How precise is this composting thing?

I can't vermicompost, apparently. Too hot outside (high of 95 for today) and no place inside (unless the middle of the living room counts, and then hubby would veto ). I'm pretty bummed out about that as it would have served several purposes at once. Our waste is largely kitchen scraps, brush, and yard/garden debris. I could feed some scraps to our 8 chooks, but there would be a good bit left over. Does composting have to be super exact, or can I break up the woody stuff and toss it in a pile with the foodstuff and have at least some semblance of composting happening? Or should I just get more chickens?

er how much compost are we talking about eight chicken would eat a fair amount
plus they poop on the rest and that makes it rot down fast

It isn't exact at all unless you want your compost done in a matter of days. Just do exactly what you said. In nature, no one is mixing precise ratios, turning, checking moisture levels... Everything breaks down just fine.

It's pretty embarrassing. I'm working on that end, too. Freezing leftovers (or even just freezing half of what I cook), planting smarter, shopping smarter, canning. It's a process, though.

If it is organic it will "compost" over time but if you want that time to be one year, you don't need to do too much, you want compost in three weeks you need to be very scientific.

Tree bits over 1/2 decompose slowly, but if you have a compost pile that is well managed with the right moisture and carbon/nitrogen balance you can can get wood to decompose in six months if it is chipped up small.

Branches? You are going to have a pile of branches next year no matter what you do...

Hi Emily. You can get a stackable plastic worm bin online for less than $100. Gusanito has a nice 4 or 5 tray unit that will compost quite a good bit of material and raise a bunch of worms. These units are only 14" square. When one tray gets full, add another tray. Vermicomposting is easy & fun

I had to look up what 95 was in calcius haha. We get a fair bit hotter than that and have no issues keeping the worms happy in the shade. Do you have a patio you could put them on or can you just put some shade cloth over them? Composting easy easy but worms are cool

D. Klaer wrote:Composting easy easy but worms are cool

Yes... and worms are much faster than other sorts of composting, too. I had a simple setup in my closet when I lived in an apartment: a plastic bin. No holes or anything. Food waste and paper in; compost and worms out. It was easy and didn't smell as long as I took care of it (when I got lazy, the smell motivated me to get un-lazy). I still have something similar in the basement, just more bins.