Composting 101 and 401

Two videos on composting.

First, a hilarious speech and great advice about composting by Mike McGrath. Really, this video is everything you need to know to get started composting.

The main point: save your leaves, shred them and build your compost pile out of leaves alone (or mostly.) 

Like all good teaching, this isn't "absolute truth," it's "corrective medicine" for folks who have been told to compost their kitchen waste without further thought or planning and likely end up with smelly piles of too much nitrogen, not enough carbon and bunches of bulk junk that just won't break down in their cold pile.

We use several different composting methods depending on the time of the year--including vermicomposting--and we compost ALL of the scraps from our vegetarian kitchen. There isn't a scrap that has survived a year of being run through our compost piles. But we build our piles in fairly specific amounts and ratios, so it CAN be done. But leaves and other carbonaceous materials, such as jerusalem artichoke stalks, make up the bulk of our piles.

Next is an advanced video on a composting system that integrates chickens. The results, grain-free, free-range chicken eggs and improved compost.

To watch the video you'll have to give your email address to Permaculture Guru Geoff Lawton. So far, I can say that I've only been contacted by Geoff for new videos and he has not sold the address for my phoney email account that I only use to sign up for such stuff.

http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/59960-feed-chickens-without-grain