A Guide To Composting

Composting is a great way to recycle and enrich soil for landscaping and gardening. A compost pile, bin, or system is the collection of plant remains including grass clippings and leaves, kitchen food waste, straw, wood chips and sawdust for decomposition. Once living natural materials conform to create earthy substance that can enrich soil for houseplants, landscaping, plants, and gardening.

Composting is a part of sustainable or green living that helps reduce the volume of garbage loading the landfills. There are many choices for creating a composting system. A simple pile will work, homemade bins, or there are many ready-made bins created from different materials available for purchase.

Composting happens naturally in the environment. Leaves and dead plants accumulate on the forest floor and decay. This decomposition turns to soil creating nutrients for new life. As space for landfills is becoming scarce and garbage is often transported hundreds of miles, composting is a responsible way to eliminate waste and create valuable plant food that can have a significant impact on our environment. The organic materials that qualify for composting, mostly yard and kitchen or cooking waste account for as much as 30% of all waste going to landfills.

Composting is a simple process and most anyone with room in their yard can get involved. Successful composting involves having the right environmental conditions for microbial life.
Compost is created by billions of microbes such as fungi and bacteria. They digest the wastes along with worms and insects to slowly make the compost. The requirements are air, water, and waste.

The air needs to flow in and around your compost pile. Your compost pile should have layers of different waste that allow air in between and should not be packed down. You can fluff your pile up and occasionally turn material over.

The compost pile needs moisture. A dry pile will be a poor microbial habitat and composting will be slow. A compost pile that is so wet the layers mat down against one another can also drag the composting process and create odor. In some rainy climate a cover or tarp might be needed over the pile.

There are two types of waste or microbe food for your compost pile; brown and green. Browns are dead plant materials such dried brown weeds, dried leaves, dry straw and wood chips or sawdust. Browns might need some moisture when you add them to your compost.  Green food is the fresh plants, kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and tea bags that have more nitrogen. Nitrogen is important for amino acids and proteins. Adding a good mix of browns and greens is what the microbes will thrive on. The faster and more they eat the sooner you have compost.

In a seasonal climate microbes are often dormant during winter and start back to work in the spring.  The weather does not have to be hot for a compost pile to decompose. Your pile will decompose fine at 50 degrees F or above.

However a warmer pile will decompose quicker. The typical minimum size for the pile is one cubic meter which has the mass in which billions of heat-generating microbes can thrive. Smaller piles do not stay insulated enough. You can add insulation by surrounding your pile with bales of hay or straw, or bags of dry leaves.

What to Add to Your Compost Pile

  • Kitchen and food waste: Peels and rinds of fruits and vegetables, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea bags, and table scraps are all usually high in nitrogen (greens) and are good for composting. These should be layered or mixed with browns. Because of animals and local regulations you might need to enclose your compost pile. Do not include meat scraps, fatty food wastes, dairy products or any bones.
  • Grass clippings are green and should be added in layers between other wastes or mixed with them. Grass clipping can also be left on lawns to decompose.
  • Hay must be moist when added to a compost pile. Some grass hay will contain seed that will survive and sprout in your garden. Alfalfa hay is great. Greener hay has more nitrogen.
  • Instead of burning leaves or sending them to a landfill, they make a great composting ingredient.  Keep them from matting so your pile gets enough air. Some leaves such as ash and cottonwood can cause an increase in soil PH. This does not help soil already high in alkaline in many semiarid and arid climates.
  • Dry straw will help aerate your compost pile. Wet the straw to speed up decomposition. Straw is brown and needs greens to break down.
  • Weeds are alright but avoid any weeds that have gone to seed because they might sprout when you use the compost in your plants and garden.
  • Wood products are in the 'browns' category and have low levels of nitrogen. Do not add chips or sawdust from chemically treat lumber or particle boards.

What Not to Put In Your Compost Pile 

  • Do not add any diseased plants to your compost pile. Some disease micro organisms could survive the decomposition.
  • Human wastes and feces can contain disease organisms that can cause extreme illness and must be avoided
  • Meat, dairy products, bones, and fatty foods attract pests and break down slowly and need to be excluded.
  • Pet wastes carry diseases that can infect humans and should never be used in your compost pile.
  • Avoid all chemically-treated lumber, wood products, and sawdust. This includes pressure treated lumber, manufactured lumber, and particle board. Wood treated with creosote or 'penta' preservative should be kept away from your compost pile too.
  • Pernicious weeds such as morning glory, sheep sorrel, ivy, and other plants can resprout later from roots or stems. Don't compost these weeds. Composting any weeds that have gone to seed can grow weeds wherever you spread your compost later.

You will know your compost is ready to distribute to your plants or garden when it is dark in color and has an earthy smell. If your compost still has a few bits of leaves or straw that is fine.  If you are use compost to start seeds make sure your mix is well-finished. Otherwise your seedling roots may be eaten by remaining microbes.

You can use your compost in your garden soil, as mulch, or as a plant food tea.  The compost can be mixed with the top soil, added around the base of growing plants, broadcast on a lawn, or over houseplants. 

http://vegweb.com/composting/
Compost Guide - Composting Fundamentals

http://compostguide.com/
Compost Guide

http://www.howtocompost.org/
From beginners to experts this web site is an extensive source of composting information.

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/rrr/composting/index.htm
US Department of Conservation:  Wastes - Resource Conservation - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - Composting

http://www.composting101.com/
A Composting Guide for the Home Gardener

http://journeytoforever.org/compost.html
All about composting

http://www.mastercomposter.com/
Home composting information and resources

http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.html
Composting Guide

http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/Organics/HomeCompost/
Home Composting

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/backyard/compost.html
US Department of Agriculture on Composting

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/kidscompost/kid1.html
Composting for Kids

http://www.compostinstructions.com/
Composting Instructions: How to Compost at Home

http://earth911.com/recycling/garden/composting/
Composting from Earth911

http://composting.cas.psu.edu/
Penn State Cooperative Extension Composting Page

http://www.gardenguides.com/2143-guide-composting.html
Garden Guide to Composting

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