Tips for home composting
Cooked vegetables make a great addition to your compost pile, even if they’re rotting and moldy. The same goes for raw vegetables like trimmings and your other kitchen scraps. These count as “green” ingredients that provide your compost with nitrogen.
QUESTION: Can I put milk in my compost?
ANSWER: Milk and other dairy products should not be included in compost because they create a rotten stench as they break down and can also entice pests like maggots and rodents to the compost area. The same goes for meat, fish, and grease as well as dairy products, so all these materials should be left out of your compost pile.
If you are trench composting, where you completely bury the materials underground, it is possible to compost meat and dairy, but grease will still cause big problems.
QUESTION: Can I put cooked food in the compost?
ANSWER: Cooked foods are good for composting and count as nitrogen-heavy “green” ingredients, but there are a few foods that should not be included in your compost. These include meat products, fish, grease, or dairy, as these materials will produce an unpleasant stench while they decompose and can also attract pests like rodents or maggots. Cooked foods that do not contain meat, fish, grease, or dairy are fine to include even if they are moldy and rotting.
QUESTION: Can I compost junk mail?
ANSWER: Yes you can, and yes you should! Instead of sending all of your paper trash to the landfill, invest in a nice paper shredder and start turning your junk mail and other paper waste into garden gold. Small, inexpensive shredders are usually more trouble than they are worth, as they fill up too quickly and tend to jam or break often.
For around $150, however, you can get a large volume, high-quality shredder for your home office and composting needs. Adding paper waste to your composting efforts is a great way to increase the amount of compost you create, plus, decomposed paper is a carbon-rich material that gives a nutrient boost to your finished compost.
QUESTION: Can I put dead flowers in the compost bin?
ANSWER: Dead flowers are a valuable compost ingredient rich in nitrogen, so they count as “green” materials. The only dead flowers you should not include in compost are ones that show signs of disease or come from invasive weeds.