Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Red in My Roses

Guest Blogger, Brad Miller

I am seeing red in my roses this year and it is not from what you would think. This spring, I mixed some compost with the soil around my garden. In late May, all of a sudden, I had tomato plants popping up between my roses. 

These volunteer cherry tomato plants sprouted from seeds put in my compost. Sure, I could have pulled them as weeds, but then I would have missed out on the bounty. So far, I have picked over 50 tomatoes. 


Tomato, pepper, melon and other seeds sometimes persevere during the composting process, especially if you do not turn your pile often. Cold composting (not turning your pile) is easier although it does take longer and, as I learned, can result in an unintended surprise from using the finished compost.

If you want to prevent seeds from staying viable in your compost; try hot composting. But if you are like me and don't mind a little extra fruit and veggies, sit back, relax and let compost make its magic.

Compost-enthusiast Brad Miller is the Assistant Director of Hamilton County Environmental Services. He also maintains our office garden and compost bins.

Monday, September 11, 2017

Can You Compost Paper Towels?

Paper towels: you may love them, you may hate them, but they are a part of most everyone’s life. Call me a super-freaky-hippy chick, but I try to avoid paper towels whenever possible. In my house we use cloth towels to dry our hands, wet wash cloths to clean up messes, and cloth napkins when we eat a particularly messy meal.

Even trying to avoid them, they still come in handy occasionally (I have two kids and a cat; use your imagination). So the question remains, can you put them in your backyard compost bin? The answer depends on what you cleaned up with that paper towel.

Greasy Paper Towels? Nope
If you use a paper towel to clean up oil, butter, or anything greasy do not put that towel in your compost. Oil and grease push air out of your compost, creating havens for anaerobic bacteria (the smelly kind you want to avoid). Throw greasy paper towels in the garbage.

Chemically Paper Towels? Nope
Using strong cleaning products with your paper towels? Also throw these chemical-laden paper towels in the trash. You don’t know how they will affect your macro and microorganism friends hanging out in your bin.

This also goes for paper towels covered in "green" cleaning products as well. Even green cleaners strive to kill bacteria and we do not want to invite that into our compost bin.

All Other Paper Towels? Yep
Paper towels not filled with grease or chemicals will decompose quickly in your compost bin. They are considered a brown or carbon rich material and can substitute for leaves if you are running low.  A paper towel with dirt, water, or plant-based food is perfectly welcome in your compost bin.

My, what colorful food scraps you have!
A peak inside my home kitchen collector.


In our office we collect paper towels from hand-drying and mix them into our compost bin along with our fruit and vegetable scraps. The towels decompose quickly after getting wet.


In addition to being an unapologetic hippy, I am also a pretty big cheapskate and never buy the super thick, fancy quilted paper towels. Has anyone had luck composting this kind? Leave a comment below.