Compost

If you have ever watched a home and garden show, or spent much time reading magazines about growing flowers, you have probably heard about composting. It is all the rage on the green websites too. Several years ago, I thought I would try my hand at composting. I was a little skeptical as I began building the first bin, but it would not take long for our family to be impressed.

Composting is nothing more than managing biomass at home and turning it into soil for gardens and landscape plants. As organic matter decomposes, it turns into some of the best soil you could ever hope to grow a tomato plant in. Composting eliminated one, maybe two bags of trash each week at our house. You never know if recycling glass or plastic really saves money and resources, but there’s little doubt about compost. You can watch the process right before your eyes in just a few weeks.

Some of the things we compost:

• dryer lint, old bread, leaves, paper
  

• spoiled fruit, vegetable peelings, plants
  

• cereal crumbs, coffee grinds, coffee filters

• leftovers, grass, egg shells
  

• chip crumbs, rabbit pellets, gerbil bedding

To get started, you need to build something to hold your compost material. You can see some good ideas here. Ideally, you need three bins to separate the materials through the decomposition process. The first bin has new material and you continually add to it. The second bin has mostly broken down material and could be used as a soil amendment (fertilizer). The third bin is material that is completely broken down. I have been able to make it work with two bins; it just takes a little longer.

The next thing you need to know is layering and aeration. Layering can be broken down into two words: brown and green. I have read that a 3 to 1 brown to green ratio works best, but I have used a 1 to 1 ration and have not had any problems with odor or decomposition; it just breaks down slower. Brown items are old leaves, dead plants, animal bedding, and paper. Everything else is green. Mainly, moist items, or things that contain water are green.

It is important to mix up the contents about once each week to ensure that air is mixed in and reaching all the material in the compost. Exposure to air increases the decomposition rate. This is the reason that materials in landfills do not break down; modern landfills are air tight. I have found it’s easiest to empty the compost from the bin, mix it, and shovel it back in.

One of the ways to be certain that your process is working correctly is that it will make tremendous heat. Often, it gets hot enough that it is uncomfortable to keep your hand against it. Layering correctly helps to breakdown materials quicker. Also, you should have a lid on your composter to help control moisture. Too much rain will definitely slow things down.

Composting may not save the world, but it does reduce material to the landfill. It saves me money because I buy less topsoil each year. This is also where most of our paper junk mail goes. And there is a ready supply of big juicy worms at the composter when it’s time to head to the lake and fish!