Composting involves mixing yard and household organic waste in a pile or bin and providing conditions that encourage decomposition. The decomposition process is fueled by millions of microscopic organisms (bacteria, fungi) that take up residence inside your compost pile, continuously devouring and recycling it to produce a rich organic fertilizer and valuable soil amendment.
What to use:
Organic waste is the best raw material to make compost from. This can come from your garden, your kitchen (visit Starbucks' page on Grounds for Your Garden) and even your home at large.
According to the United States EPA, yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 23 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream. That's a lot of waste to send to landfills when it could become useful and environmentally beneficial compost instead!
Ingredients that can make good compost include:
When is it done:
Compost is finished when it's a dark, rich color, crumbles easily, and you can't pick out any of the original ingredients. It should have a sweet, earthy smell.
2. Do not compost fats, pet droppings, or animal products. They will attract pests to the pile and can spread disease.
3. Newspaper or plain white paper from the computer is excellent for composting - just remember to shred it first to speed up the process.
4. Got compost? When finished it should look, feel and smell like rich, dark soil. You should not be able to recognize any of the items you put in there.
5. Worms love coffee grounds!
6. If adding ashes to your compost bin, do so sparingly. They are alkaline and affect the pH of the pile. In contrast, acidic materials include pine needles and oak leaves.
7. Plants that have been treated with pesticides and/or herbicides (weeds and lawn clippings) should be avoided.
8. The microbes responsible for breaking down your compost pile need a balanced diet of nitrogen and carbon. Nitrogen comes from green materials such as food scraps, manure, and grass clippings. Carbon comes from brown materials such as dead leaves, hay, wood chips and shredded newspaper. A ratio that contains equal portions by weight (not volume) of both works best.
9. Algae and seaweed make excellent additions to your compost pile. Be sure to rinse off any salts before using.
10. Finished compost is usually less than half the volume of the materials you started with, but it's much denser.
11. Keep your compost pile in a black plastic bin and in direct sunlight to continue the composting process through the winter. Hay bales can be used to further insulate the pile.
12. Wooden pallets make excellent compost bins. Start with one pallet on the ground. Drive two metal stakes into each side. Slide additional pallets over each support and you have a bin ready for compost.
13. Straw is an excellent source of carbon for your compost pile. However, it may contain weed seeds, so make sure the pile is "cooking" properly.
14. Compost decomposes fastest between 120 and 160 degrees F. Decomposition will occur at lower temperatures, but it takes much longer.
15. The perfect size for a compost pile is one that is at least 3' x 3' x 3'. It's not only a manageable size to turn, but it's ideal for retaining heat while still allowing air flow.
16. For faster composting keep your pile or compost bin in direct sun.
17. Don't throw away your kitchen waste in the winter - try an indoor composter.
18. Compost piles should remain damp but not too wet. As you build your compost pile, make sure that each layer is moist as it is added. The surface should also remain damp (think of a wrung out sponge), especially during the summer months.
19. Does your compost pile smell? It's probably due to a large number of anaerobic microbes, which are working hard to break down your compost, but creating a smelly situation in the process. To cut down on the anaerobic process, aerate your pile regularly, creating air spaces and limiting the anaerobic microbes while stimulating the less stinky aerobic microbes.
20. Help start a new compost pile with aged manure, cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, blood meal, or compost starter. They are rich in nitrogen and help jump-start the microbes responsible for breaking down organic matter into compost.
21. Anything that was living at one time is great for compost bins. Think of leaves, vegetables, and grass clippings.
22. Compost piles can either be layered - thin layers of alternating greens and browns, or they can all be thrown in together and mixed well. Either way works!
23. Soak finished compost in water to "brew" compost "tea," a nutrient-rich liquid that can be used for foliar feeding or for watering plants in your garden, backyard, or houseplants.
24. Apply finished compost to your garden about 2-4 weeks before you plant, giving the compost time to integrate and stabilize within the soil. Click here for a guide to vegetable gardening.
25. For faster results, use a compost turner every two weeks to aerate your pile.
What you will need to get started:
Ensure composting success with a home compost bin and waste. You can add worms to help the process.
Starting a small compost bin for household use reduces the amount of waste your family sends to the landfill each week. Although a compost pile is the easiest method of composting, using a compost bin will prevent rodents and other scavengers from digging in your compost in search of food. Choose a bin that's large enough to accommodate your family's food waste and yard clippings and has a sturdy lid to keep out pests.
What to use:
Organic waste is the best raw material to make compost from. This can come from your garden, your kitchen (visit Starbucks' page on Grounds for Your Garden) and even your home at large.
According to the United States EPA, yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 23 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream. That's a lot of waste to send to landfills when it could become useful and environmentally beneficial compost instead!
Materials to Compost | |
| Browns = High Carbon | Greens = High Nitrogen |
| Ashes, wood Bark Cardboard, shredded Corn stalks Fruit waste Leaves Newspaper, shredded Peanut shells Peat moss Pine needles Sawdust Stems and twigs, shredded Straw Vegetable stalks | Alfalfa Algae Clover Coffee grounds Food waste Garden waste Grass clippings Hay Hedge clippings Hops, used Manures Seaweed Vegetable scraps Weeds* |
| *Avoid weeds that have gone to seed, as seeds may survive all but the hottest compost piles. | |
When is it done:
Compost is finished when it's a dark, rich color, crumbles easily, and you can't pick out any of the original ingredients. It should have a sweet, earthy smell.
Composting Tips:
1. Grass clippings add necessary nitrogen to a compost pile, but be sure to mix with the "brown" materials that add carbon. Both are necessary for quick decomposition and rich compost. Piles made up of just grass will compact, slow down and start to stink.2. Do not compost fats, pet droppings, or animal products. They will attract pests to the pile and can spread disease.
3. Newspaper or plain white paper from the computer is excellent for composting - just remember to shred it first to speed up the process.
4. Got compost? When finished it should look, feel and smell like rich, dark soil. You should not be able to recognize any of the items you put in there.
5. Worms love coffee grounds!
6. If adding ashes to your compost bin, do so sparingly. They are alkaline and affect the pH of the pile. In contrast, acidic materials include pine needles and oak leaves.
7. Plants that have been treated with pesticides and/or herbicides (weeds and lawn clippings) should be avoided.
8. The microbes responsible for breaking down your compost pile need a balanced diet of nitrogen and carbon. Nitrogen comes from green materials such as food scraps, manure, and grass clippings. Carbon comes from brown materials such as dead leaves, hay, wood chips and shredded newspaper. A ratio that contains equal portions by weight (not volume) of both works best.
9. Algae and seaweed make excellent additions to your compost pile. Be sure to rinse off any salts before using.
10. Finished compost is usually less than half the volume of the materials you started with, but it's much denser.
11. Keep your compost pile in a black plastic bin and in direct sunlight to continue the composting process through the winter. Hay bales can be used to further insulate the pile.
12. Wooden pallets make excellent compost bins. Start with one pallet on the ground. Drive two metal stakes into each side. Slide additional pallets over each support and you have a bin ready for compost.
13. Straw is an excellent source of carbon for your compost pile. However, it may contain weed seeds, so make sure the pile is "cooking" properly.
14. Compost decomposes fastest between 120 and 160 degrees F. Decomposition will occur at lower temperatures, but it takes much longer.
15. The perfect size for a compost pile is one that is at least 3' x 3' x 3'. It's not only a manageable size to turn, but it's ideal for retaining heat while still allowing air flow.
16. For faster composting keep your pile or compost bin in direct sun.
17. Don't throw away your kitchen waste in the winter - try an indoor composter.
18. Compost piles should remain damp but not too wet. As you build your compost pile, make sure that each layer is moist as it is added. The surface should also remain damp (think of a wrung out sponge), especially during the summer months.
19. Does your compost pile smell? It's probably due to a large number of anaerobic microbes, which are working hard to break down your compost, but creating a smelly situation in the process. To cut down on the anaerobic process, aerate your pile regularly, creating air spaces and limiting the anaerobic microbes while stimulating the less stinky aerobic microbes.
20. Help start a new compost pile with aged manure, cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, blood meal, or compost starter. They are rich in nitrogen and help jump-start the microbes responsible for breaking down organic matter into compost.
21. Anything that was living at one time is great for compost bins. Think of leaves, vegetables, and grass clippings.
22. Compost piles can either be layered - thin layers of alternating greens and browns, or they can all be thrown in together and mixed well. Either way works!
23. Soak finished compost in water to "brew" compost "tea," a nutrient-rich liquid that can be used for foliar feeding or for watering plants in your garden, backyard, or houseplants.
24. Apply finished compost to your garden about 2-4 weeks before you plant, giving the compost time to integrate and stabilize within the soil. Click here for a guide to vegetable gardening.
25. For faster results, use a compost turner every two weeks to aerate your pile.
What you will need to get started:
Ensure composting success with a home compost bin and waste. You can add worms to help the process.
Pros:
- If you're a gardener, compost is highly useful stuff. You can use it to enrich your soil for both indoor and outdoor plants, including vegetables and fruits. Compost also makes good mulch to protect the areas around trees and shrubs. If you don't use your compost for gardening, it still has environmental benefits. Composting keeps organic matter out of the landfills, and composting instead of burning your yard trimmings means less pollution in the atmosphere.
- Cold composting is the simplest way to compost --- simply make a pile in your yard and let it decompose on its own. This can take over a year, during which time your compost is not usable. There are several methods of hot composting, which involve keeping the pile damp and turning it frequently. Hot compost can be finished in a few weeks, but it requires weekly or, usually, daily work. Vermicomposting, or composting with worms, requires little work and takes about three months to finish.
cCons:
- SPACE_-Compost can take from several months to over a year to decompose. During that time, you need space to store it. If you've got a big yard, this won't be a problem --- just designate an area or place a bin somewhere removed from your house, in a spot you won't need to use. Many people live in apartments and don't have room for an outdoor compost pile. Apartment dwellers who want to compost will have to bring their operation indoors, which means making room for a potentially stinky bin inside your home. Indoor composting generally requires worms to speed up the process and to keep odors at bay.
Odors and Health A healthy compost pile is relatively odor-free. However, if the compost is too wet, it can smell bad. For indoor composters and beginners, this can be a serious problem. Luckily, it can be addressed by adding more dry material, such as leaves and paper. To ensure that your compost is relatively safe for humans and to keep out pathogens commonly associated with meat, it's important to never add meat or animal products to your compost. If your compost pile is not protected or actively managed, it can attract pests such as flies and rodents. Pests may introduce undesirable germs and they should be kept away by covering your compost pile or bin. http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/
Compost Piles Stink
While logic suggests that a pile of decomposing food and yard waste should smell terrible, properly made compost smells like soil. Foul odors can arise if your materials mat together, you add the wrong types of foods, or if the pile has too little oxygen, caused by poor drainage or insufficient aerationCompost Attracts Animals
The most effective way to deter rodents and other pests from raiding your compost bin is to avoid adding foods that animals seek out; these include meats, dairy, oils or fried foods, as well as sweets. Bury the foods you do add, or turn the pile to cover new materials. If animals remain a problem despite these measures, avoid adding food scraps altogether; compost made from only yard waste still benefits your plants.Composting is Complicated
Many gardening books and compost enthusiasts offer extensive advice on creating the perfect compost by paying careful attention to the ratios of added ingredients. Be sure your compost pile contains both dry, carbon-rich brown materials, such as dead leaves, cardboard scraps; and moist nitrogen-rich green materials, such as grass clippings, vegetable scraps and coffee grounds (see References 3). These materials, with water and oxygen, will decompose into a rich and nourishing soil amendment.Composting Costs Money
When done correctly, composting actually saves you money, because it reduces or eliminates the need to buy fertilizers. You can make a monetary investment in a compost bin, which you can buy prefab or make yourself. Some gardeners choose to skip the bin and simply start a free-form compost pile instead. You can spend a little or a lot to create a space for your compost; ongoing maintenance costs nothing but a little of your time. Similarly, additives such as activators, fertilizer or lime, aren't necessary, either. Mix in a little soil or finished compost if you want to, but don't waste money on other additions.
Starting a small compost bin for household use reduces the amount of waste your family sends to the landfill each week. Although a compost pile is the easiest method of composting, using a compost bin will prevent rodents and other scavengers from digging in your compost in search of food. Choose a bin that's large enough to accommodate your family's food waste and yard clippings and has a sturdy lid to keep out pests.
Step 1: Pick a dry, shady location for your compost bin. If you have a home garden, put the bin near it to reduce the distance you will have to transport the finished compost.
Step 2: Place brown composting materials, such as dead leaves, twigs and branches, into your composting bin. Chop up larger pieces, such as branches, into smaller bits with a shovel or machete so they will decompose quickly.
Step 3: Add green composting materials, such as vegetable scraps, lawn waste and other wet items, to your compost bin. Mix the materials with a pitchfork.
Step 4: Add water as necessary to make the mixture slightly damp, then mix once more. Continue this process, slowly building the depth of your compost as you have more waste to add. Do this until you have at least 10 inches of compost in the bottom of your bin.
Step 5: Bury vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds or other wet items with a strong odor under 10 inches of compost. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends this depth to prevent odors. Moisten the compost with water as necessary to ensure that the mixture is slightly damp.
Step 6:
Mix the compost every two weeks with a pitchfork. This process should add additional air pockets to the mix, reducing odor and accelerating decomposition. http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/start-small-compost-bin
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