Compost and Mulch

• warm
• moist
• aerated

Anything that breaks down over time can be added to the pile. Plastics, glass, rocks, metals and large bones, won't break down very well, so they should be avoided. Anything that rots can be added.

Communal gardens, community centers, and neighborhood centers are ways in which a community can use a compost heap. A compost heap may be constructed as part of a neighborhood association pooling resources. It also may serve as a role model and teaching resource in centers and schools.

Turn the compost out into a pile next to the bin to "cure". Usually the inside of the bin contents is more broken down than the outside, so as you're turning it, mix the inner and outer parts of the bin contents as you build the curing pile.

Break up any wet, slimy parts, and mix them with drier materials. If the contents are too dry, add some water at this stage. The pile should have a 50% moisture content--about as damp as a wrung-out sponge. If you squeeze a handful hard, only a drop or two of moisture should drip out.

Make sure the pile is in contact with the ground, so red compost worms and microarthropod "shredders" can enter the pile and go to work on it, breaking it down into smaller and smaller pieces. When you're done, cover the pile with a tarp or sheet of plastic, to keep rain out. Excess water creates slimy, smelly, anaerobic pockets, and leaches water-soluble nutrients out of the pile. Start adding new materials to the bin.

Allow the pile to cure for a few weeks to a few months. Longer curing produces compost with more beneficial fungi, which is particularly good for fruiting plants like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, chiles, squash, melons, and cucumbers.

The breaking down of compostable materials into their constituent elements is what creates compost. Generally, compostable materials may be described as brown in color and carbon rich or green in color and nitrogen rich. The breakdown takes place as natural decay that's encouraged by appropriate levels of air, heat, light, and moisture. It also is encouraged by regular turning of the materials. In fact, the more often the turning, the faster the breakdown. By following proper procedures, compost thus may be created in anywhere from about a month to about a year.

Yes

Put it someplace in full sun. Not under trees (they'll leach the nutrients out of the compost). And someplace convenient, so that you'll be inclined to use it. If you put it on top of grass, it will kill the grass.

Fertilizer and compost are different items. Neither is better.
Compost is a soil amendment like peat moss, except it has much more. It normally contains many micro-nutrients that common fertilizers do not have. It also has live microbes fungi and bacteria that are needed by many plants to thrive.
Composts may have small amounts of N,P,K (Nitrogen, Potassium & Potash) fertilizers within it, but it depends on the source material of the compost.
Soil amendments change the structure of the soil so roots can grow better and clay soils may drain and sandy soils may hold moisture.
Fertilizers may be from chemical or organic source. They do not change the soil structure or the moisture holding capacity. Fertilizers simply supply the most needed nutrients for optimum plant growth.
For maximum plant growth and strength plants need both compost and fertilizer.
Returning the unused part of plants to the soil via compost maximizes the availability of the nutrients that your plants need and better simulates natural growth conditions.
"The Compost Guru"

Yes it would be good for them if you did

cellophane is a type of plastic and can not be composted

Inoculation for launching beneficial micro-organic activities and support for soil food webs describe what happens when soil is added to compost. Compost is dark-colored, fresh-smelling, nutrient-rich humus that results from the breakdown of dry and wet carbon- and nitrogen-rich materials. It will interact with air-, moisture-, nutrient-rich soil to encourage plant growth and soil food web well-being through the continued presence of beneficial amoeba, bacteria, fungi and nematodes.

Compost is good for dahlias. The flowering plant in question responds well to compost as soil amendment, fertilizer or mulch. It responds to well-drained soils, which compost promotes through its encouragement of air and water pore spaces and improvements in soil structure and texture.

Wood chips

No, compost bins do not smell if proper materials are recycled and proper procedure is followed, but yes, they will if improper or proper materials are not aerated, layered, moisturized, and turned adequately. Compost bins yield a dark-colored, fresh-smelling, nutrient-rich product with correctly aerated, heated, moisturized carbon- and nitrogen-rich materials.

Provide air and water pore spaces, clean final resting places, food sources, and natural shelters are the things that compost does to worms. Dark-colored, fresh-smelling, nutrient-rich compost gives worms passageways for aeration and moisturization, places to expel wastes and to expire, and sources of prey. It teems with nutrients and other soil food web members.

Compost is the final product of decaying material. It is produced when organic material is piled and turned and then after a period of time it is broken down by bacteria and is then called compost

I use our cat manure and litter in compost intended for the trees. Cat/ dog manure is not recommended for edible gardens because of possible parasites. For non edible flower beds or trees it is OK if fully composted....

Acidic compost for plants that love acid conditions, like azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries, camellias, heathers, magnolias--if you've been told to 'acidify the soil' use some ericaceous material, and everything will turn out great! It's apparently primarily a UK term, in the US, just ask for acidic compost/mulching materials.

http://www.uk.gardenweb.com/forums/load/ukgard/msg0312045225513.html

http://www.johninnes.info/ericaceous.htm

http://www.focusdiy.co.uk/invt/182518

Generally you'd expect a compost heap to be about three feet across and two or three feet high. Much smaller than that and whatever you're composting will probably not heat up into "fast compost", but will simply decompose slowly, the way leaves decompose on a forest floor.

That being said, it is perfectly legitimate to create "sheet compost" over a garden area rather than building a specific compost heap. To do that, you layer organic mulch thickly on top of whatever area you want to benefit from the compost (obviously not on top of tiny seeds or seedlings, though) and simply wait a year or more for it to break down into compost where it lies.

Paper can be composted because it comes from nature, so you can send it back to nature. Paper will decompose eventually, although I don't suggest composting it. Instead try recycling where it will be reused to make other pieces of paper. YES paper is compostable, and Yes it will decompose

No. It just makes them nervous.

Seriously, as long as it's a normal amount mixed with other material, they'll do just fine.

Yes, most definately.

Worms are the compost kings. Worms are the gods of the underworld from a scientific point of view. I add worms to all my compost piles. They increase the air flow through the piles and Ive never found an orange peel left behind. All I ever find is worm poop and worm guts.

Worms are key to compost orange peels.

Good carbon (brown) layers: paper towels, paper bags, hair, coffee grounds, straw, napkins, paper from shreddder, fall leaves, dead lawn clippings (keep to a minimum so your layers do not get anerobic), soil, etc.
Make sure you shred paper as much as possible as it will break down faster...
Good Nitorgen (green) layers: fruit and vegetable waste, green lawn clipping (again keep very thin layers and to a minimum), raw fish waste, chicken, cow or other vegetable eating animal manure, egg shells, old bread, etc.
Layer thinly alternating green and brown. Avoid Meat and cooked seafood, heavy oils ( a lightly greasy papertowel is OK) and dairy. No meat eating animal feces. give it a light water to get the magic started and viola. Also all kinds of food.No noodles should be in compost!