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Compost 101: Don’t Start a Garden Without It!
No garden would be complete without its own natural recycling system, a compost pile. Without a way of dealing with compost, weeds and scraps are waste. But why create more trash when you can turn your garden and kitchen waste into valuable soil-building fertilizer?
One of the first steps to starting an organic garden should be to begin a compost pile. Composting will break down organic matter into nutrient-rich material that builds soil and nourishes plants. And just like anyone can garden, no matter their situation, there are composting possibilities for everyone! Read on to learn how to close the loop and start composting…
Possible Composting Methods
• A big outdoor compost heap or bin. If you have the space in your garden or yard, a large compost heap is the best way to make the most of all your organic matter waste and fertilize a large garden. Your compost pile can be as simple as a loose heap in a sheltered area of the yard, or as fancy as a pre-made tumbling bin. For my garden, I created a simple 3-sided structure (pictured above) along the fence using free shipping pallets held up by rebar posts that were pounded into the ground. A compost pile should be at least 3′ x 3′ x 3′ to break down the organic matter well. It’s best to allow it to breathe, and you’ll need to be able to easily access it to stir your compost every so often to keep it going. You can find bin construction instructions and ideas here.
• A worm bin for vermicomposting. The idea of keeping a bin of worms to eat garbage freaked me out at first, but now that I’ve harvested a few rounds of rich worm castings and seen the results, I’m a big believer in worm power. You can build your own worm bin or buy a ready-made stacking bin (I’ve had great results with the Can o’ Worms). Worm composting can be scaled to your available space, so it’s great for keeping in a garage, deck, or even in the kitchen. I use both a worm bin and a garden compost pile because my worm bin can only digest so much, so I only give the worms kitchen scraps. Some worms often don’t like things like onions, citrus, and hot peppers, so those can go in the compost pile.
• Small-scale container composting. Bokashi, or bucket composting, is a high-speed and scalable composting method developed in Japan. This is ideal for apartment-dwellers or for generating compost quickly. It uses special microbes to speed up the composting process.
• Collective composting. Some municipalities will collect yard waste for composting much like they collect recycling and trash. This is an option if you have no room to compost or no use for compost. Alternatively, you could organize a collective compost pile for your apartment complex, neighborhood, or community garden.
Once you have chosen the best composting method for your needs and lifestyle, you can learn how to build a composting set-up and start turning your veggie scraps and weeds into valuable garden fertilizer. But before you start, here are a few tips and reminders…
Composting Guidelines
• Layer your pile. If you’re building a large compost pile, you’ll want to layer it with alternating layers of “green” and “brown” organic matter. It helps to throw some soil, manure, or completed compost on top to get the microbes working. I like to put woodier things like dead plant stalks on the bottom and layer veggie scraps, weeds, and dead leaves on top. The amounts of the various types of organic matter will determine how long your compost takes to decompose.
• Know what to compost and what not to. Before you throw just any organic matter into your bin, make sure you research what your bin can handle. For instance, worms don’t seem to like citrus (too acidic) or anything too spicy, but they love coffee grounds. Keep meat and dairy products out of compost piles, as they can go rancid and also attract critters, though eggshells are ok. And large pieces of wood or sticks may take a long time to break down, so they’re best left out of the compost bin.
• Let it breathe. For most compost bins, the organic matter needs a way to get oxygen so that it can break down (the exception to this is a Bokashi system, since it uses unique microbes that don’t need oxygen). Worm bins usually have ventilation holes, and allowing some air to get into your compost bin or container helps for this. My compost container is only 3-sided and air can get in through the slats in the pallets that are used for walls.
• Keep it moist. Compost needs moisture to aid in decomposition. I water my compost pile a little bit every time I water the garden. It doesn’t like to be soaked though, so in the rainy season you may want to put a tarp over the pile or bin.
• Turn it occasionally. How often you turn your compost pile depends on how fast everything is breaking down. Normally the center of a compost pile will be warm. Once the heat starts dying down, you can stir or turn it with a garden fork to get the decomposition going again. Stirring your pile every few weeks can help it decompose faster.
• Multiple piles for a constant supply. If you keep adding kitchen scraps to a compost pile, each addition will be at varying stages of decay. This can make it difficult to know when to harvest finished compost. It may help to start a big pile in the spring, then let it sit (stirring occasionally) and start a new one to add new waste to. This way you always have compost in the works. With vermicomposting, you can keep adding and harvest a layer of the bin, moving the worms to a new layer. With container composting, usually the turn-around time for compost is pretty quick, but multiple containers can’t hurt.
Compost is an artform that’s best learned through practice. Everyone has different methods, which you’ll learn as you experiment. Composting is simple, inexpensive, and very eco-friendly. It’s recycling you can do right at home! You may be amazed at how little ends up in the trash can once you start composting, and instead of filling the landfill, you can turn waste into delicious home-grown produce!
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19 comments
add your comment »Thanks for the information, but almost every person I have ever tried to convince over the years to compost has said they don't want to because every single article about it makes it look like they have to turn and keep moist etc.
Those things speed up the process, but you can just (as I do) have a pile back in the corner that you never, ever touch and eventually Mother Nature does what she has done for millions of years on her own and I end up with my waste not being waste, but going back where it belongs.
So I would ask everyone that ever writes or talks about it to always tell people they can speed up the process by doing work, but they don't have to and that will mean more people do it.
If you have an area where there might be a low spot of where a tree trunk had rotted away, then just build up your compost on that spot and it'll fill in the depression, then start a different pile elsewhere.
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At my house we have two huge piles. We have one mainly for the garden and its been there for as long as i remeber. My dad just throws pretty much anything organic on. Just not meat or anything. We have a huge raised bed veggie garden in our back yard. During the season my dad adds to the pile, turns it , and waters it and it works wonders. When spring comes my dad put the compose all over the garden and we get healthy and yummy homegrown...and I might add organic veggies!
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i wish we still had space for our garden. now, its just space for parking our car. my mom's doing all she can to restore out garden in some spaces we have left. she has planeted some plants around the house an near the parking space. i'll share this with her. thanks!
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I live in a tract home on a very small lot and I compost in a big Rubbermaid storage bin with holes punched on each side, and in the lid and on the bottom. It sits within a larger shallow under-the-bed storage bin with a couple of bricks in between the two. Whatever drips thru, I use to water container plants. All kitchen veggie and fruit waste, coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells go into the bin. It is turning a lovely dark brown and smells nice and earthy. Takes up about two square feet of space. For more tips and ideas, check out www.organic-eden.com. Look for the composting link on the left side of the home page.
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I agree with Teena, composting is best done the lazy way! I recommend anyone looking into composting for the first time to check out:
www.greenhome.com.
These guys both teach you and supply you with whats needed to begin composting. I like the Composter - NatureMill PRO, but I've heard that the vermicomposter they sell is supercool if you're into worms! Greenhome makes it affordable and easy, composting is fun, try it out!
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This is a pet subject for me. You might say I am a composting professional. :-)
First, get the book, LET IT ROT! It's great and very cheap. Even that is not required as nothing is more natural and automatic than composting.
Watch out about using pallets, many contain preservatives such as cyanide or other toxic chemicals that were spilled on them that can leach into your compost, your soil and your food.
Yard was that is acidic can indeed be a problem. Large amounts of oak leaves for example can be tough to break down. Walnut, Laurel and Rhododendron also contain chemicals toxic to other plants.
I think everyone should compost and fortunately many towns are making it mandatory. It's the only way to return the nutrients to the earth and close the nutrient cycle of human food production, fighting soil depletion as well.
Some people may gripe but if they realized how much money this will save them in the long term in taxes and toxic cleanup costs from landfills they would not complain.
There is a new system going into production, which I am the inventor of. The ORB organic waste to energy non-food biofuels system which efficiently converts compostable material into clean natural gas, fertilizer and organically charged water. If applied nationally in the USA this will produce over 1/2 trillion dollars of clean energy each year.
Its a very safe, sustainable, cost effective and eco friendly process too and I am quite duly very very proud to have had the inspira
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Have a lot of friends in AZ, NV, NM and here in hot areas of California who have great compost systems. The secret in a hot climate is to place the compost bins on the north side of the home and or under shade trees. And I prefer an enclosed tumbler composters since snakes etc cannot get inside. And composters don't catch fire. The heat they give off is steam related.
~Beth~
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I would love to start composting, but I live in Arizona, and am afraid the heat will be too much, and start a fire.
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We compost by allowing our chickens who are pets, to have first dibs at the kitchen scraps. This way they eat the vegetable and fruit,grain scraps which gives them healthy food along with the garden as a whole. And as the eat and scratch the ground gets mixed and their manure enriches the soil. So nothing goes to waste.
Also recommend rescuing wood pallets from local businesses and use these to make fence style compost bins.
And when you see tree trimmer companies in you area ask if you can have the wood chips they have. Most tree trimmers around me have to pay to dump the wood chips, so it saves them money by allowing them to dump the chips on your property where you can let them age to use as mulch in gardens and pathways.
And if you know the lawn care folks don't use pesticide on lawns they to are happy to give you the lawn clippings they collect, since they to have to pay to dump the stuff.
And as a side note, if you have a septic system, add one cup of active culture homemade yogurt to the toilet once a month as the active cultures are what digest the septic tank contents.
~Beth~
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I just throw mine in a pile in the corner of the yard and then take the tiller a few times a year and grind it all up. I save the egg shells in a bucket, crush them up and add them to my pots of veggies growing on the deck.
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