Composting for Beginners
I haven’t composted since living at home with my folks in the Mitten. I’m so excited to be composting again – the positive benefits are endless!
Immediate benefits of composting? My husband and I have found ourselves only taking out ONE bag of trash per week. Almost seems like a waste of paying for trash services, but we fill up our recycling bin twice as fast…so there’s that! Other benefits include a reduced use of garbage disposal, less stinky garbage in the kitchen, and most importantly NUTRIENTS for our garden!
I love the idea of those lovely ceramic compost containers with carbon filters that sit on the quintessential countertop, but we would fill one of those up so quickly. Instead, we use three large circular food storage containers that sit on the windowsill behind our stove. Crack an egg into the frying pan and toss the shell into the bin, easy peasy lemon squeezy! Pretty? No. Functional? Absolutely! It doesn’t get stinky, as husband walks them out to the pile each night!
When I was home with my folks, we bought a barrel composter for easy rotation. It’s a great tool if you’re going to utilize it properly! It also doesn’t come cheap at $100+ dollars. Last fall, while husband and my dad were busy reinforcing doors and replacing deadbolts in our new house, I was busy raking leaves and creating a simple composting corner in the yard. It took one run to Home Depot to purchase a roll of chicken wire and four garden fence posts for a grand total of $30. I staked out a 4’x4′ square and wrapped the perimeter in chicken wire, leaving one side with the ability to open so we can access the compost for rotation.
Tips and Tricks
For the sake of simplicity, keep your compost in a place close to your garden! It’s easer to toss it over than to lug it across the yard!
Don’t take it too seriously! Compost what you have on hand, not what the books say you HAVE to or SHOULD do! I’m not going out of my way to get items just to toss them in the compost bin.
Keep a good balance of GREEN and BROWN compost to keep the bacteria and worms happy! The more diverse the mix of items, the higher your chance of successfully creating rich compost.
Some recommend two parts green to one part brown, others recommend odd ratios that seem unachievable. Honestly, decomposition is a natural process that is going to happen. As stated earlier, don’t take it seriously and just enjoy the fact that you’ve found a more sustainable way to live.
What is GREEN and BROWN compost?
To put it simply, the green compost is the heat catalyst. It will create rising temperatures in your compost pile that allow the bacteria to flourish. This helps your pile to break down into compost instead of becoming a pile of rotten food!
Brown compost is the food source! It allows all those flourishing bacterial minions to grow and grow! Brown compost is their breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Green Compost
- Grass clippings from your lawnmower
- Coffee grounds and tea bags
- Vegetable scraps
- Fruit scraps
- Eggshells
- Animal manure (horse, cow, pig, sheep, chicken rabbit)
Brown Compost
- Fall leaves
- Dryer Lint
- Straw and hay
- Wood chips and twigs
- Paper products
- Unwaxed cardboard
- Corn Stalks
- Sawdust (from only untreated wood)
DO NOT USE THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR COMPOST PILE
- Dog or cat waste
- Meat waste
- Citrus Peels (they can kill the worms)
- Coals and fire ash
- Sawdust from any treated wood
- Onions (same reason as the citrus peels)
Eventually, I’d love to build a three-stage composting system: raw and fresh compost, and intermediate readiness compost stage, and then ready to use composting material!
