raspberries after dark.
What do you think of compost tumblers? Are they better than nothing? I've had one about 6 months but mostly an Ohio winter. One side is breaking down & I see it's warm (not hot). This will be the 1st full summer using it. I am guessing I'll only get about one barrel load per year from it. That is worth it to me but I'd love to have more. I work nights & sometimes 6 days a week so no time to turn a big pile. I also worry about attracting mice if I just throw kitchen scraps in a pile.
Central Ohio here. I have a bin that’s open to the ground. That’s where I actively try to make compost. I harvest from it about twice a year, once in May and again around July or August. I stir the bin when I am approaching the harvest to help speed it up and balance out the moisture. The summer heat really helps it cook. I also have a pile where I store everything that doesn’t fit in the bin. I get voles and/or mice in there every year. I pick up bags of yard waste along side of the road when I can. Composting something is always better than composting nothing.
Last year we had a massive compost party we had a hurricane hit us we went out power two weeks generator died SOL freezer fridge whatever the chickens and the ducks donate what the compost pile all except the bones and I boiled those down outside and put some noodles in and gave it to the chickens I’m with you so many stink and walls my motto making do
i havent seen videos on what i want to do. i want to dig a few massive holes and toss all my organics into them and not cover them or do anything else. will they turn into good compost in a year or two in these uncovered compost pits? (i also want to use the dirt i dig up elsewhere for gardening rather than putting it back into these compost pits). i may need to cover them with a tarp for the rainy winter season so my compost doesnt wash away, although i have very fast draining soil
Oak decays slowly, but in fine shavings it will compost well. It can get clumpy when wet, so maybe balance it with something chunky or fibrous. I’m pretty sure David would say "don’t overthink it”
