I Post, You Post, Let's Talk About Compost

Compost is a beautiful thing.  You take stuff that's already grown, plants that have already absorbed nutrients from the soil, and you let them break back down into those basic nutrients, ready for use by new plants.  Some plants first take a detour through a horse, cow, rabbit, chicken, cricket, or whatever and then they become compost.  Either way, it's black gold.  There are 3 basic ways to provide yourself with compost: Make it, Shovel it, or Buy it.  We'll cover these in 3 separate posts.

Making It 
One can make a compost pile or bin as complicated or as simple as you'd like.  The basic principle is that whatever organic matter you put in a pile will eventually decay and break down into a black soil-like substance that is great for your garden.  Getting from A to B fastest depends on how many rules you are willing to follow, how much you are willing to spend on a specially-engineered compost bin, and how often you want to stir up your pile.  We'll likely talk more about all these details in a later post, but for now, here's the basics.

What can go in your compost pile:  Any kind of vegetative organic matter.

Yard waste: raked leaves, weeds that have been pulled up, grass clippings, and shrub trimmings as long as the twigs aren't too thick to break down easily.  With weeds, you'll want to be careful that there are no seeds on the plants as remember - whatever goes into the compost bin will eventually go back into your garden.  As long as the weeds are young plants and have not flowered, you would be fine to include them.  You would also want to avoid including any trimmings from thorny shrubs such as hollies or rose bushes, as you'll have your hands in this stuff later.  I learned the hard way while raising 15 rosebushes that this is a mistake you will regret for years to come!

Kitchen waste: Just make sure no meat or eggs get included as that can introduce a fly (or worse) problem or even allow harmful bacteria to get started in your compost pile.  Egg shells are okay.  Coffee grounds are great, along with the paper filters.  And just for fun - look for new compostable packaging that companies are coming up with these days.  I bought a hot tea from somewhere once with a compostable cup and compostable lid!  Sun Chips now come in a compostable bag.  You'll also want to keep an eye out for seeds from kitchen waste too.  Some folks don't care, as having a butternut squash magically appear and thrive in your cucumber bed can always be fun (and tasty); but I've learned my lesson and I try to dig out those larger, harder vegetable seeds and just throw them in the trash.

Other stuff: Like paper.  Newspaper is great, shredded paper is better.  Paper towels, paper napkins, paper bags, etc.  I'm a little bit judicious in the paper I put into my compost pile - sticking to unbleached stuff without a lot of ink.  Office paper is bleached with unnatural chemicals, and there's all kinds of unnatural stuff that can be found in ink.  But really, even that stuff will break down - it just takes more time - so that depends on your slant on the organic issue.

Maintaining a balance: For compost efficiency, it's best to use a ratio of 2 parts dry ingredients to 1 part "wet" ingredients.  Dry ingredients would include raked leaves, dried up weeds, or  paper whereas wet ingredients would be almost all kitchen waste and anything still green.  Grass clippings would be a wet ingredient, and would need to be stirred in well with other stuff so that it doesn't turn into a green slimy moldy mess.  It's tricky to maintain this balance as in the fall and winter dry ingredients are plentiful, and in the spring and summer they are hard to find.  Again though - this is for the sake of efficiency.  If you can't keep up with the ratio, be prepared to "stir" your pile more often and maybe consider building/buying a bin with some sort of roof or lid to help keep the rain off.

Stirring or Shoveling:  The more you stir your pile (or rotate your bin if you purchase the barrel kind with a handle!), the faster you'll get usable compost.  Stirring distributes the organisms that are working hard for you to break down your compost, aerates the pile which is also helpful, and minimizes clumping of wet ingredients.  It's not a fun job, but it doesn't take long and it's very necessary.

Location and Storage: Ideally your compost pile would be located very close to your home so that you could get to it conveniently. And ideally your compost pile would be located far away from your home so as not to attract critters.  Yeah - so you'll need to find a balance.  Unless you do purchase or build a completely-enclosed composting system, I cannot deny it - critters will get involved.  It's usually not a horrible problem, but you wouldn't want to be attracting the occasional possum or raccoon right out beside your back door.  As far as storage, it's fine to simply have a freestanding compost pile.  That's certainly the easiest type to stir!  (Again, unless you purchase a bin with a hand crank).  But if there does arise a significant critter concern, a more substantial bin or barrel is a good investment.  And really - it's great to have at least 2 piles or bins: one that you are currently adding fresh material to and the other that's basically full and you're stirring and waiting for it to be ready for use in your garden.  

What's my compost bin like?  Our bin is constructed of stacked concrete blocks that we got via freecycle and it's got a piece of plywood as a cover.  We use our compost bin more as a way of disposing of kitchen/yard waste and less as a high-production compost operation.  I stir it once every couple of months.  About once a year I'm able to dig out a wheelbarrow full of the rich black stuff and spread it on our garden.  I've got one close friend and several other acquaintances who own horse farms, and I depend on them for most of my soil enrichment.  But we'll discuss that in the next post.