Composting…Getting Started
My close friends and clients already know how darn excited I can get when it comes to talking GREEN. I get really excited about sharing tips and tricks to make you home and life as uncomplicated and non-toxic as possible! It is cheaper to live better improving the air quality of your home by banishing toxins and SAVING money. We've all been brainwashed over a relatively short couple of decades that our former family members had it all wrong...you should by these chemical products to make your home cleaner and your life easier.......well, the better living through chemistry is not working out so well for our health, so our ancestors had it all right! And, we can easily go back to some of those ways without our daily lives being any tougher...I think you'll even find life simpler and better. So, I'll be adding to my tips on buying and selling real estate because I'm passionate about you enjoying the time you spend living in and enjoying your home between the transitions I help you through. So here is my first article on on composting. I'll have a safer spring cleaners post soon!
What is compost and why should I do it?
Compost is a dark, earthy-like material made up of decomposing organic matter. With the help of microorganisms and other small animals such as earthworms (you can buy these to add, but they show up on their own when you provide the lovely environment for them--as you'll see later I only purchased one pitchfork! A very good return on investment for me!), your organic material of yard waste and kitchen scraps will turn into a soil/mulch that is loaded with nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Compost improves the physical nature of soil, which sometimes can be either too sandy or in our case here in Central Ohio, hard and filled with clay. Adding compost to your flower and vegetable beds helps break up that poor soil and allows it to hold moisture, adding nutrients back to the land also stimulates root growth and healthier plants. Compost is nature's more perfect soil additive and best of all, you can make it for FREE!
This is such an amazing process! I am an avid cook...I cook dinner 5-7 days a week. And since I work from a home office, I often eat my breakfast and lunch at home too. So I did a little weighing of what I have been dumping and found that on average I dump about 25 lbs of kitchen scraps a week into my compost pile. That is about 1,300 lbs a year! AND, with all of the yard waste my husband adds to the pile, it whittles down to only 4-5 wheel barrows of rich soil! So you should compost to improve your own land and to keep all of that out of plastic bags in the landfill where it will take years to deteriorate, plus cost you the money to buy all of those bags to put your trash and yard waste into!
The fun part. When you buy organic (not the GMO foods that have been engineered so the seeds won't produce new plants, this is one of many concerns I have for GMOs) and are putting the waste into the pile, you get free volunteer veggie plants! My kids love this...we see what grows and get a few free bonus veggies!
So you should compost because it provides you with free soil to improve your own yard (a better yard is good for your neighborhood and your property value), it is helpful to the environment, and it is fun to see how healthy your plants are (the ones you pay big money for at the nurseries plus the free volunteers).
Let's look at the system that will best suit your needs, or get you started.
5 basic composting systems
1) A black soil saver compost bin which is about the size of a dishwasher. These bins are about 30 inches high with a self locking lid, and water holes directly in the lid to keep compost moist. These tuck nicely in the corner of the yard and are quite easy to use. Most retail around $90. You'll also need a pitchfork, cost of about $40-65.
2) The compost tumbler. I think these are very good for beginners. They are easy and most neighbors won't complain. Tumblers come in a variety of styles, but the basic idea is that you can manually tumble the compost instead of turning it with a pitchfork. These can start at $100 and go as high as $300 or so.
3) Wire bin composters are made of chicken wire work just fine and are very inexpensive. All you need is enough chicken wire to shape a cylinder that measures about 3 feet across and a pitchfork.
If you plan to do a lot of composting you will want to use a three section cedar bin, which allows for the transfer of compost as it passes through the various stages of decomposition. The advantage of the bin system is that the compost is much easier to rotate with your pitchfork and you always have a place to add your yard waste and kitchen scraps while the one bin is "cooking down" and you are using material in the garden and your flower beds from the third.
4) My preference is open pit composting. All that's required is a corner of the yard for your two piles, or you can dig a shallow hole or two to hold the compost. I have one pile I am adding my kitchen waste to and my husband is adding leaves and other yard waste to...the other pile is just being turned. When ready used in the various beds around our home. When that pile is used, the "dump" pile is moved to that turn only location (my piles are side by side), and we start putting the yard waste and kitchen scraps into the "dump" pile.
If you live in a neighborhood with a small yard and limited organic material, a standard bin or tumbler works best. And most neighborhood associations prefer these contained units. If you have a larger yards, acreage, and lots of leaves, grass clippings, and prunings, you will need either a 3 part bin system or compost pit.
Once you've decided on a compost system, the next step is to find a place for it. It should be placed in an area with good drainage, is out of the way, and has plenty of air space.
What do I place in my composter?
Properly done, composting happens quickly. The secret to rapid composting is to layer the organic material, keep it moist, and rotate the material once a week with a pitchfork (or turn the handle on your tumbler!)
The material you can add to your composter is either "greens" which are rich in nitrogen, or "browns" which contain carbon. "Greens" are such things as green leaves and plants, grass clippings, fruit & vegetable scraps from the kitchen, egg shells, coffee grounds, nut shells, and prunings--almost any wet can be added to the compost. I even add small bits of meat, just no bones. "Browns" might include such things as dried leaves, straw, sawdust, newspaper, wood chips, ash, or dried vines.
To begin, add some soil in the bottom of the composter (if using the open pit, you can skip this), spreading it around to make it level. Layer the organic material in by putting in a couple of inches of mixed "greens," followed with a few inches of mixed "browns." If there isn't enough brown material on hand to add to the compost, throw in some shredded newspaper instead, then top it with a sprinkling of soil. After the layering is complete, sprinkle the top and sides with some water, to help keep things moist during the composting process. You can even add a handful of worms to act as decomposers (although our worms found there way to our piles on their own...you may want faster gratification, so add some live fishing worms, and think you've just rescued them from being tortured! LOL).
About once a week, turn the pile over with a pitchfork to aerate the composting materials (or turn your tumbler each time you toss in material). If you continue to turn the pile once a week, the compost should be ready in 1-2 months. Left untouched, composting could take up to a year.
This finished compost is very dark and crumbly, and has a sweet, earthy smell. I've never found my composting to be smelly. As a matter of fact, my two piles are right behind my patio wall...so they are "hidden" and since I sit and read or work on my computer nearby in the nice summer weather, I can a attest that there is no stink or bugs that should be bothersome.
An even easier option (but seriously, the above is not much work)!
You can compost in other ways that don't take a lot of work.
Use the wire bin method. Set several of the cages in the corner of your yard, and use these to dump your kitchen and yard waste into, then forget about them. What works best is to layer the organic matter with a good mixture of "greens" and "browns", and an occasional layer of soil. Give the bin a good watering and then leave it alone until next spring. You'll discover that the material on the top and exposed edges might not have completely broken down, but the rest of the bin will have turned into compost.
Or try this, use black heavy duty garbage bags. Using heavy duty contractor bags. Fill the garbage bag with a mix of greens and browns, toss in a shovelful of soil, and give it a good soaking. Tie up the bag, punch in some air holes and set it in the corner of the yard. Periodically, turn the bags over to rotate the material. Within a few months, you'll have bags of compost. The garbage approach to composting works particularly well with autumn leaves. Just make sure that you add grass clippings or there won't be enough nitrogen to get the process going.
Since I have a large yard and pit compost, I toss in vegetable and fruit scraps all year long. Yes it attracts a few new pets for us. We have possum that loves to eat by torchlight when we have lit the torches and are sitting out back we like to watch him enjoy a feast from time to time. Since I embrace nature a few little guys that visit the pile don't bother me and they don't eat too much...still plenty of compost left for us!
Don't add these items!
There's not much I've found not to add, but here's a short list! Don't include dog or cat droppings, kitty litter, bones, or diseased plants. However, farm animal manure is OK if you have a source that donates this to you--add it.
Composting is just so dang easy! I know you can find a system that works for you. You'll be amazed that your garden soil will be easier to turn in the spring, and that your plants and shrubs will be healthier. You'll be keeping valuable organic material out of the landfill, while reducing your own carbon footprint on the planet. For more information on composting, contact your local county extension office or visit your public library.
