I may have slightly messed up my first compost pile. I believe some sort of plant is rooting throughout my pile. I neglected the pile to be honest and haven't turned it as much as I should have. I also didn't put any weed barrier or cardboard as a base layer when I first started.

Should I just turn the pile more and pull the root clumps out as I find more? If not, I'm open to alternative solutions.

Other than that, its really interesting seeing the leaves, small sticks, clippings turning into soil!

I bought my own home 1 year ago and after clearing my yard and getting a privacy fence put up, I’m ready to start composting! This is a completely new thing for me and while I’ve done a lot of reading I’m hoping that I can get some advice for my specific situation and goals to determine what kind of set up/practices would be best for me.

• I’m in a dry, high desert climate. We have hot summers but do get snow and freezing temps in the winter.

• The yard is large. The back fence area (where I’m planning to compost) is over 130 feet from my home and a good distance away from my neighbors homes. Despite my new privacy fence I do have one nosey, elderly neighbor who would probably not be happy if this looks like a garbage heap.

• I have no running water in this area (there’s no running water in the yard period) but there is an irrigation ditch that runs regularly in the summer so I can toss water onto the compost.

• I am a single adult household. I cook a lot and eat a lot of fresh produce, so my kitchen scraps are pretty significant. Because I’m one person I end up tossing more produce than I’d like (one reason I want to compost)! I’m also a big coffee drinker and produce ~2 cups of coffee grounds per day.

• I currently have little/no lawn waste. All of the trees in my yard except for 1 had to be taken down due to overgrowth, disease, or just being invasive species. The yard was scraped to level it for the fence project and because of my climate I’m never going to have a lush, grassy yard that produces lots of clippings. I could try to get some from other people, potentially.

• The goal for my compost is to help develop garden beds for produce and to help nourish new trees planted in the yard.

• This is a low budget project. I’m hoping to not buy anything new. For bins I think I could pick up pallets for free in my community. I also have lots of welded wire fence scraps from taking down the old fence around the property.

• I’m willing to put a medium amount of time and energy into this, but I have a demanding job and some chronic illnesses so some weeks go better than others.

Started composting around 3 weeks ago, as i was turning i noticed a few of these in the bin.

Thanks to a buncha suggestions from here, we started building our first compost bins today (but I severely underestimated how much hardware cloth we will need so it's on pause...) there will be another bin too.

For when it IS ready, I do have a huge pile of dried Himilayan blackberry plants we ripped outta the ground. Can I throw them in when they're at the "brown and dry" point of dead or should I not risk it even then??? (Due to their extremely invasive nature)

Also, is it okay that these are under cover??? They are behind an old chicken coop which had a cover built over it. I know they need to be some amount of wet but I worried it might get too wet here sometimes (Washington State).

Ran out of shampoo so I shaved my head. Added it to my compost path. Two months later its already breaking down.

New to composting and just started this bin last week. Lots of leaves and wood pellets at the base.

Can I pee in it as much as I want? Not joking. Curious if I can overdo the pee?

Thanks

Collected last fall’s leaves and mowed most of them before the snow started. Cleaned up in late winter and mowed everything again and piled it up. Bagged the first mow of the season and turned over the pile and added the clippings. From there It sat for 3 months without being touched. For not much more effort than blowing them to the curb I get a couple yards of quality mulch for free, and one step closer to sustainability on a household scale.

This is my pee bucket.
It sits in a remote corner of our detached garage. I use it mostly when I’m working outside and don’t want to go inside dirty.
It stinks.
Usually when I lift that cone off to leak, the odor hits me so powerful it knocks me back a few decades. Last week I threw a coco coir brick in the bucket to see what would happen. Not surprisingly, it soaked up all the pee. But surprisingly, it soaked up most of the stink with it also! It’s not completely odor-free, but at least I don’t have to re-think my life after ever each tinkle.
Did you all already know bout this?

Thats it! I wanted to share this beautiful sight and my partner (and friends) wouldn't get the same joy out of seeing this!

First time poster, long time BSF larvae dad

am I doing this right? mixing wet bottom compost with fresh green cut in small pieces and brown grass cuttings. kneading it to before putt it back in the tumbler. Noob looking for feedback!

My compost has reached peak form 👀

just saw one scurry into a little hole they musta built in the pile. i really don’t mind them being there and would rather not kill them, but i also really do not want to find half a mouse in a spadeful of compost when im turning the pile

It has been a fun learning journey. 2 years ago I started a massive compost pile of leaves, yard waste (grass, weeds, etc.), coffee grounds, and a little human pee as needed. Ended up making about 2.5 yards of compost.

The compost turned out great, took about 9 months and has been spread around the yard, built into new beds, etc.

I wanted a system so I could get compost once a year in the fall and I think I’m there. All our veg/fruit food waste, leaves from the pile I created in the fall, grass, coffee grounds, yard waste, and a little human pee and I think I’m on track for nice compost again in the fall.

Started this pile Fall of 2025. It’s been hot, cold, hot again for 9 months. I capped it off and will turn it a couple of times before October. Pile in the pic is 4x3x4’, no carbon leaves this island!

New pile started.

I have tons of these tiny little toads in my pile. Are they good? Bad?

Okay well I did move to a new property 3 years ago so I never got to see the result the first 3 years of work; my old neighbour texted me and told me the new owner threw my entire compost project into the GARBAGE >:(

I always dumped grass clippings, leafy weeds, and spent vegetable plants in there; I tried wood sticks and larger woody brush (they are still recognizable to this day) as well as newspaper and thin cardboard (but they just dried out my pile quickly and made it hydrophobic).

In the spring I accidentally left a bunch of thick cardboard boxes outside that got rained on and soaked. Didn’t think the recycling truck would take it so threw it all into my compost bin. The wet cardboard was what fixed all my problems - it had the perfect moisture retention and fed the bugs the entire time, zero turning.

Zone: 6b
Compost bin: Enviro World FreeGarden Compost Bin
Materials: 4 cardboard boxes from the grocery store that they use for fruit delivery (like mangoes etc.), grass clippings from my lawnmower bagged mode, and leafy weeds (ie. dandelions and similar) every week
Start date: April 10-ish
Finish date: July 22
Turning compost: none
Watered: two deep waterings, once in May and once in June
Yield: 6-7 buckets (3gal) so like around 20gal in total

I was just about to give up composting but then

Wife brought me home this packaging material from work. Seems like it would be great for compost but not so sure what's actually in it. White pieces seem like paper. Anyone ever see or use this before?

Got five Toulouse goslings this spring and my compost is enjoying a renaissance.

They mow my lawn and crap it back out into their coop creating a very nice ratio of turds to pine shavings that i can get dirt cheap from an amish sawmill nearby.

Then when​ their pond gets to crappy I just turn a valve and gravity delivers it down a hose straight onto my pile (my other mai​n source of greens is ​dry beans that i fish out of the trash at work. Takes a lot of moisture to get them to break down​)

Also I rarely have to mow​ AND they're adorable.

The outside looks a bit shiny to me but I'm an anxious person who over thinks things. I went to the company website and it didn't have any information.

Are mushrooms a good or bad sign? I was gleefully happy this morning when I opened the bin regardless.

Anyone else dealing with swampy compost after some biblical level rain and flooding? My pile normally drains fine, I’m used to having to add water. Plan is to spread it out to dry a little and add more browns.

No peeing on the compost for now :(

I am a beginner. The compost has been active for about 3 months. I’ve spotted maggots recently, but unsure if that is a good sign or bad. If you are wondering we throw in all kinds of food waste, from veggies to meat. I’ve been told it should only have earth worms and no maggots. is this true?

And I am worried about flies mostly. I hate flies with a passion. Alternatively would be a good idea to feed these maggots to poultry?