what sort of things do you put in ? I use newspapers, potato peels, egg shells, leftovers, etc...oh, and grass clippings, brown leaves.

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Live, Love, Laugh

I compost. I put in kitchen garbage, brown leaves, and grass clippings. That's about it. I don't put in newspaper because usually we don't get one. Even if we did, I wouldn't compost it. I don't know what they put in that ink! I recycle paper instead -- including the occasional newspaper.

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If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

We compost all plant matter, no newspapers (they rob the compost of nitrogen). We also throw worms in whenever we find em. We have 2 huge compost bins and one uncovered compost pile (for yard waste). Dh has made some cool composting bins in the past outta metal drums on a stand. They are put on the stand horizontally. A little access door is cut into it. We can roll it easily that way to keep the stuff stirred up. Easier than forking the stuff in the big upright compost containers (we need to make some of those drums again this year, am tired of the forking crud;-).
A good container can also be made with wooden pallets making it easier to fork, but the wood doesn't last for too many years.

Good tips for containers, Momziller!

I also compost coffee and used tea bags, banana peels, clementine peels, etc. Whenever fruit gets spoiled I throw that in, too.

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"The errors of faith are better than the best thoughts of unbelief." - Thomas Russell

I compost all vegetable kitchen waste, leaves in the fall, horse manure, pine duff and straw, and any yard waste that I don't think includes weed seeds. I also throw in a hand of worms from the bait shop occasionally.
I have looked at the plans for building one of the barrel composters and think they are really neat.
MZ, where does your DH find his barrels? Are they the plastic or metal barrels?
Any tips are welcome.

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

We've used metal and plastic. Have gotten em free from a local freecycle type of org. and dh also has gotten them from work sites (he's a mech. eng).

You don't need a handle to turn the barrels, but dh has put handles on in the past to make it easier for me. (though it's pretty easy to roll the barrel with 2 hands when it's just lying there on the stand)

I don't worry any longer about weed seeds cuz the compost usually gets hot enough to fry those puppies. And I use straw and/or layers of newspapers between rows in the veggie patch to keep weeds at bay anyhoo, haven't had much of a weed problem for years.

Also, I have some 4X4 beds (square foot type gardening), am transitioning to getting rid of what's left that we do in rows cuz there's no room for weeds in those smaller 4X4 areas of the veggie patch.

We started a strawberry patch last year and dh made a pyramid in half the patch. We got more than twice as many plants in there and zero, zilch, zip weeds. This year we'll make the entire strawberry patch pyramided (is that a word?;-). We were truly stunned by how well the patch did for it's first year (we planted several different kinds of alpine/day neutral strawbs), we had copious amounts of the most delicious berries imaginable right up through the beginning of Oct, unheard of here on the tundra ;-)

MZ I would love to see pictures of your garden w/pyramids. Maybe you could post some here or the Around the House board.
I was just reading up on the square foot gardening method and I really like how the author thinks.
Anyone interested can read most if not all of the book on Square foot gardening here: Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to ... - Google Book Search

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

cashchik - will hafta wait till the snow melts before I can get good pics ;-) Dh made the pyramids outta old wood (cedar, I think) that our kids' forts were made from. 2 years ago we took down the forts cuz the kids were too old for them and he's made me a deck, stairs, and the strawb pyramid from the wood. We still have a bit leftover and haven't figured out how to use it yet for this year.

You can also make a cool space saving strawb planter outta wooden pallets. You just turn the pallet on it's end, board or somehow cover the backside, fill w/dirt and voila - more strawbs in a small space. We got the pallets for free and they lasted a few years. Easy peasy.

I like sq. ft gardening, makes so much sense, especially for a lazy gardener like moi-self who hates to weed.

What I do is called BDFI (bio dynamic french intensive) gardening. It's sq. ft. gardening but you double dig the beds to a depth of 4 ft. And, natch, I'm organic all the way.