The Basics of Backyard Composting: Let’s get started
If you are looking to grow anything in your garden, compost will certainly be one of the most valuable things you can have on hand. It’s super nutrient dense, full of beneficial microorganisms which keep your plants healthy, and it revitalizes your soil to keep your garden producing for years to come.
Building your own compost pile can be an overwhelming task. With all the information out there on ideal conditions, and the “right way” to do things, it can seem a little daunting. But it doesn’t have to be difficult. After all, we have nature on our side, all we need to do is help it along a little.
When it really comes down to it, an active compost pile needs three things. “Green material”, “Brown Material”, and Oxygen. Organic material will rot regardless and eventually turn into usable compost, but a good mix of these ingredients will speed the process along, and help break up more fibrous and dense material.
Green Material for Compost Pile
Green materials are what provide most of the nitrogen to your compost which is part of what makes compost so nutrient dense. An easy way to think about greens is something that a Human or animal might eat in order to gain energy.
Examples of green material:
- Food or Vegetable Scraps
- Coffee Grounds or Spent Tea leaves
- Grass Clippings
- Flower cuttings.
Brown material for compost pile
Brown Materials provide the carbon present in good compost. Plants use carbon to form their structure and build their “bones”
Examples of Brown material:
- Fall Leaves
- Pine Needles
- Sawdust
- Hay
- Dried Grass
- Paper products like newspaper or cardboard
How Much of Each Material to Add?
It’s ok to follow a general rule of thumb here when it comes to figuring out your ratios. Generally speaking you’ll want to have a compost pile which is ⅔ green material to ⅓ brown. If you are somewhere in that area you should be fine.
Building The Pile
The easiest way to build a compost pile is to pick a spot in your yard away far enough away from your other projects that it will not be in the way, but still nearby so you can access your hard earned finished product. If you have all your pre composted material all at once, you can layer them together to build your pile. Green then brown, green then brown and repeat. If you don’t have all your material all at once (which is more common) just continually add greens and browns as you have them available and mix them together with a pitch fork or shovel.
Turning The Pile
There are many opinions on how often to turn you pile. The main objective is to inject oxygen into your pile to keep it “cooking”. Turning your pile will let oxygen rush in to get it going. Oxygen is the fuel for the bacterial which break everything down which means that frequent turning generally breaks material down faster.
You don’t need to be out there every day or anything. Every pile is different and it depends on your own composting timetable. For most folks, turning the pile twice a season is sufficient. Especially if you have multiple piles going at once so you can use on and work on the other. Other folks might turn the pile once a week to keep things going.
If you want to generate finished compost quickly and don’t want to break your back. Look around for a turning composter to ease the physical load.
Conclusion
It’s really that simple! Don’t overthink it, you just need to start piling material in your chosen spot, and continuously add organic material to it and turn it every once in a while. Nature will do the rest. A healthy compost pile will start to heat up, and you’ll be able to feel it by putting you hand close. This means that the compost is cooking!.
The compost will be ready to use when it cools down and you can no longer see any recognizable pre composted material (like a banana peel).
Don’t worry if you can! Just keep turning it and have patience!
Happy Composting!