How to Make Compost
It's easy to cook up your own compost. Just layer organic materials -- garden clippings, dry leaves, kitchen vegetable scraps, shredded paper -- and a dash of soil to create a concoction that turns into humus, the best soil builder around.
Before you start piling on, recognize that there are two types of composting: cold and hot. Cold composting is as simple as collecting yard waste or taking out the organic materials in your trash (such as fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds and filters, and eggshells) and then corralling them in a pile or bin. Over the course of a year or so, the material will decompose.
Hot composting is for the more serious gardener, and you get compost in one to three months during warm weather. Four ingredients are required for fast-cooking hot compost: nitrogen, carbon, air, and water. Together, these items feed microorganisms, which speed up the process of decay.
To create your own organic hot-compost heap, wait until you have enough materials to make a pile at least 3 feet deep. Then, to ensure an even composition of materials, create alternating 4- to 8-inch-deep layers of green materials (kitchen scraps, fresh leaves, coffee grounds) and brown materials (dried leaves, shredded paper, untreated sawdust).
Sprinkle water over the pile regularly so it has the consistency of a damp sponge. Don't add too much water -- otherwise the microorganisms in your pile will become waterlogged and drown. If this happens, your pile will rot instead of compost.
Check to see if your pile is decomposing by monitoring temperature. Check the temperature of the pile with a thermometer, or simply reach into the middle of the pile with your hand.
During the growing season, you should provide the pile with oxygen by turning it once a week with a garden fork. The best time to turn the compost is when the center of the pile feels warm or the thermometer reads between 130 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Stirring up the pile helps it cook faster and prevents material from becoming matted down and developing a bad odor. At this point, the layers have served their purpose of creating equal amounts of green and brown materials throughout the pile, so stir thoroughly.
When the compost no longer gives off heat and becomes dry, brown, and crumbly, it's fully cooked and ready to feed to the garden.
- Fruit scraps
- Vegetable scraps
- Eggshells
- Coffee grounds
- Grass and plant clippings
- Dry leaves
- Finely chopped wood and bark chips
- Shredded newspaper
- Straw
- Sawdust from untreated wood
- Anything containing meat, oil, fat, or grease
- Diseased plant materials
- Sawdust or chips from pressure-treated wood
- Dog or cat feces
- Weeds that go to seed
- Dairy products
Create Your Own Compost
How can you make your garden grow better? Let's try this recipe for a success. Composting, it's 1-part green material; it's a 2-part brown material. Now, green materials are things like this fresh grass clippings. You've got some green leaves, some plant stalks, and some green hedges along with vegetables and fruit scraps from your kitchen. Now, brown materials are things like twigs, dried grass and leaves, and shredded newspapers, and wood chips, and actually coffee ground are actually a really good brown material, but if you don't drink coffee you can always check with your local coffee houses because many of them will save the grounds and will give them away to composter. Now there are few things you should never put into your compost. You don't want to use things like animal meats or fats, weeds with seed heads, any kind of animal waste or breads or dairy products. Just stay completely away from that. Now, if you haven't already picked up my Try this segment on inexpensive composting bin, you'll wanna do that first. Then, once you've got your bin, you'll just start your compost pile by layering the 1 part green, the 2 parts brown. So just take the green. That's got 1 part and then I got my brown and the coffee ground in. That's it. Okay, so you're also gonna wanna add a little bit of soil and soil is great because it has microorganisms; and it helps everything decompose. We'll just layer that on and then once again, keep up with your layering the 1 part green, the 2 parts brown. And keep in mind that your compost needs to be turned and mixed regularly in your bin. In fact, the more you mix, the faster your compost will ready be use. And then you'll just know it's ready when it looks and feels like potting soil. So try composting, it's a great way to recycle and a great way to feed your plants.
Continued on page 2: All About Compost Bins
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