A woman carries food scraps to a compost bin with holes for aeration.
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In nature, nutrients recycle efficiently on their own. Nearly every bit of plant or animal organic matter in a forest, for example, decomposes gradually until it becomes part of the soil. Soils contains between 0 percent and 10 percent organic matter. Generally, the more organic matter, the more fertile the soil. Human systems are much less efficient. Cultivation can reduce organic matter by 30 percent to 50 percent (see References 1). That organic matter ends up in landfills, where it only grows bacteria and only produces carbon dioxide. By composting and using your compost as fertilizer, you can improve the productivity of your garden while reducing your ecological footprint.
Items you will need:
- Compost bin or trash can
- Food scraps
- Yard clippings
- Water
- Shovel or pitchfork
- PVC pipe
Building a Compost Heap
Keep a bucket in your kitchen to hold food scraps and other biodegradable materials. Put it in a cupboard or under the sink to contain any smell. Any peels or other vegetable remains should go into the bucket, as should coffee grounds and egg shells. Crush egg shells before adding them to the bucket, and avoid adding meat and oil altogether, as they can foster the wrong sort of bacteria and attract animals.
Empty your food waste bucket regularly to avoid odors and flies. Dump it in a pile, preferably 30 feet or more away from your house. Alternatively, you can store your compost in a specially designed bin or garbage can. Use a hammer and nail to puncture air holes in the side of the garbage can before use.
Add other wastes such as grass clippings, fallen leaves, weeds you've pulled or plants you've trimmed, as well as paper and even cardboard. Paper should be ripped or shredded, and cardboard should be shredded and mixed with water.
Collect animal manure using a shovel and add it to the heap as well. Don't add dog, pig, cat or human manure to your compost pile because of the presence of potential parasites.
Maintaining a Compost Heap
Water your compost heap regularly. The compost should be kept moist, but not so wet that the water replaces air, and the bacteria doesn't have enough oxygen. If you can squeeze water out of a handful of compost like a wet sponge, it's too wet. Mix in dry materials such as sawdust, hay or leaves to reduce moisture.
Turn the compost often. Turning the compost speeds its decomposition by keeping oxygen levels high. Ideally, you should rotate your pile every week or two weeks.
Monitor the makeup of your compost pile to achieve a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio somewhere around 25- or 30-to-1. The compost should have the right mixture of material with a high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, generally called "brown material," and a low carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, or "green material." As a rule of thumb, dry waste such as leaves, plant trimmings, egg shells and sawdust are brown materials with a lot more carbon than nitrogen. Wet wastes such as fruits and vegetables, manure and grass clippings are richer in nitrogen. A compost pile with too much brown material may seem too dry and hard, while one with too much green material may become slimy and smelly. Too much brown material or too much green material slows the decomposition process.
Shred wastes for fast composting, especially materials with high carbon-to-nitrogen ratios like hay, leaves or paper.
Start a new pile when your compost pile gets too big. Adding new materials to a pile that's already been decomposing for a while only prolongs the time until you have usable fertilizer. Piles larger than 5 or 6 feet in any dimension are also harder to turn.
Using Your Compost
Monitor the progress of your pile regularly. When you can no longer distinguish any bits of food scraps and the compost feels like soft, dark soil, it's ready for use.
Spread compost over the top of your garden -- 1 or 2 in. thick, or thicker if you have enough compost. You can plant seeds and seedlings in the freshly added compost, or add it to the soil of plants that are already growing.
Give extra compost to a friend with a garden. If you have more than you can possibly use, it's better to give it away than allowing rainwater to leach the nutrients away. Many cities, such as Berkeley, California, also have municipal collection of compost or compostable materials.
Tips
- Though grass clippings are an excellent addition to compost, they can also be left to decompose on the lawn itself.
- Recycling human feces can be tricky, but many dedicated organic farmers use composting toilets. A simple composting toilet consists of a plastic bucket with a toilet seat. Avoid urinating in a compost toilet. Always add sawdust, leaves or plant debris and cover after use, and use the resulting compost only when it is totally degraded, with no smell. This type of fertilizer is best used on fruit trees and crops that are not for human consumption or whose edible parts aren't in the soil.
- Drill or hammer holes into PVC pipe and insert horizontally or vertically deep into the pile to improve aeration.
Eric Moll began writing professionally in 2006. He wrote an opinion column for the "Arizona Daily Wildcat" and worked as an editor for "Persona Literary Magazine." He has a Bachelor of Science in environmental science and creative writing from the University of Arizona.
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