New gardeners or environmentalists wanting to stop the cycle of trash as much as possible are likely interested in how to compost. Searching around on the internet might lead them to believe that composting is complicated and involves either buying a bin or making one.
However, these readers will be glad to know that composting needn't be that difficult. Composting takes only a little bit of time, a little bit of know-how, and one or two garden tools. And composting has many benefits: less trash, so it's more environmentally friendly than sending waste to the landfill, and better soil to use in the garden.
The Basics of Composting: Greens and Browns
All anyone really needs to know about composting is that he'll need a combination of green and brown waste. While composting will work with just one or the other, having both in one's compost pile will enable the compost to break down more quickly.
So what are brown and green materials? Brown ingredients are high in carbon content. Think of these materials as "totally dead," things like dried leaves, straw, dried grass, sawdust, paper, etc. Green materials, on the other hand, are high in nitrogen content. Think of most green ingredients as things that are "barely dead," items like fruit peels, vegetable scraps, fresh grass clipping, and the like.
While many different sources advise different ratios of brown to green, about half and half will work just fine.
Putting the Compost Pile Together: Useful Tips
Obviously, a compost pile needs some dirt in the mix so the micro-organisms can get to work. A small area of one's yard will work just fine. If the gardener plans to also use the rich soil he gets from composting, he will probably want to have two compost piles - one that is in the process of breaking down and one that's finished and ready to use.
It's best to layer green, then brown, then soil; then another cycle of green, brown, and soil, and so on. For kitchen scraps, the smaller the chunks, the better. In other words, before throwing the watermelon rind in the mix, if the gardener chops it into small pieces first, so much the better. It simply aids in speeding up the composting process. However, if he chooses to leave the chunks large, that's fine as well. It's also best to stick with non-meat material. Meat scraps will attract dogs and the wrong kind of bugs! But any vegetation, as well as other things people don't always think about (like hair and cotton rags), is just fine for the compost pile.
Ideally, the compost pile will heat up because of the micro-organisms, adding to the breakdown. A thermometer is not necessary, although some hardcore composters like to use one to make sure their compost heap is working at its top efficiency.
It's also not a bad idea to sprinkle a little water on the compost pile from time to time if there hasn't been rain in a while. Again, the water simply aids in the breakdown.
Every few days, the gardener will want to stir up the mix. She can use a simple shovel or a pitchfork, whatever seems easiest. The main thing is to just move things around a bit. Again, it speeds up the process by adding air back into the mix.
Composting is Good for the Garden and the Earth
And, really, that's all there is to it. Composting doesn't have to be complicated. And it does so much, even when it doesn't seem like it. It helps the earth by reducing the amount of waste families generate (because it is immediately "recycled") and it helps the garden by creating rich soil ideal for planting.
Cynthia Jones-Shoeman - Cynthia (“Cindy”) Jones-Shoeman earned her MA in English from Colorado State University in 2007; her thesis was "Toni ...
