I'm just starting my first compost pile, is there any foods that I should not put in the pile? How good is this for a vegetable garden?
Compost can be made from virtually anything that can decompose. There's a wonderful article about composting on this sitehttp://web.extension.illinois.edu/homecompost/materials.cfm The list of what you shouldn't use is sort of so long that it wouldn't be OK to quote it here. Anyway, compost is great for a vegetable garden, in fact much better than chemical fertilizers because they're not only bad for your soil but traces of the chemicals remain in the crops and if there are bad side effects associated with that . . .
You can put anything in a compost as long as it decomposes but you might want to refrain from putting in things that would take ages to completely deteriorate. As for your garden, well it is very very beneficial. It's better than most commercial fertilizers and you can be rest assured that it's all natural and no chemicals are added. I think the only downside with composts is the smell of it but if you have a properly sealed compost pit it's not going to be a problem.
I use the scrapes from the kitchen that are organic, like lettuce, tomatoes, potatoe peels even news paper or paper products can be used as they are organic and will break down. Coffee grinds, tea leaves those type of things are good for the plants and soil. You want to attract worms to your compost pile, what type of container are you using to put your compost in? You also must stir or turn your compost pile to help the items decompose.
I tried keeping my scrapes in an extra trash can in the house, then putting it outside in the evening. I ran into a problem with this, BUGS! Those pesky knats that love fruits and veggies, they are so hard to get rid of. I guess when I was keeping the scrapes in the regular trash, other debris kept it covered up and the knats were fooled. Does anyone else have this problem , and what do you do?
