So, for those of us who don't have our own compost (long story, but I'm not going to be able to until I can get something to do it in...which we can't afford right now), any hints on how to get our hands on some?

Hi, Laurie,

I'd suggest contacting almost any horse-boarding facility and asking if you can take away some of their well-rotted manure. These facilities often have large piles of poo in various stages of, umm, cookery. What you want is the stuff that's been around for a few months. Most places are quite happy to let you take it away for free. When I lived in a more urban setting, I used to do this. Was great!

Rae

laurie, we have a city composting facility that we can buy compost from (it's cheap cheap, like $.10 a lb.

Beachgal, for morning glories and sweet peas, I don't soak them in water. I put them between two layers of damp paper towels, cover with Saran and leave them a day or two. They need to be checked daily and planted as soon as they sprout.

Laurie, the farm where my kids take horseback riding lessons has a huge poo pile. In the spring they are delighted to let us come dig down to where it's nicely rotted and take all we want. fun, fun, fun! But that's some good stuff. I would think lots of them do this.

What is the first step in a compost pile? Maybe the second step, too.

Chelby, pick a likely corner of your yard and start throwing your veggie scraps in a pile there. Eggshells and coffee grounds are good too. Nothing greasy. When you have a nice sized pile, leave it alone for a while and start another pile. Let it rot. In the summer you can add mulched up grass clippings and leaves in the fall too, but I think not too much of these. Some people build enclosures, but I've never bothered.

Schmoodle -- does the spot need to be sunny?

You want some brown stuff in your compost too - like shredded newspaper. Just a word of warning though, we did end up with 3-4 disgusting and unmentionable rodents in ours last year. We had to hire someone to hang out and shoot them because I refused to put out poison.

This website: http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/ has info on composting and just about everything else under the sun

Cyndi, you crack me up. I can just imagine the interview for that one "so, uh...you like to shoot icky things and have a ton of time on your hands?"

I would really like to start a compost pile here, we had a lovely one in years past. It's a pain in the rear to really get it thriving though.

Ruth - thanks for the information about zoning. I guess I wasn't really informed on that. According this this, I can start planting much earlier than I thought! I guess I should get going on ordering my seeds.

I just put an add on freecycle for pots. I have a few but not quite enough as I would like and they are expensive. I don't care what condition they are in because I'm quite handy with a paint brush and some sandpaper.

What does "brown" stuff mean? I've never done the papers, maybe I should. I thought the ink was bad though.
I don't think it needs to be sunny, mine isn't. Once it gets started rotting it will create it's own heat.
I've never had rodents either, but that corner of my yard backs up to my crazy cat lady neighbor. She feeds 27 strays and they all hang out back there, so that would have to be one brave rodent.
All the research I did nearly convinced me not to compost. It can get very technical - layers of this and layers of that, and turning and watering. Then I realized it was just stuff rotting and I figured I could handle that.

Schmoodle - check this page out: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/...e/compost.html it explains the green and brown stuff. I wasn't thinking outside of my bubble when I mentioned newspaper. Our local papers all use vegetable inks so are safe to compost. Many papers are now (the newsprint not the shiny brightly colored pages). I hesitate to mention this because you all think I'm weird already, but DP took the Master Composter class a few years ago. I garden and she composts. Not a bad combo

I'll absolutely put the compost pile away from my house. I didn't even think of rodents!

Last year I had a tiny little 3x6 garden because everywhere I seemed to read said go slow and don't let yourself get overwhelmed... and I surely didn't!(NO time to till up either, that 3x6 was last minute as we bought our house in April... so this year I think we are going to do more of a 10x10 or 12x12 garden and see how that goes- I am hoping the doggies will keep out of it and not dig everything up!!! Last year I just did tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.... this year I would like to do tomatoes, zuchinni, eggplant, cucumbers, lettuce, green beans, peas(for the leafy plant tops! they are soooo yummy!), maybe some sweet potatoes, misc. peppers, and lots of herbs...dh will want corn no doubt! I am excited about planting a garden this year! we have never had enough sun at our old house- our yard was wooded and we love fresh veggies!

But of course your veggie garden need lots of sunshine. I use to have a lovely garden until my birch tree grew and grew and now my whole garden is shaded. You can also buy some compose accelerator at the gardners that speeds composing.
So three years ago I planted a northern cactus in the front and to my surprise it has survived three winters. Has beautiful yellow flowers in June. If it survives this brutal winter I will take pictures.
Sophie