Compost confessions
Posted on July 6th, 2007 – 9:46 AMBy Connie Nelson
I do believe in composting. I do, I do, I do!
I compost veggie peels and fruit rinds, coffee grounds and garden trimmings. But it’s time for me to come clean and admit that I don’t compost everything single thing I could. After years of pulling whole corn cobs out of otherwise finished compost, I now consign corn cobs to the trash. Ditto with bananna peels. And weeds.
I know there are plenty of folks who compost weeds. But I’m of the belief that most home composters don’t reach the temperatures needed to kill weed seeds.
So does this make me an environmentally unfriendly gardener? Am I going to be inducted into the Gardener’s Hall of Shame? What about you? Do you compost tea bags? Used paper towels? Even the newspaper?
14 Responses to "Compost confessions"
I compost weeds SOMETIMES, but not all the time. When I do it, I’m always paranoid that next year’s compost will be jammed with weed seeds just ready to sprout and strangle everything. (Though usually all I get is rogue squash and tomato in my flowerbeds.)
I know some people pull the weeds and let them sit for a few days to make sure they’re dead before they compost them, but I’m not so sure about that. Sure, the plant’s dead, but what about those darn seeds? Do you think your squash come from composted plants?
I compost a lot of stuff, but I could definitely compost more. And with the whole Live Earth weekend upon us, I’m setting a goal of composting more.
And the first item that I setting my sites on are paper towels. Since they’d clog up my kitchen compost crock pretty quickly, I’m going to leave them in a bag under the sink.
I’ve read about people composting used paper towels, but I have a couple concerns about that. One is that most paper towels have been bleached white.I’m not sure I want something that’s been bleached anywhere near my veggies. Another is that used paper towels are just that — used, on floors, to wipe up nasty spills, meat juices, etc. Do you think it’s really OK to compost paper towels that have been put to that kind of use?
What if the weeds contain no seeds yet? My husband won’t compost weeds at all, but I hate to waste all that biomass.
MaryContrary,
I agree with you about wasting all that biomass. (I also feel guilty when I toss weeds in the garbage can.)If you get the weeds early enough, many of them don’t have seeds. But I’m not very good about getting them early. Right about now is when some of our weeds really start to go to seed.
I should have weeded earlier. . .
We generally skip composting the weeds and anything too big from the kitchen (e.g., avocado pits). But we’ve been using unbleached coffee filters for years, and they go right into the compost pile.
I put everything in my compost pile–just make sure to add enough grass clippings to get the compost really warm (and kill the seeds). The bleach thing doesn’t matter anyway–there isn’t residual bleach on the paper–it has been rinsed at the factory. All paper towels go in (as long as they weren’t used for doggy accidents).
Hey Kirk and Sparklegirl, does it take longer for paper products (coffee filters, paper towels, etc.) to decompose?
Coffee filters decompose quite readily. Corn cobs, on the other hand, do seem to last forever. I know that archeologists have found ones that are 8000 years old, and they sure last more than a year in my composter.
With weeds, I figure that if the weed hasn’t flowered yet, it ought not to have seeds. YMMV, of course.
My secret weapon in composting is spent grain, hops, and yeast from homebrewing. When I lived in an apartment I always felt guilty about throwing them out.
I don’t drink coffee, but my tea bags go in the compost bin and they seem to decompose quickly. At times, I’ve added newspaper to balance out the summer greens.
I won’t put creeping charlie in my compost, but most weeds go in until they start bearing seeds. Then they go to the county yard waste site.
A neighbor told me that raspberry canes can have fungal diseases, so I put those in the trash.
I am amazed at how quickly paper plates decompose in the compost! We always have a problem getting our bin hot enough, and corn cobs do take forever, but I break them up and throw them in anyway. I also compost fruit pits, tea bags, paper towels. I do add weeds because between a city-sized lots, a big sand-covered play area for the kids and gardens, I don’t have enough grass to make nice compost…
As long as you compost the weeds BEFORE they go to seed you needn’t worry about your compost temperature. But why worry anyway? There are always weed seeds either in the soil or wind blown anyway. So, compost everything and create great humus and your plants will love you anyway. (You can always pull a weed if it grows where you don’t want it.”
I have heard that if you soke your weeds in a bucket with water (could be rain water) until they are black then the seeds will not be able to germinate. That is what I do, I just have a bucket where the weeds that have seeds go and once it is kind of mucky I dump it all in the compost bin. I compost all my leftover veggies and when I pull compost and there is something like an avocado pit, orange peel or corn I put it in the garden anyways. I figure it will add a little bit of interest to the garden. Now, I am begining to compost paper towels so we shall see how that goes.
Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
Need more Greengirls? Follow along on Twitter:
Subscribe to Greengirls
Learn more about RSS
Garden resources
Categories
- Apples, Plums + Tree fruits (18)
- Asparagus (3)
- Beans + Peas (9)
- Bees (12)
- Beets, Carrots + Root veggies (7)
- Berries (10)
- Books + Resources (13)
- Chickens (13)
- Compost (7)
- Container gardening (7)
- Corn (2)
- Critters + vermin (27)
- Cucumbers + Melons (15)
- Farmer's Markets (1)
- Flowers + Grasses (27)
- Garlic (5)
- Greens + Lettuces (10)
- Herbs (6)
- Lawn care (12)
- Mulch (7)
- Mystery plants (9)
- Potatoes (9)
- Preserving (7)
- Rain gardens (2)
- Seed starting (16)
- Soil care (4)
- Squashes + gourds (1)
- Succulents (2)
- Tomatoes, Peppers + Eggplant (38)
- Tools, gloves, rain barrels + more (17)
- Transplanting (1)
- Tree + shrub care (4)
- Uncategorized (164)
- Water gardens (3)
- Weather woes (25)
- Weeds (13)
- Weekend to-dos (11)