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Found out my compost bin was rotting because I wasn't adding enough browns, not too many greens
After dumping a whole bag of coffee grounds from the shop downtown last month, I realized the sludge pile needed more shredded cardboard to balance it out, and now it smells like dirt instead of a dumpster has anyone else had the brown-to-green ratio kick their butt like this?
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james_kim1mo ago
Oh yeah the browns got me good when I first started. I kept dumping all my veggie scraps and grass clippings in there and wondering why it smelled like a wet dog that ate garbage. One good layer of torn up Amazon boxes and crushed fall leaves fixed it right up. Now it actually smells like earthy dirt instead of something you'd call the health department about.
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hart.mark1mo ago
Whoa wait hold on @james_kim, you're telling me wet dog plus garbage smell is actually a real thing and not just something I imagined?! I thought I was losing my mind when my pile started smelling like that and my neighbor gave me the side eye. I've been too scared to try cardboard because I figured it'd just get slimy and gross. Now I'm kinda mad I've been buying expensive "compost starter" bags from the store when I could've just raked up some leaves. You might've just saved me like forty bucks and a ton of embarrassment.
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