Hi I'm the new guy! I just started my first compost pile today! The question I have is I live in the Pacific Northwest & have a bunch of Western red cedar trees around my house.Can I add the cedar needles to my compost pile this fall when they start dropping?Also what about Douglas Fir tree needles?
Should be fine. Lots of coniferous materials can make your compost more acid, so you might need to watch that and add lime to your beds that need sweeter soil. Many of the common landscape plants here thrive in acid soils and should be fine with mulch or compost from conifers.
I wouldn't try to compost cedar leaves or needles it take along time to break down and really doesn't add much to the compost. I like to place what I get around the bottom of my acid loving plants as a mulch and let nature take its course creating a layer of fresh and decaying organic matter.
You might want to compost cedar separately in an unobtrusive space ie. under a shrubbery. But I hate mixing cedar into the main compost bin. It takes forever to break down and leaves lots of tiny sharp bits that are unkind to gardener's hands. I do not think highly of it at all and neither do the worms! And the first rule of the compost bin is: Keep the worms happy!
