How to Break the Compost Rules || Black Gumbo

How many times have you heard people tell you “you can't compost that!” Well, you can, most likely. I'll show you how to compost even your problematic materials, things like leftovers, milk, cheese, weeds, and all manner of troublesome organic materials. There are a few methods you can use to handle even diseased plants that will recover the nutrition that would otherwise be thrown out. We will talk about hot composting, anaerobic composting, and composting in place.
Also check out my friend David the good at his channel:
/ @davidthegood
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Black Gumbo shares our suburban, backyard, sustainable gardening efforts. We work a small-scale, typical Zone 9a garden and raised beds, the kind of gardening accessible to all. We tend to take the slice of life approach and hope you will enjoy our family, our dog, our cooking, our adventures, and occasionally some commentary and advice. We love family, joy and friendship, and we invite you to enjoy these things with us!
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[@TheLowLandGardener]

The reason why many people say you cant compost has nothing to do with composting itself. Good point. I do the same. The only living matter that i dont add to my compost pile is my neighbor.

[@lakemarygardens]

The compost pile means no more guilt if you have leftover salad greens and veggies going bad.

[@nicole73551]

"If it used to be alive it can live again". I compost everything, and use various methods to do so depending on what the resource is. Even dead sheep.

[@natthebat5186]

In the winter I leave dried-up "brown" plants & dead morning glory vines alone because birds like to eat the seeds. When spring comes, the seeds are gone, and I can use the debris for my new compost.

[@AcornHillHomestead]

I lived in a large apartment and bought a SoilSaver compost bin. I had a small space between mine and another first floor apartment. We put our veg food scraps, egg shells, egg cartons, card board, coffee grounds, leaves and whatever grass clipping and pine needles we could get from the yard into it. We kept putting things in over winter, never turned it and in spring pulled out 3, 5 gallon buckets of the most beautiful compost. We both grow stuff on our decks. Its amazing how the bin digests all of our scraps. The SoilSavers are pricey but I have used them for at least 30 years. They are durable and WELL worth the money.

[@karenhuber4995]

Glad to hear that you can compost pine needles!

[@mikemore]

Pine needles just take little more time. They also are not acidic when composted

[@guillermone1]

I learned that with composting it is not an exact science but rather an art and there is not a right or wrong way of doing it but rather what works best for you with whatever material you have available and wherever you are.

[@plumcrazyhemicuda]

Better to have the opposums eating compost than anything else around. Plus having them around will keep the ticks down 🤷‍♂️

[@tmontero8492]

Wow! You've challenged composting "rules" that I've been wondering about for a long time. Lately, I've started "sneaking" stale bread into my composter along with shrimp shells which has made me feel a quite adventurous! Now I can't wait to clean out my fridge and freezer. Although the thought of attracting visiting vermin does creep me out waaaaaaaaaay too much! But I could bury some of the more attractive tidbits directly into my garden though, right? Leaving the less alluring tidbits for the bin. I will feel less wasteful about food as it will benefit my gatden. Thank you for raising this issue, and for promoting Dave the Good. I can't wait to brew my own fetid swamp water. You have earned a new subscriber!

[@deborahgrantham7387]

I put weeds with seeds in a bucket of water for about a week, stinky but it kills it and then I add it to my compost pile. I didn’t know it was compost tea.🤓

[@ccccclark2605]

I'm 66. Have big back problems. Soooo I just dig holes and dump my kitchen scraps in it and put the dirt on top. Soooo my leaf pile takes longer to compose. Oh well.... I look forward to SOME kind of compost.

[@gaylestegall7239]

This works very well.

[@malakingdude]

Mix a cup of cooked rice including its water, cooled, into the pile. Then can water the pile with 1/2 cup molasses in 5 gal water. This starts up lactobacillus which run branches of spores throughout the pile. They can be very effective on totally brown piles in cold composting in enclosures such as bovesbprbpkastic bags which would normally run anaerobic.

[@castlealcazar3013]

Thank you! I do cold composting in bins. I’m going to try this!

[@Cultivatinggratitude]

Does it have to be white rice, or any is fine? I'm trying the totally brown pile cold composting enclosure since I am located in Pennsylvania and are cold days are already here and winter soon approaching. Had a great harvest this year but I am expanding my gardening knowledge since I am fairly knew still to it.

[@DovidM]

One problem people have in composting is that there is an abundance of green materials in some seasons and brown in others. You can try storing brown materials for the times of the year when green is abundant but in small yards finding a space to store can be a problem. I rely on kitchen scraps as my green during hot, dry weather. I also trim hedges during these periods when little else is around.

[@DovidM]

Home gardeners need to use both aerobic and anaerobic composting. Anaerobic composting can be much faster, and a good way to process plant wastes when they’re abundant. The bacteria that thrive under anaerobic conditions tend to consume less nitrogen, leaving you with a compost tea that has higher value as a fertilizer.

[@ianshand6094]

For newbies to hot composting... hot composting is both an art and a science and, IMO, is best learned through trial and error. It's NOT difficult, but, like most new skills, some initial persistence is required. You MUST have a compost thermometer to hot compost well, as the thermometer tells you what's happening inside the pile. Without one you'll struggle to become good at it. You need fuel (a mixture of greens and browns, err on the side of greens, and the finer the better, as it breaks down more quickly; if it's 'lived before', it CAN be composted), water (the pile must be damp, but not overly wet/soggy) and air (the pile needs to be aerated). If the pile doesn't heat up, it's most likely due to it either being too dry or too wet. If it's too dry, spray some water into it and turn it over with a garden fork until it's uniformally damp (like a wrung out sponge) but not overly wet. If it's too wet, then you can either turn it over with a fork each day to aerate and dry it out, or add some additional dry material and mix it in thoroughly until uniformally damp. Your compost pile will heat up over a period of a few days to its peak and will then cool down. Once it's cooled down, you need to turn it over to aerate it and, potentially, to spray in some more water if it's too dry, and the process will repeat itself. Each iteration takes about one week. After a few iterations, the pile won't heat up into 'the zone' anymore, and then it's time to let your compost 'cure' for a few weeks or months, before using it on your garden. For my compost piles to be 'in the zone', I'm typically shooting for temperatures inside the pile (in the middle) to be in the 50 - 70 deg C range (120 - 160 deg F). If your compost pile smells bad, then it's gone anaerobic (it's too wet and/or has insufficient oxygen) either throughout the pile or in pockets, and you'll need to, at the very least, thoroughly turn it over with a fork to aerate it and correct the problem. It's as simple as that 🤓 Once you get it working right, hot composting is a joy and your garden (and, in my case, my wife) will love you for it 😊

[@kendo2377]

Whenever I cut limbs or pull weeds they all go in the shadiest part of my yard. and then I forget about them. By the time I get around to messing with it all the green is gone. I pull the leftover sticks out, turn anything brown under, break the sticks into smaller pieces and put them back. Rinse and repeat. I've been doing that for 5 yrs now and the dirt under that limb pile is some of the best in my yard. I sift and screen it and mix into last year's raised beds. The process takes a LONG time and there's a pile of limbs in the corner of my yard, but it's zero effort dirt full of earthworms and springtails.

[@Peaceful-resistance1]

If everyone explained things as clearly as you do, there wouldn't be so much confusion in the world. Thanks! Well done 😎👍👍

[@archielang7427]

Omg the compost police fainted at buttermilk section and called the real police.

[@GodGunsGutsandNRA]

I glad he showed that because I have had many discussion with “relatives & neighbors” about how you CANNOT add these to compost, but I always have anyway.

[@aliciarains6245]

🤣🤣🤣

[@donalddriscoll5952]

Boosters Comfrey and urine

[@subtropicalsteph]

@@GodGunsGutsandNRA there are some relatives and neighbors that I’d love to compost 😂

[@sophiepoint6270]

🤣

[@davidthegood]

Oh yeah. #composteverything.

[@evansullivanrichgels5531]

It's funny, I've commented on David's videos so many times but I don't think I've ever seen a comment by David on somebody elses video. Even though this is Scott head who joins all his goodstreams.

[@GL.cats123]

Me to

[@emylytle5409]

I thought u don’t use processed food to compost cuz it will smell. Thanks for the info. 🙏🏻👍👍

[@hanzketchup859]

Lol , I half expected you to pull out a kitchen sink . Kitchen sink ? Throw it in there , lol

[@philortiz7519]

That's right if you can heat up your mass u can compost anything.

[@Kiwi403]

I compost everything except pumpkin seeds and avacado seeds because they grow, and bones because they don't break down. I always compost left over meat scraps and dairy, it's nature's way. I have never had a problem and I thank God for a very productive garden. Up til now I have sealed my perennial weeds and seeds in black rubbish bags and left them to decompose, which takes a couple of years. I'll be trying the anaerobic compost tea, it sounds great and a lot faster!

[@iulicush86]

30:1 ratio is for the actual carbon and nitrogen, not the materials we add that will decompose. Usually 2:1 or 1:1 in terms of volume is ok

[@MickyBellRoberts]

I love what you do with your compost box, I do the same, everything goes in. All my grass cutting go in as well plus all our kitchen scraps.

[@jeremyjohnson8128]

Great video. Composting with chickens is super easy. Just like David the Good says, “Throw it on the ground.“ It won’t get hot, but it will break down pretty quick. I put all my kitchen scraps in the chicken run, as well as grass clippings, bags of leaves, bags of pulp from a juice bar, and shredded paper. They add their manure, and it turns into some good stuff. The chickens eat a lot of the seeds but definitely some weed and tomato seeds survive and end up sprouting where I use the compost.

[@weldonnicks8153]

Thank you so much for your time. Have learned a lot about composting

[@amyparker1762]

This was very helpful. Thank you. I have had difficulty keeping my compost hot enough. I will definitely try your suggestions.

[@Madmun357]

I even add citrus peels. It does fine, no pH problems.

[@joevalenzuela9443]

That amazing kid running around and helping you gather bagged leaves. I assumed that’s Samuel? An exact mini-me copy of yourself. I’ve learned so much and still learning today. I could have easily learned composting the wrong way if I had not found your channel. Thank you

[@artsymarsy8480]

those possums are SO cute

[@Linda-yq8ew]

I like your attitude. I thought you had a good grasp of the intrinsic values that growing things have for each other.

[@LSinclair]

Man! I love your Understanding of all this stuff! This is so incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

[@cedarchoppincartographer]

I saw the HEB label. Cheers Texas!

[@karenwilliams9617]

Love David the Good. We have tons of weeds with crazy seeds. Love the swamp bucket for these prolific weeds.

[@rica3007]

There’s lot I learn from your videos and I enjoy watching them. Thanks for sharing.

[@daz4312]

Made myself a 55 gal blue plastic barrel composter up on a 2x4 frame so I can rotate it and it's tall enough to put a wheelbarrow under the door for emptying. Made a 2x2 foot shaker box out of 2x4s and hardware cloth. Dump the stuff out the composter into the shaker box, dirt falls through to the barrow, bigger chunks stay in, and get dumped back into the composter for another go around. Best composter I have ever seen! Transferred some dead dry stuff from an old box type composter into it, and at the same time I added a wheelbarrow full of dandelion stalks as tall as me (before they bloomed). Watered it in, added about a 1/4 cup of starter bacteria. 10 days later I turned it again and there was absolutely no sign of anything you could identify as a dandelion stalk or leaf!!! Totally gone! I'm still amazed....

[@randyketcham3840]

Scott, I composted a few of those same items this summer because I was able to keep the temperature on the pile high enough that it all decomposed quite nicely. However, being one of your followers up north, I will have to wait until next year to get the nice finished compost mixture like you get. Encouraging to see that someone else is able to get all kinds of things to turn into compost like I do.

[@sandraoconnor5700]

I’ve got two buckets many months old from David the Good videos and my Spring and Fall veggies love this liquid fertilizer! Thanks for sharing!!

[@practicallyplants2747]

Excellent message to break the so-called rules to composting. I will look into some of the methods you spoke about for meat since that is the one items I do not currently compost into my rabbit pen. I would love to utilize all our kitchen leavings 100%.

[@ovidiufarcau243]

I started composting before gardening purely out of reducing trash volume !

[@heavyd777]

I can remember my father taking the daily kitchens scraps and simply burying then at the base of the corn stalks and tomatoes. That was in the 1970s. Today I take kitchen scraps and whatever and pile it into the tumbler. When I want soil I fill a large pot or bucket with the compost and let it sit out in the sun to cook the seeds. I turn it with a shovel a few times a week. Amazingly after a week or two I have something like black gold soil.

[@sandrajohnston9745]

Out in the countryside you can burn anything you don't want to compost and add the ashes to your potting soil.

[@Epiphalactic]

Yes, but the ashes can make your soil very alkaline. So you gotta be careful.

[@jilla4334]

depends on the pH. ashes are highly alkaline. If your soil is already alkaline, you don't want to add it

[@precilaelman3583]

That’s fantastic!!!😲👍 Now I can compost anything...and everything. Thanks for sharing.🥰

[@newfreenayshaun6651]

Thanks! learning lots here, gaining confidence in my plans. I have a greenhouse, 3 in fact. The biggest one is going to get a compost heater added to the north side this year as well as a hydrothermal solar panel that will serve the veggie beds with winter heat thru buried lines. From what ive seen here, my job just got easier and more possible as a property manager with a low budget and a need for self sustainability

[@GodGunsGutsandNRA]

My husband is in the process of cutting down an out of hand bamboo jungle at the end of our pond. He lets it dry for a while, and then burns them. I add all my dried weeds, and the larger pruned sucker limbs from my trees in the pile to burn. I then use the ash in the compost, among other things.

[@ritabrunetti381]

Hello Scott. Lots of good advice, thanks.

[@ipeter7472]

I have an area outside that is clear. I throw all scraps from the garden and some from the kitchen. I bury it and turn it over every few weeks sometimes. No stress y’all just let it go and let nature do the rest.

[@gretaknebel8495]

Looks like you’re enjoying the cooler weather. I sure am.

[@coolbreeze8572]

Totally agree with everything said! I even throw in few worms in my urban co.post barrels. Great video thanks

[@nancyfahey7518]

Good one. Thanks. I like the swamp bucket the best. I use the juice within 2 weeks and the rest goes into the compost pile. I have great muck within weeks for my sandy soil in Florida.

[@cynthiavoigts215]

Thanks for sharing your experience and information. I am getting my compost set up and found your videos very helpful.

[@cynthiavoigts215]

Plan on using David the Good as I want to be able to compost everything and cut my dumpster trash volume down.

[@chappy444]

You are awesome. Keep on recycling and composting. We need everyone doing this ASAP!

[@SuperCleopatrajones]

I did the anaerobic compost tea with an old Igloo with a push button faucet I found on the side of the road

[@gaylestegall7239]

Cool idea! I love it.

[@joycemcmenamon5111]

Love it! We compost meat, dairy, everything in our Speedibin composter. And it is metal so keeps out vermin too.

[@johnhannonHanno]

We were always told 'no wheat, no meat, no dairy' in compost.

[@ScottHead]

Yep, the old rules. Times, they are a-changin.

[@dustinhaus1165]

My understanding of it is....There are 6 parts to compost, Green, brown, bacteria, water, air, time. I do what I call "bulk cold composting" Behind the stables are just long piles. 3-4ft wide, 3-4 ft tall. as long as they need to be. Everything gets thrown in. Gets tossed every few weeks. I just fork the pile over a few feet

[@lingxiao87]

Enjoyed your presentation. Thank you!

[@cherylhout]

yes, this helped me. the other type of composting wasn't enough for me to use in my garden. thanks

[@GardeningInCanada]

Rebel 😉 loved this!

[@HeatherAnne]

Laughing so hard at the intro. Let's compost all the wrong stuff! LOL

[@benthere8051]

I've wanted to start a digester using a 40-gallon plastic drum and a motor-driven agitator. That would digest my noxious weeds and convert everything into an anaerobic soup that I can use as liquid fertilizer.

[@fultonjohnsonaton5096]

I have here some moldy cow cheese will be the title of my autobiography . Done

[@katjoy9921]

I throw most foods in the compost...excepts bones...but read everywhere you shouldn’t...it’s nice to hear you do the same. Really enjoyed your video.

[@joannecordone6831]

Thanks for the sugar information. I hate sticks, it makes the pile hard to turn. I save tons of leaves, which I shred, and add some wood chippings that are a year plus old. Thank you for your video.

[@juneramirez8580]

All that stuff would just end up in the city dump. Everything in moderation! I am working on the swamp water fertilizer for my garden. Anything that cuts the cost of gardening. Just need to get to a store and buy a big plastic garbage bin.

[@melanieallen3655]

Great idea to put the seedy weeds into.David the good is great too!

[@neciorapista1646]

Thanks for sharing informative tips in composting! Keep it up! God bless!

[@crazedfamilygardens]

Hi. I came over from David the Good. Love your take on composting.

[@mindystiltner4483]

Such good information, thank you!

[@WILLITGROW]

really nice composting tips sir..

[@satheeshkumarp.k.8753]

Excellent presentation, Thank Yo

[@aboutin90seconds7]

I agree with you Making Compost with all help from Nature is the Best Compost Microorganisms do work hard / eat the organic matter for us ... i like the idea to all allow Rodents etc to Eat their share ..... Love Nature Love LIFE #Gratitude

[@JP-zn9dw]

re: weed seeds- depends on if you are using as top dressing or in holes to pant trees. I usually use for shrubs in hole to amend clay soil - buried really deep so I don't worry about seeds.

[@allanturpin2023]

Nice vid Scott. Geoff Lawton demonstrates a good method using chickens at his greening the desert site in Jordan, but I would recommend Edible Acres yt channel for anyone with chickens. They have a playlist that incorporates all sorts of ideas.

[@justcheryl5568]

The rats and mice are loving you and your composte, salsa and all🐀

[@ScottHead]

They do love it, and leave their deposits behind while doing some minor turning of the compost. Win-win.

[@billclinton6040]

It's true about vermin being attracted to any food waste, not just meat and dairy. Heck, my resident raccoons will tear into a garbage can even when there's no food to be found. That is why I compost all my kitchen scraps in a closed bin separate from the leaves and grass. I absolutely hate it when the vermin get into my kitchen scraps. I have a good sized black soldier fly colony that I prefer to feed. The BSF also allow me to compost all my meat and dairy. Those little buggers will devour a chicken carcass in no time at all. It's like composting on steroids.

[@ScottHead]

I had some BSF larvae in my fermented molasses bucket, they did a great job. A friend of mine grew them for his chickens. Great resource!

[@bettydenis3997]

Thanks Scott early today I had some chicken stock that i forgot about and got rid of it,Now i know better Thank you for your tips on my compost pile

[@ForkinAllotment]

Love this video, thanks for the tips

[@leynaabbey]

Use chicken tractors over your garden plots during off season. They'll find pest eggs, and larva in the soil, eat some weeds and leave nitrogen rich poop to break down right in your garden bed.

[@twinfin8571]

Thanks for all your advice and for recommending David. It’s good of you to give credit to someone else who influenced you.

[@HenasWorldChannel]

Thank you for sharing

[@edithstumpf9893]

Hi, Black Gumbo. Morning Glory leaves are nutritious and easily flavored. Much milder than spinach.

[@LiliansGardens]

Compot all method. Thanks.

[@thoughtfuljohn456]

Very helpful vid, thanks!

[@skee6706]

Great video We take our kitchen scraps and blend it in an old blender with a little water then pour it in the compost tumblers we have. We have a very short growing season (90 days if we are lucky) so we have to think outside the box to get any compost. We also have raised beds that we fill with a lot of carbon, grass clippings, leaves, Leonardite, molasse and anything else we can find like you. Then we put about four inches of good soil on top. We do this is the fall and cover it up for the winter then plant in the Spring/summer. Seems to work okay Still perfecting our strategies.

[@manfrazdude]

Amen to DTG!

[@barbkenas5663]

Interesting, thanks.

[@GARDENER42]

"Recycled beer" is a great kickstarter for compost bays, or for that matter, recycled anything you drink. ;-) I actually add the rats I cull to my compost - never yet seen so much as a bone after 6 months.

[@ScottHead]

I compost all my rat culls, good source of nitrogen.

[@thisorthat7626]

We should be using much more "recycled beer", IMO. People are just freaked out by it.

[@daemonicstar]

I am just about to start making our own compost. We have a bin for greens and browns for normal composting and two Bokashi bins that break down all the dairy, meat and other naughty stuffs and also makes a nice liquid fertilizer from the fermentation. Am really excited to start now, just hope I grow a green finger or two! Finding your videos very helpful and informative. Best wishes from the UK

[@RichieHariuchi]

Another great video!! Thank you! "We don't need no stinking rules!!!" Hahahaha

[@heathergustafson4237]

I mean did our ancestors really regulate their compost to an exact? They used what they had and with what they had they made it work with their brains. Love the sugar idea. I don’t think a lot of people realize how magnificent sugar is and all it can do.

[@kwicsociety9663]

This is the first one of your videos I've watched and I'm so pleased for such an easy-to-understand presentation. Really enjoyed that. The one thing that I often cringe about though, is to make compost tea in plastic containers. When that heats up (ex. Summer heat), that will leach out all the chemicals in the plastics that we generally try to avoid in cooking or storing food in plastic, so why do folks not catch on to that? May I suggest galvanized steel buckets with lids, or small barrels (same holds true for rain barrels for those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest, etc.). I love how you explained about the weed seeds and using mature weeds in the tea. I did that this Summer, wondering if I was going overboard with that idea (I don't like the idea of using weeds in the grass clippings into the compost piles from mowing even, but that seems to become unavoidable. And so far, I haven't really had big dandelion weeds or buttercups, etc. growing in my compost piles, thankfully. I'm only in this for the past 2 Summers so far, mind you. But I do keep out the Morning Glory and similar plants that might be too prolific in the compost piles. And I burn the really invasive stuff, ex. Blackberry vines and Mint, just in case. Well we recently have the city picking up any compostable material, so some if may end up exiting our property that way. Anyway, great presentation and look forward to more.

[@saraalicea3363]

Very interesting & informative, thanks 👏🏼 I have an aerobin 400 & dump in there browns & greens. Didn’t know I could put sugar & water.

[@fadista7063]

This is really useful and what I am working on this weekend. I would only compost meats, dairy and processed foods that aren't likely to have a lot of pharmaceuticals or toxins, though.

[@kwamebimpong5392]

The reason they say not to compost things like meat. isnt because of smell or attacting animals. Its because most non professionals will not keep the soil at the correct temperatures, and it will result in the perfect breeding ground for the most harmful pathogens to humans

[@backtoweedin4375]

Such as what? Source?

[@kwamebimpong5392]

@@backtoweedin4375 if you Google it you'll find plenty!

[@hipdogdsv]

ANY compost attracts creatures of some sort. It's all good. I do the same thing with my compost. I dump everything in it. I always cover whatever I dump in with a couple good shovel loads of dirt already on compost.

[@rachelhall4808]

I have that book! It’s good information as is yours! You’re punk rock!

[@angelasheppard7197]

The soda pop tip is cool thanks. I cant drink it but cheap for compost.

[@NanaPelletier]

When I buy a 2 liter of soda it usually goes flat before we are finished with it. Now I know where to dump it and not feel guilty about "wasting".

[@jewelerjef]

great video.. thanks

[@maryphillips3140]

You are my hero.

[@claire2470]

...i am composting too - the bokashi way... thanks heaps for the inspiration about composting...