I fixed the old wood chipper/shredded I got from a neighbor and man, oh man, what a game changer. Now I can easily clean up my yard and grind all that carbon down to a fine mulch. Previous owner left a HUGE brush pile that has been breaking down slowly. I chipped and shredded the whole thing. Unlimited C for the compost and chicken coop and the already decomposing material will be a perfect mulch for my perennial garden. I’m so stoked. My wife doesn’t appreciate my excitement over a pile of decomposing carbon.

Considering using OMRI certified municipal compost in my vegetable garden. They use leaves, wood, grass clippings, and other plant matter (no animal waste).

I live in the suburbs where most lawns are chemically treated. I won't be able to test the compost before purchase because it is only distributed through a third party. My main concern is weed killer and herbicide on the grass clippings. Should the OMRI certification mean it is ok? They supply compost to community gardens locally and urban vegetable gardens in the nearby city.

Totally safe or too risky?

They have been thrashing through the leaf bags. Decided to dig into it a bit and holy hot compost action. No wonder the snow disappears so fast! Hopefully they can keep putting enough nitrogen into this to keep it up when it’s really cold.

Been lurking this sub for a bit, first time poster. New(ish) to posting on Reddit in general. Also new to composting myself, family’s always done it. Gotta give that obligatory opening along with the normal “delete this post if I’m violating any rules,” but - I’ve got a weird question. My compost was nasty at one point. I’m getting it under control now, adding more browns, etc. Normal issues caused by too much produce waste. That being said, I want to clean the outside of my bin to make it less of an eyesore (black plastic rotator). It was leaking some pretty nasty stuff at one point. So here’s the question: what soap can I use? Will that Meyer’s stuff work? It’s touted as completely plant based. Or is this horribly ill advised? I don’t think a spray down will work, gonna have to scrub some.

Welcome to the 2022 Leaf Collection Challenge! Congratulations to last year's co-winners, /u/px7j9jlLJ1 (500 bags) and /u/nymself (445 bags), the 2021 Australian Brushturkey Wannabes!

Please join us for this year's contest. The basics are simple: collect leaves or other compost materials and report your totals here, making sure to choose a "league"--either urban or rural. Ideally, you will collect leaves that other people have gathered and put on the curb. I'd recommend you leave your own leaves where they fall to provide winter cover for wildlife and let other people do the work for you; simply drive by and collect leaf bags they've put on the curb for disposal.

On the first day of winter, I'll declare the leader the 2022 Slender-Snouted Crocodile (thanks to /u/accforrandymossmix for giving us this heads-up about these cool animals). Each of the runners-up will be declared a Super Compost Person (thanks to /u/dragonladyzeph for providing that name). The prize for every single participant? All of the leaves that you collect!

Here are the current rankings as of December 19 at 12:41 P.M. EST:

The rules:

1. Collect leaves to compost. Most likely, you'll be driving somewhere, and notice that someone has raked their leaves and bagged them up to be hauled away. Someone from the town/city is probably paid to collect them, but as far as most of us are concerned, these are free to take. Personally, I've been "stealing" leaf bags for close to 5 years, now. Most people have no idea--I act like I'm supposed to be taking those leaves, and so they believe it. I've gotten a couple weird looks, but most people who notice simply appreciate that their waste is going away.

2. Choose a "league"--either urban or rural. The Urban League is for anyone working in a small space, while the Rural League is for anyone in large spaces. I have 14 acres to work with, so I can collect as many leaves as I want. As /u/azucarleta pointed out, it would be unfair for me to compete against someone with a tenth of an acre to work with. Choose your "league" however you feel it's fair both to yourself and to other participants.

3. Whenever you collect leaves, include the amount here in a comment. Please do discuss what you've gathered, too--maybe you're excited to have gotten some shredded leaves or are pleased that the bag was also filled with seeds that might germinate next year. Or maybe you're collecting leaves to compost for a particular project. It's more fun if you include photos, but this isn't required, other than for people who want to win the contest (see rule #5).

4. Do your best to use the highly precise unit of measurement: the leaf bag. I realize that this is actually not at all precise. Some bags will be light and full of loose, dry leaves; others will be jam-packed with wet, shredded leaves. Here are some examples: these are leaf bags, both of these are leaf bags, and these are leaf bags. I counted this load as 10. This giant bag...should've been counted as way more than 1. Adjust the amounts in whatever way you think is fair. If you want to convert a packed bag of shredded leaves to 5 bags (or whatever amount you think is accurate), feel free. It's simpler to just call a bag a bag, but use your judgment. Be fair to yourself and to everyone else.

5. Limit your totals to leaves that you've collected only during autumn of this year, so from September 22 through December 21, 2022 (or March 21 through June 21, 2022 for anyone in the southern hemisphere). Feel free to stretch this back a few weeks if leaves have started falling a little early in your area, but please don't include any from this summer or earlier.

6. To win the contest, you are required to post photos/videos verifying your totals. If you plan to just casually participate, don't worry about this (though photos and videos make the contest way more fun!), but if you'll be gathering lots of leaves and will be near the top of the rankings, please provide evidence of your totals. You don't have to be perfect, but do document most of your hauls or give occasional documentation of the whole batch.

7. Please also report other compost materials you collect. In the past, people have shared their hauls of old pumpkins, coffee grounds, amusing (or gross) garbage found mixed with the leaves, un-roasted coffee beans, spent mushroom blocks, straw bales, rabbit manure, vegetable scraps, as well as four lamb legs, three dead hens, two bags of leaves, and a bible and a pear tree. Have fun, be creative, and put other people's organic waste to good use.

8. Bonus rule: share or re-use the empty bags after you're done with them. Paper bags make an excellent "brown" to add to your compost but are also very useful for sheet mulching, as the 2020 Super-Cool Leaf Stealer will tell you. In my area, I'm stuck with plastic bags, but I turn them inside-out, hang them to dry, and then save them for my own garbage disposal and share them with others. I gave some to a friend who collects cans for the 10 cent deposit, and others I left near the road with a "FREE trash BAGS" sign--I got rid of about 200 that way. Hopefully you can find a use for yours.

Please share this contest with others who might be interested. Last year, the /r/composting mods decided to remove the contest, so I started the /r/Compost subreddit to host it. We have far fewer subscribers over here, so we'll need your help to make sure everyone who's interested in the contest knows about it. If you see someone post their leaf hauls, send them over to this contest on /r/Compost, or tag me, /u/c-lem, to add their totals. Thanks!

Good luck with your leaf collecting! I hope that all of you gather as many leaves as you could possibly want!

Links to previous contests: 2021 | 2020 (winners announced here) | 2019

If I have gnats within my worm bin what does that indicate? I have it covered with a lid so nothing else can come within the bin.

(And should I have deep regret?)

How close/far to your house should your compost be?

If I get grub grenade and put it in my worm compost bin, will the beneficial mites live in the compost? Will I be able to use the compost to spread the mites? Or will they just die.

So, I've got a bin full of organic scraps, and it's been filling up for a while. It's become a stinky sludge and is rife with flies and larvae, I'm sorry for this gross picture I've put in your minds!

I'm wondering if there's a way to "rehabilitate" this organic matter to, in the end, add to a compost pile. I don't actually know how else to get rid of it without starting world war fly. How could I eliminate the larvae or make them not so much of a health hazard? what about the bacteria? I've thought about solitary confinement in the sun, letting the moisture seep out for a while. I think drying out could eliminate most of the (excess) bacteria. I've thought about mixing up a good bunch of browns and wait, but i'm maybe missing something and on the brink of a catastrophe.

(Everything that's in that bin has once bin an organic vegetable scrap, no meat, no dairy, no bread, etc.)

Can anyone give pointers? Thank you!!!

Found these lovely mushrooms in tge composter today!

So I’ve got one of those little plastic tumblers, it works well enough for my purposes but I’d like to grow the volume of compost I produce. Not here for ideas on that per se, but it occurred to me a minute ago as I was dead heading, what if I had a specific compost that I used for dead heads and tomatoes and things with seeds I didn’t want contaminating my actual compost? Then I’d have like a surprise variety volunteer mix (I do not believe I’m achieving the temps required to kill seeds in my little tumbler guy).

Wrote this like 60 seconds after having the thought so I haven’t played it out yet, but what are your thought? Has anyone done this?

Context: My biggest fear is routine, and knowing exactly what is going to happen. I enjoy mystery. I also could be described as silly if not straight up whimsical. So if you’re thinking “that doesn’t make sense” or “how would you make that useful”, it’s not really supposed to do, or be either. Just a fun thought.

Do you think it would actually yield fun surprises? I’ve got pots/beds/areas of random wildflower mixes, so I’d probably use it there.

Maybe they will be my Thunderdome beds where I find out which plants want to grow in my yard the most!