Compost Turns Your Garbage into Gold

Nature recycles all organic matter into compost or humus—that nutrient-rich, pungent fluff with the aroma you love on a warm spring day. You can make humus with practically no cost at nature’s slow pace using just kitchen scraps, dried leaves and dirt. Or you can put in a bit more effort and speed the process considerably, creating potting mix or garden soil in under three weeks.

Why Compost?

It’s easy. Most of the work is done by helpful insects, worms, bacteria and fungi. Humus helps plant growth by adding nutrients, improving moisture retention in the soil, and helping to break down heavy clay soils.It’s flexible. You can do it in your home with red worms, on a porch or patio, or with chicken wire or a compost bin in your yard.

It’s important. Since about 30% of municipal waste is yard and food waste, you will help reduce landfill use, disposal costs and the number of garbage bags you use. Why pay to have it hauled away when you can instead make free potting soil?

If flies appear, simply turn each addition gently into the top layer of the pile,or add a bit of dirt on top.

How to Compost

Passive composting requires only that you add food and yard waste to a pile and wait. Nature will take its course, but it will be a slow process requiring months.

To shorten the process to just a few weeks, you must do three things: (a) feed the pile with a good carbon:nitrogen ratio; (b) chop up materials; and (c) keep it moist and aerated.

Carbon:Nitrogen Ratio. The bacteria, fungi, insects and worms that break down the pile to form humus need carbon as an energy source and nitrogen as a building block. The ideal ratio of C:N is 30:1, or 30 times as much carbon as nitrogen.

If you have too much carbon from mostly sawdust or dry leaves, progress may be very slow, so you should mix in nitrogen materials. If you smell ammonia, you have too much nitrogen and need more carbon.

No individual layer should be more than 6" deep. For wood ashes, use many thin layers.

Surface Area & Volume. The more surface area the organisms have to work on, the faster the decomposition will go. Chop your kitchen waste. For yard waste, shred it with a lawn mower, shovel or trimmer (you can use the trimmer inside a garbage pail), or crumble it by hand before adding it to the pile.

A larger pile (diameter about 2 ft/0.5 m) will generate and retain more heat for composting, while also being manageable for turning to maintain air circulation. Ideally, the center of the pile should be hot enough to be uncomfortable to the touch.

Moisture & Aeration. Like all living things, micro-organisms need air and water. Keep the pile as moist as a wrung out sponge, and turn it to introduce air every other week, but not more often. Use a pitchfork, shovel or a special tool called an “aerator.” If it is not properly aerated, your pile may develop an off odor.

What to Compost

Getting Started

First, decide which type of composting you wish to use. The options range from using red worms indoors to using a variety of outdoor compost bins.

For red worms, all you need is a container, worms, bedding material such as newspaper and food scraps. Outdoors, place 4” of carbon materials such as twigs, straw or dry leaves at the bottom of your bin. Over this spread a few shovels of dirt. Then start adding the appropriate materials, described above. That's it.

In winter, layer 12" leaves and then add kitchen scraps as usual. Freezing will enhance fiber breakdown. In spring, add a few shovels of dirt on top, then mix all the material to start the decomposition process again.

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