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What I have for my compost tumbler
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Posted by
frdnicholas Albuquerque NM (
My Page) on
Sat, Mar 10, 12 at 11:04
| I have vegetable scraps, rabbit manure, coffee grounds and shredded newspaper available for my compost tumbler. Does that sound like enough green-brown stuff to make compost? I know I'm not specifying the amounts of each, but as a general rule, does that sound workable? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What I have for my compost tumbler
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| Yes, that's a good mix to start but you will want A LOT of shredded paper, or the mix will be too heavy on nitrogen. Try for about 3/4 paper by volume, tumble regularly, and add more paper if it gets at all foul smelling. |
RE: What I have for my compost tumbler
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| Ditto the previous poster. Everything in your list is in the "green" (nitrogen-rich) category except the paper, which would be a "brown".
If it's too high in nitrogen, it gets smelly, so add browns (paper).
Happy composting! |
RE: What I have for my compost tumbler
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| Do the coffee grounds count as green or brown? Other than leaves which aren't available in the spring, are there other free brown sources? If I let pulled weeds dry out, would they be considered brown? I'm trying to find free sources of compost from what's available right in my yard or my friend's(neighbor's) yard/home. Thanks. |
RE: What I have for my compost tumbler
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| Coffee grouns are considered a green. Do you have friends with ornamental grasses? If they prune them down now for the spring growth, this would be a good source of browns. A little sawdust, perhaps? If you are pruning shrubs, trees, in your yard and cut the pieces up small, those are browns too (but they do take a while to break down). Even if you do not have the perfect balance, you will still get compost, it may just take longer. I am in the East mountains and it is a very, very rare thing for the compost to get smelly in our very dry climate. |
RE: What I have for my compost tumbler
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| Thanks for all this help. I will look for small limbs as I prune my fruit trees. What about things like mint stems that have dried over last season? What do you experienced composters do for brown stuff throughout the summer when leaves aren't available? I'm guessing that dried weeds will still be considered green? My friend sometimes works with wood; I'll ask him to save the sawdust. |
RE: What I have for my compost tumbler
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| We save up bags of leaves in the fall and hide them behind the garage, under the deck, wherever. :-] I use sawdust and wood shavings from my shop, if you can find someone with untreated sawdust it's a super-brown. I have family in Albuquerque, their biggest trouble is finding enough GREENS! They don't have a lawn or livestock. Any plant cut when it's green will keep its nitrogen when dry. Brown dead ones (like fall leaves) have already lost theirs. Even grass clippings, if spread out and dried, are still a 'green'. |
RE: What I have for my compost tumbler...
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| You could also try the trash transfer stations for wood chips. The transfer station here in the mountains charges $5 for a loader to fill up a truck but it is free if you do it yourself. I think they have something similar down in the South Valley at the main yard. It could be worth a phone call. |
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