New to garden composting? Here are some guidelines to get you started.
As much as we might wish we had the Midas touch, you can’t turn trash into gold – but you can turn much of it into fertile soil.
To put it bluntly, composting involves critters, both seen and unseen, eating your garbage and converting it into a more fertile medium. Organic material is broken down into a rich peat-like consistency.
To build a compost heap, you need to encourage the growth of friendly organisms to turn your trash into soil. If you want to speed the process up, you’ll need to balance out the right mix of raw materials, moisture, heat, and air. The build-up of heat may worry you at first, but it not only destroys plant diseases, but it also eliminates weed growth that might otherwise steal nourishing elements from your compost.
The recipe for a proper compost pile consists of the following:
BROWNS: Dried leaves, straw, and wood chips. You can increase efficiency by chopping up the wood chips in a wood chipper, or even mowing over them with your lawnmower.
Pine needles decompose slowly, and should be chopped. They can acidify your pile, which is helpful in more alkaline environments.
Wood ashes can be added, but do not use more than 2 gallons worth to a 3-cubic-foot pile. Avoid using coal or charcoal ashes.
GREENS: Grass clippings and kitchen scraps. Grass clippings should be spread out on the driveway to dry for a day or two before use.
Kitchen refuse includes coffee grinds, egg shells, melon rinds, carrot and potato peels, tea bags, apple and pear cores, banana peels, and similar organic matter. Chopping the waste into smaller pieces will aid in speeding the process, though egg shells should be crushed.
Meat, dairy, and high-fat foods can be added, but they tend to attract pests and cause odors, so use sparingly.
Garden refuge includes clipped plants, flowers, and weeds with less persistent roots.
Manure and seaweed are both excellent materials as well – rinse seaweed with a hose to remove salt before adding it to the compost pile.
The correct ratio is 25 parts browns to 1 part greens.
Set your pile on a level site over soil or lawn. Start with a generous layer of browns, and cover with a layer of greens. You can add a thin layer of soil as well, if you wish. Alternate layers until a desired height is reached. Within one to two years, the bottom layer should convert to usable soil. If you’re in a hurry, turning the pile and watering it weekly can reduce the amount of time to as little as two months.