Composting is a natural way of decomposing yard and food waste, which in turn makes yummy plant food. Grass clippings, a little soil, scrap veggies and fruits – composting can’t be that tough, right? That’s going to be a different post. But there are two great reasons to compost: one, compost is great for your garden. The compost is high in nutrients for your plants to eat. And second, it’s being environmentally responsible. Your trash that goes into the compost is not going to the landfill, so when you do it, you’re automatically awesome.
In my research to composting, I found two main ways to do it. Worm composting (aka vermicomposting) uses red wigglers to help breakdown matter. The worms, which are different then regular earthworms, can create very nutrient rich compost and compost that’s high in nitrogen. This is good stuff for the garden. However, you do have to cater to the worms and spend some money to purchase them.
The other way, which is what we decided to do, is to start a compost pile with yard clippings and veggie/fruit scraps. You put a bit of soil on your pile, let the sucker heat up from the microorganisms, and stir the pile occasionally. This seems easy enough, so we’re going to start here.
Here are some Composting Guidelines, which I took from eatdrinkbetter.com:
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. … 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.
So here’s our start. I’ll keep you “posted” (Blogger joke?) how we do.