Today I got another call asking if i would like another truck load. I said bring them on. I think I need some more compost bins.

I would love to post a picture if someone would be willing to help me through that process.

1. Open a Photobucket or other pix sharing account. Its free.
2. Download your pix there. 800x600 (or there abouts) is a good size. Not too big, not too small. You select the size B-4 downloading or resize them later.
3.Copy the HTML code and paste it into your post. When you preview your post, you'll see the pix.

tj

I was fully prepared to open this thread, snort (to myself) at your Adorable Beginner's score of six or seven bags of leaves, then offer a little bit of encouraging praise so you'd like me. After I was done with the pleasantries, I was then going to start bragging about my last three weeks, which involved tremendous amounts of labor, gas money, and chipped leaves. I was then going to suggest that you, dear little new composter, locate your local landfill, fill up your gas tank, throw your 16 construction grade plastic bags in the back, get your heavy duty gloves, take a few Advil in advance and "get out there and get yourself a respectable haul."

You have just Totally Sucked All the joy out of my sails.

Zone 6? You've probably got the Harbor Master delivering truckloads of seaweed to your yard, too.

Please no one teach lovestogrow how to post pictures. I'm ill enough already.

You've got enough leaves to make leaf mold, PLUS fill compost piles, PLUS do all your mulching with the most beautiful mulching material known to humankind.

I'm happy for you. : ^ [

It's good to have you in the compost cult.. And get your friends to join too... It is a big world and there is plenty of work to do.

While you have envy for someone else's stuff .... someone will be starting to envy your's.......... now go help find that dumptruck and show him where to drop the goods. The stuff IS out there.

Patiently waiting for pictures......

Make sure you get one of the actual truck doing the delivery.

Lloyd (a.k.a. "Two of Nine")

To the left of the leaves is the garden space. I sowed groundhog radishes in it for a cover crop. I got them in a bit late but they are about 6 inches long and the size of a quarter. They are suppose to get 18 to 24 inches. I am also using them to loosen up the soil.

This was my first year for composting. I think it went well. I used grass clipping, yard waste, shredded junk mail (which I am so glad to see put to use)some horse and cattle manure, and some UCG's from Starbucks. I was only able to get about 75 lbs total but it was a start.

Now I am thinking I want to be able to compost larger amounts. With the resource of the leaves I have the browns, but what can I use for the greens on a larger scale?

Sorry, annpat, can I get you a bucket?

tj

I thought I was doing pretty good because I finally asked my neighbor to blow his leaves into the native shrub border I'm creating along our property line. He was quite amenable to that and it means less work for me! But free truckloads of shredded leaves delivered?? It doesn't get much better than that in the compost whacko world.

You can use grass clippings or UCGs for greens. Or just leave piles as is and create leaf mold, great stuff. Or use shredded leaves as mulch. I think they make a very pretty mulch.

Looks like at least 10 yards of leaves!

Lloyd

Somewhere between 25% green and 75% browns up to a 50%/50% ratio is usually good at keeping the pile nice and warm and stops any bad smells that might attract rodents.

How much would that "10 yards" compost down to?

I figure that when I finely mulch my leaves that they are about 10% or less the starting volume. When I get 2½ yds of finished compost, I figure they are maybe ¼ of well mulched leaves...?

If I shred the burr oak leaves with the chipper/shredder it goes down to about 10:1 but that is almost like a powder. Sometimes if it's too fine of a material, it makes it harder to get a compost pile to breath. Mostly I use the tractor mower and cyclone rake to shred (and I don't go out of my way to shred anymore) as I like some chunkiness, so 5:1 is good for me. Composting will reduce that again by about 50% once I get it down to the finished state I like, but then I would have had to add some kind of greens as well.

The perfect mix for me is when the dry leaves are on grass that needs about an inch cut off. The mower chops the leaves a bit and mixes with the grass clippings and then the cyclone rake sucks it all up. I swear, I stopped for a cup of coffee before emptying the rake and it had heat in it! Okay that might just be my imagination but it does heat up (110+) in less than 12 hours.

Large, whole leaves, can reduce down to 30%-40% by volume after composting. Lately, when I build windrows with the leaves in the fall, I have started to run them through the manure spreader after they have settled a few days. This allows for more materials to be windrowed in the space I am using.

Lloyd

We got hit with the big storm over the Rockies last week and now it is 7 degrees. I've given up on leaves. Now I'm reading the threads about wood ash and trying to decide if my alkaline soil can handle the output from my wood stove. (I'm thinking not. Ph around here averages 7.0-7.2 already.)

(It really was a little upsetting, though.)

Did you try to make permanent arrangements with the dumptruck driver? If it were me, I'd find some way to handle all they would supply.

I did think about having them delivered to my small farm (about 5 miles away), but am afraid they might think I was trying to take advantage of the situation and I do not want to take the chance that they might not bring them to me here at the house.

I wish I hadn't asked.

I love composting and although I don't get mine shredded so I have to wait several years for the compost I'm still thrilled that I'm lucky enough to have a place where I can do this.