two banana peelings
some egg shells
UCG
something resembling vegies from the frig--but they had fur!
leaves cleaned up by front door

torn-up office paper
cardboard from the frozen dinners everybody fixes
teabags
no coffee grounds from the office:
I've started putting them on the flowerbeds here at work.

The worms giveth:
their beautiful castings.

Amen

The worms shall feast upon:
utb and ucg
mushroom stem ends
butter wrapper
eggshells
celery top
onion skins
bell pepper stem
toilet paper roll
and a whole lot of yucky curry-flavored rice pilaf

And the compost pile got a couple of tubtrugs of weeds. Nom nom nom

sweet potato peels and the parts that burnt when I oven-roasted them
frenched green beans
leftover salad greens
okra
noodle soup leftovers
tomato bits
sugar snap pea leftovers
instant coffee bags
carboard rolls and shredded boxes
sweet pepper bits
juice from sippy cups

My babies are getting:
the usual assortment of coffee grounds, teabags, onion and garlic peels
banana skins
apple cores
a wilty goopy head of lettuce that sat in a bag in fridge too long
a bowl of cereal and raisin that had to be dumped due to the pouring on of sour milk
and a toilet paper roll for dessert

Compost got amaryllis leaves.

and apple cake:
apple peels
egg shells

some ucg/utb to wash it down

and a toilet paper roll for good luck

And the compost got a lot of garden clippings including a big pile of ornamental grass that was too floppy and had to be cut down.

Annpat, I threw my old stale bread out to the squirrels.

For the compost:
spent perennials' foliage and annuals

but today I get to scavenge the office for paper & cardboard-Yay!

coffee grounds and tea bags
rotten tomaters
noodles
rotten grapefruit
egg shells
tons of shredded paper.

I shall dig a whole in the pile, dump it in, add the shredded paper and put a cinder block on top of it to give the critters something to play with while they try to dig up the noodles. ha!

Compost:
spent tomato vines
weeds
subsoil from planting hole
a smattering of horse manure
and a little salt marsh hay

for example, the 1/4 baked potato that DH did not eat. The worms will.

Contents of compost bucket: Apple cores, pear cores, coffee grounds from French press, tops from bunch of radishes, veg bits from making ratatouille, mouse sans head and one leg (thanks, Minu!), mouse's tail (not a rubberband lying on the rug after all), various other veg bits and pieces, water from washing up dishes and coffee pot, bits of dried cat food, some crushed egg shells, grapefruit peels, dregs from wine glasses & wine bottle, olive pits. I usually empty the bucket multiple times a day but didn't do it last night or this a.m.

Shrimp shells and the paper the shrimp came in.

Bag of crushed-up peanut shells.

Contents of paper grocery store bag: Tissues, napkins (stashed in purse at art opening), paper plates (ditto), toothpicks (ditto again), cotton swabs, dustpan contents, shredded small-sized paper bags.

Three bags of UCG from Starbucks.

Three large cartons of rotted pumpkins and gourds.

Forgotten cauliflower from the fridge.

Part of newspaper stash.

Some of my approximately 20 cardboard boxes & containers.

Scoopings from litter box: The litter, which is made from pea pods, plus the cats' urine, plus the brown paper bags the scoopings are in.

Dried leaves.

Garden cleanup: Tomato plants, rotting cukes and the vines, and whatever.

Sawdust from our contractor's work on two pine storm doors.

Piece de resistance???? Bucket of fish heads, scales, tails, from local fish store.

Peapod litter? Tell me more.

perhaps some other things later on.

Back to the OP -- we went to three art openings last night, so my purse came home containing more paper plates, napkins, and toothpicks.

And excellent news! One of the area's Starbucks apparently is only app. 1/2 mile from the gym my husband uses almost daily, and he's already getting into the collecting thing....came home with two bags of UCGs yesterday afternoon! This is so exciting....!

catfud the finicky, slightly freaked out catz didn't eat
plus
lettuce gone bad
lime rind
apple cores
utb/ucg
bell pepper insides and top
onion and garlic peels
dryer lint

And the compost got more spent perennial leaves and weeds.

Congrats on kicking the habit, dlpasti. You rock!!

yesterday I fed it a bunch of weeds and we're up to 120F today.. so exciting.. I got a compost thermometer for my birthday yesterday.

I feel bed for the melon seeds :(

It seems to me that earthworms just naturally appear in the bottom layer of compost, especially if it has a lot of leaves & coffee grounds.

You might check out the Vermicomposting Forum for info on composting for maximum worm "participation".

half a pumpkin pie
3 egg shells
bits of uneaten donuts from the kids

The other is a regular old compost pile consisting of garden waste and some soil and manure and anything compostable I come across. There may be worms in there, but nothing deliberate.

Both systems create lovely compost, though I'm very partial to me worms.

And...since there was a par-tay at the House of Cuticle, my worms got a lot of chow. Good times!

chicken bones
spare rib bones
wilty lettuce
onion peels
garlic peels
lemon, lime and orange rinds
carrot peels, tops and bottoms
celery tops and bottoms
avocado shells and pits
pepper innards and tops
cucumber peels
mushroom bits
scraped off plates
used paper napkins and towels
egg shells
coffee grounds
tea bags

Whew - maybe I should throw some Alka Seltzer in there too.

Perhaps my hamster's bedding too

Contents of compost bucket, dumped multiple times a day as usual - veg peels, apple & pear cores, onion skins, veg odds & ends, egg shells, etc. Plus lots of miscellaneous, eg, bits of dried cat food, bits of wet cat food, some paper towels used to wipe off greasy pans & plates, etc. Plus water from washing dishes. Yes, I am such a Compost Wacko that I try to wash dishes over the bucket.

Contents of coffee pot.

Everything else I've collected is still sitting around while I continue to work on new beds. I've got quite a haul from several trips from Starbucks, not to mention tons of dried leaves from our trees. Many piles of leaves just sitting on the lawn while I work on the ones on the patio; I left those there for a couple of weeks, and they're nicely dried. I'm crumbling them fine and adding to the completed beds as mulch, and to new beds as part of the layers.

Planning a run to the pumpkin farm today to pick up as many cartons of rotted pumpkins & gourds as they'll have.

But I'm not putting any of that stuff in the piles at this point. I figure I've got plenty of leaves right now.

lots of leftover cat food from very very finicky catseses
old baked salmon
egg shells
gloopy lettuce bits
tomato ends
toilet paper roll
zucchini ends
utb/ucg

not saying I ever did that....

today I feed my new pile 4X8X3 8 bags of leaves(can't even tell I picked them up the way the wind is dumping them in the yard---I have drifts of leaves)

Banana, mango, grape, apple, frozen veggies, weeds from yard work, and

OPL

got my new CP 3/4 full, but that'll settle down fast!

OPBL
egg shells
banana peels
leftover pasta
cream of wheat that spilled
oatmeal
tomato branches
sunflowers
apple cores
carrot peelings

(wed if its decent out--I get to mow the neighbors yard for the grass clippings/leaves)

Besides all those many paper filters my poor deprived compost BIN just gets the same old, same old (salad trimmings, coffee grounds and filter, egg shells, tea bags) every day altho it's getting more tea bags since the cold weather started cause we drink more hot tea. Wish I could scrounge goodies like so many of you but there is sometimes a limit what I'll do for my garden. And our groundhogs and squirrels are way too fast for me to catch.

Our bears had left 4 piles on the lawn last week but I told DH to throw it out beyond the house yard fence so they hopefully get the idea to only do their business out there and stay out of MY yard. If he had put it in the compost they might get the idea that's theirs and tough but I have first dibs.

I also spread all of my compost/mulch PILE on the garden today which was 4 ATV trailer loads plus a couple of wheelbarrow loads.

Since rotting is the goal in composting, I'd put that sugar in the pile!

UTB=used tea bags.

I hurt my shoulder cleaning flower beds on Sunday, so haven't been adding to the heaps/piles/sheets, but I do have a bunch of stuff eagerly waiting to rot:

4 o'clock tops by the million

zinnias that a landscaper threw out to make room for his winter display

box of paper junk from office (printer paper that was printed wrong, flyers, junk mail, paper towel & toilet tissue rolls, frozen food boxes).

3 bags of mixed leaves & grass clippings