How to Get Started With Composting
You can easily start a vegetable garden with nothing more than rich soil and a few choice seeds. But incorporating compost into your plot is an intentional way to boost the nutrients in your garden, fuel plant growth and restore any soil depletion that naturally occurs over time. As an added bonus, you can easily create your own compost without even leaving home.
Here’s how to get started.
See more: 5 Foods You Can Use as Plant Fertilizer
Know Your Ingredients
Before you start tossing anything and everything into a compost pile, you need to know what is and isn’t compost-friendly. You can use things like fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, rice and grains, flower petals, coffee grounds, and even tea bags. You want to avoid things like meat and fish, animal bones, dairy products, and anything cooked in oil or butter.
It’s also important to recognize that even if a household product, such as wipes or other toiletries, are labeled as compost-friendly, it probably means on an industrial level rather than in a household compost pile. Avoid putting those into your personal compost.
Choose a Location
If you have an outdoor space, you want to begin your compost pile directly on the soil. This allows organisms such as worms to get into the compost and aerate the soil, which is precisely what you want.
Pro tip: Set up the compost pile somewhere far enough away from the house to avoid unpleasant smells but not so far that it feels like a hike to get there. You also want to avoid creating a pile against any existing structures, since it’s likely to stain and smell.
If you live in an apartment or need to compost in the house or garage, you can easily choose from a variety of containers, such as:
- Enclosed compost bins like heavy-duty garbage cans
- Compost digesters
- Countertop composters
- Compost tumblers
If you’re composting on a smaller scale, you could even use an airtight container such as an old milk jug or freezer bags. Consider storing these in your freezer if you want to avoid unpleasant smells or problems with bugs and insects.
Layer Up
Cover your chosen space in broken branches, straw or other natural materials like lawn clippings that can help the compost drain and allow air to travel through. Once that’s done, you want to be intentional about layering your compost. Alternate wet and dry scraps. Your kitchen scraps may be moist, but you can use leaves, straw or even wood ashes for your dry layers.
Add Manure
If you really want to jumpstart the process, consider adding manure or lawn clippings that include things like clover or buckwheat. As long as you introduce a nitrogen source, you’ll be able to activate the compost pile.
See more: 10 Ways to Make Your Garden More Eco-Friendly
Water, Water, Water
Compost needs a little water from time to time to help break things down. If you live in a place where it rains often, you can let nature handle the work. Otherwise, consider hosing down the pile every so often to keep things moist.
You also want to cover the pile with a plastic sheet or wood scraps to keep in the moisture and heat, which are essential ingredients for creating good compost.
Stir Things Up
There’s no exact science for how often to turn the pile, but you want to use a pitchfork or shovel to stir the compost every so often. This simple action introduces oxygen, which helps aerate the ingredients and speeds up the composting process.
Use Your Compost
Decomposition time depends on where you live. If it’s nice and warm, your compost could be ready in as little as two months. But if it’s cold, it could take anywhere from six months to a year.
If your compost pile starts to smell more like mulch or fertilizer, you’re probably close. Think earthy, woody scents. It will also start to feel light and fluffy. But if it smells bad, it could either mean that it isn’t quite ready or that you may need to ease up on the moisture content.
Regardless of how long it takes, once it’s complete, all you need to do is scoop it up and add it to your existing garden.