A newbie needing answers

[Vickie56]

We have LOTS of oak trees. We mulched the leaves and put some of them into the compost bin. I had about 3 bags of coffee grounds from Starbucks that we also put in there. Also some scraps from the kitchen. All of this is not layered. Will this work? Do we need to add anything else to make it *hot*? The only moisture to the pile has been from the rain. We are expecting rain tomorrow. I'm new and learning. Thanks for your replies.
Vickie

[jrosto]

Hey Vicki, saw your post in the welcome forum. Add all the weeds you pull and any other greens you can come up with. Add the last little bit of whatever organic fertilizer you use, left over sodas and beer, molasses if you have it. If you have access to free manure, add a couple buckets of that. Mix it all up good, keep it moist, and every couple of weeks mix it up again. Keep adding whatever you happen to have on hand, a bit more browns than greens (remember that coffee grounds are greens) and soon you will have some great compost. When you add your kitchen scraps, dig a hole in the pile and bury them so you don't have any vermin problems.

About coffee grounds, about every other week spread a bag on your front lawn and a bag on your back lawn. It makes great, free fertilizer. Any leftovers put in your pile.

Here is a link to basic composting:

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=16

And here is a link to more information than you will probably ever want:

http://www.sourcecentral.com/library/168-1.html

Hope this helps

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I'm not sure how this greens and browns terminology got started but it is sort of a shame it's so wide spread. What you're really trying to balance is protein (now called green) and carbohydrate (called brown). The browns also include cellulose. Many plants have both protein and carbohydrate so you have to learn which has more and at what stage of life/death is has more of whichever one. But I'd much rather talk in terms of protein and carbs than green and brown. To me it's easier to figure out which is which.

What will really heat up your pile is horse manure. So far you are about 99.5% carbohydrates with very little protein. Molasses is pure sugar (carbohydrate), so that won't help you. Horse manure has protein in it because the horse's stomach doesn't take much out. When you give the compost microbes a balanced meal (protein versus carbs), they will heat up your pile for you.

If you have one cubic yard of tree leaves, you can easily absorb 100 gallons of horse manure. I collect mine using one 5-gallon bucket and lots of trash bags. I double line the bucket and fill it about 2/3 of the way with manure. Then I tie it off and reline the bucket for the next batch. By filling it 2/3 of the way it makes it easy to lift and less stress on the plastic bags. I use cheap bags but if you use expensive ones, you might not have to double line. Any snag on a single bag and you're spilling manure.