Fall is here — leaves are flying and clear plastic bags full of them are piling up at the curbs. Some of those leaves have made their way to our compost piles, thanks to some happy volunteers raking in our neighborhood, and one of our crew members, Brandon, who filled his van full of bags and brought them for us to (re)use. Leaves are great fuel for the compost pile — they’re an excellent source of carbon (see below) to feed your compost pile, bin, or bucket. Having a compost pile reduces the amount of garbage you generate, and using the fallen leaves you rake helps take a bit of the burden off the street sweepers and garbage collectors, providing you with some “black gold” for your garden and good Karma for reusing your waste. Putting compost in your garden soil improves its structure and its ability to hold water, and also provides essential nutrients and beneficial micro-organisms to the soil and the plants you grow in it. Still not convinced that you should start your own compost pile? Wait until you see how easy it is…
Here is the new compost bin we setup at our garden to help us reuse our garden waste and the leaves we have been raking up. The container that you use for a compost setup can be just about anything, or nothing — 5 gallon buckets, straw bales, an old garbage bin with holes drilled in the sides (for air circulation), a circular frame of “chicken wire” (welded wire), or a simple, large, static pile right on the ground. In the picture, we used a forklift pallet and some reclaimed 2×4′s and slats to build a frame, and closed up the front with a bit of welded wire mesh. Every container may have a slightly different process to how you compost in it, but you’ll figure it out as you go. Compost is a great learning experience because of just that — there isn’t an absolutely “right” way to do it, but you learn ways to do it better as you go.
When choosing or building a container, important things to keep in mind are the amount of space you have to work in, the amount of materials you have to work with, air circulation, and where the container will go. If you have, for example, a small upper apartment, you might be better off going with an indoor worm bin or a Bokashi composter. Also, the 3-bucket compost system utilizes three small containers (like 5 gallon buckets) to quickly decompose small amounts of waste at a time in a small space — and it’s especially helpful in winter.
Compost is the product of nature’s decomposition process. You can make it scientific or simple. Bacteria, mold, and fungi break down waste with a little help from their friends — the worms. As they break down the materials, it consumes oxygen, carbon and nitrogen, creating heat and releasing water. Having a good balance of oxygen, moisture, carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich materials creates an ideal atmosphere for the beneficial bacteria and other decomposers hard at work making your compost. Learning how to get that balance is part of the experience. It’s not completely necessary (anything will break down over time), but it helps reduce odors, speeds up the process and makes a better product.
When you begin your pile, and while you build it, try to balance the kinds of ingredients you put into it by adding a layer of one when you add the other. If you put a layer of kitchen scraps in your bin (primarily “greens”), put a layer of leaves or shredded paper or wood chips (“browns”) to even it out. You can get very technical, but you don’t have to — it’s your compost pile. Compost 101 has a good article to reference for carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich materials. They have a very rigid, technical approach to balancing the carbon to nitrogen ratio (25:1 C:N) — which is a bit over-complicated for the beginner — but is helpful to think about. They also have some great tips to consider as well.
There are two types of ingredients for your compost: browns and greens (or carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich). Browns include: paper, ashes, cardboard, cornstalks, leaves, and wood chips. Greens include: grass clippings, garden waste, coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, and weeds. See the link above or google for a more complete list. AVOID Adding: meat scraps or bones, sawdust from treated woods, grease or fatty foods, domesticated animal feces, clippings from chemically treated lawns, etc. Think about what you add to your pile before you add it.
Aeration and moisture are the only other elements that you may have to provide, depending on how you establish your compost system and how you maintain it. If you purchase a bin composter, or build one from a old garbage can, you may need to turn it every now and then to give it some air. If you build a large static pile, you may only turn it over once or twice. If you add too much nitrogen-rich materials, you might end up with a wet, stinky mess — and too much carbon leaves your pile dry and cold. My suggestion is to keep it simple: start small and add a little bit of brown every time you add a little green, and experiment with different kinds of compost techniques to learn how the materials work. As your experience grows, so will your pile (and vise versa).
