Eco-Friendly Family

Composting (and intro)

Hey everyone, I don't check boards consistently, but I do my best.  My partner and I are expecting our first baby in August and we have always been on the "hippie" side of things, or at LEAST we try to be.  We will be cloth diapering when the baby comes, plus we have been composting for a couple years now. We have yet to use the dirt because it never seems to break down ... of course that is most likely due to my lack of turning, brown vs. green, etc.  Anyway, I had a question: Does anyone else have animals that eat on top of their composter?  This year I have seen squirrels bring food to eat on top of my plastic composter.  One time it was corn husks, a few times it has been sunflower seeds ... it makes a mess on my sidewalk and I don't understand why they would do that.  Is that normal? 

I also have a second question ... I walked past the composter today and it smelled.  Not necessarily BAD, but I've never smelled it before.  Nothing has been added to it recently, and it is definitely not hot here (probably just above 30 degrees) and there is plenty of snow on the ground. 

Any insights would be appreciated!  Thanks!!

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Re: Composting (and intro)

  • What kind of smell? If it smelled very sweet or starting to sour, then your composting materials are out of balance. Depending on what you have in there, you need to add either more carbon rich or more nitrogen rich materials. Also, get to turning that sucker.

    As for the animals eating on your composter... I have no clue other than maybe they are attracted to the smell but can't get in? I dunno... I'd say add their scraps into your bin, but I'm not sure what the risk of transmitting disease would be and you certainly don't want anything leaching into your rich compost.
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  • I was on my way to work, so don't remember how it smelled exactly.  I think I'll start turning it when the snow melts!  It's almost as tall as the composter still. 

    I know I had a skunk issue the first year I composted and someone said it was the bread, so I stopped putting that in and the skunks left.  I just think it's weird that squirrels would take the time to bring their snacks to my yard!  Thankfully the dogs can't reach that far to eat their leftovers.  

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  • You definitely have to turn it more, that helps the smell a lot. As for it not breaking down, the underside probably is nice rich compost, you just have to dig down to it. Also, any time you find an earthworm in you yard, put it into your compost. They are integral to breaking down compost. Just when you use the compost in your garden, try not to take them out of the compost pile.

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  • Our friendly neighborhood squirrels stashed a huge supply of pine cones in ours since it's a relatively open box construction. :)

    Eh, I figure they're cleaning up the yard for me a bit.  

    We don't compost food in ours though due to proximity to the woods and lots of wildlife (e.g. raccoons) so I can't help you on the smell issue. We just do layers of carbon/nitrogen (clippings, plant matter, wood ash, etc..)

     

    ooooh...sidenote, as I'm typing the coolest cardinal landed on our birdfeeder. This bird had like a mega red mowhawk!  Super cute!  

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