My compost pile smelled like rotten eggs for 3 months before a neighbor told me I was drowning it

So I started composting last spring because I wanted to be less wasteful. I was piling in all my kitchen scraps plus leaves from the yard and watering it every few days because everything online said keep it moist. After about a month it started smelling real bad, like sulfur or garbage. I thought that was normal for a while. Then my neighbor who has this beautiful garden came over and asked if I was turning it at all. I said no, I thought the worms would do that. She laughed and showed me how I had basically created a swamp. No air getting in there. I was watering way too much and never mixing it up. She helped me turn it and add some dry brown stuff and now it actually smells like dirt. Has anyone else made this mistake where you follow one piece of advice but miss the other half? How often do you actually turn yours?

1 comments

1 Comment

carter.thea29d ago

Do you think most people just assume composting is supposed to stink? I used to think the same thing, that the smell was just part of the process. Then I watched a YouTube video where the guy said if it smells like rotten eggs, you're suffocating it, and it clicked. I was dumping all my kitchen scraps in a closed bin and never mixing them in. Now I turn my pile every time I add new stuff, like every 3 days or so, and I stopped watering it completely unless it's bone dry. The difference is night and day. It's crazy how much of a difference just getting air in there makes.