Composting

[Anonymous]

New to homeownership and would love to start composting. Any tips? How do you all compost?

[Anonymous]

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/377077.page

[Anonymous]

If you're in Montgomery County, you can pick up a free bin, but they aren't as fancy as something you might buy. There's info here:
http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/apps/dep/solidwaste/store/documents/composting-mailer.pdf

We have two in our yard (nestled back in the woods so we don't see them). We keep a stainless steel compost container on our kitchen counter and fill it with all fruit and veggie trimmings and dump them in the bin, along with some grass clippings. One bin is "active" (i.e. we add to it regularly) and the other is just doing it's thing.

It's a really simple system and it's been going well. I'm at the point where it feels realy weird to throw a banana peel in the trash! Because we have the open bins, we occassionally get animals (deer mostly) checking out what's there, but we haven't had any major issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're in Montgomery County, you can pick up a free bin, but they aren't as fancy as something you might buy. There's info here:
http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/apps/dep/solidwaste/store/documents/composting-mailer.pdf

We have two in our yard (nestled back in the woods so we don't see them). We keep a stainless steel compost container on our kitchen counter and fill it with all fruit and veggie trimmings and dump them in the bin, along with some grass clippings. One bin is "active" (i.e. we add to it regularly) and the other is just doing it's thing.

It's a really simple system and it's been going well. I'm at the point where it feels realy weird to throw a banana peel in the trash! Because we have the open bins, we occassionally get animals (deer mostly) checking out what's there, but we haven't had any major issues.

That link says not to add food wastes to those compost bins?

[Anonymous]

There are some thing you should never add, like meat or bones but MoCo has recently started discouraging composting veg scraps in open containers because of concern over attracting rodents. We end up doing it judiciously, trying not to overload the compost pile.

[Anonymous]

It depends on where you live.

If you live where there are already urban rats, then you have to go to more trouble -- for example, burying the food scraps in trenches, or putting the compost in an enclosed container.

If you live where there aren't already urban rats, then you can be more casual about composting food scraps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on where you live.

If you live where there are already urban rats, then you have to go to more trouble -- for example, burying the food scraps in trenches, or putting the compost in an enclosed container.

If you live where there aren't already urban rats, then you can be more casual about composting food scraps.

I live in somewhat rural MoCo and see rats at a neighbor's place where he puts out food for squirrel and deer. I only compost leaves and grass.

[Anonymous]

I use the 2 bin system also, one for active, the other does its thing. I stopped composting eggshells after seeing some additional squirrel activity, but veggie scraps are perfectly fine.