Composting 101 - Making Compost in Composting Bins and Compost Piles

Hi, I'm Tricia, a California organic gardener. Last autumn I took a very inspiring composting class from one of our local biodynamic farmers. I came away from that class with a great understanding about how important and natural it is to transform organic wastes into soil building substances. And today I'm going to build a compost pile and I'm going to show you the tips There are many different composting bins that you can buy or you can make your own or you can just start a pile right on the ground. I'm going to use this Soil Saver compost bin today. Once you've decided where to place your compost pile or your bin, the next step is to decide what to compost. There's two types of materials we're going to use for composting. Brown materials which are high in carbon, green materials high in nitrogen. Some examples of brown materials are straw, leaves, pine needles, and newspaper. And some examples of green materials are chicken manure and food scraps and coffee grounds. Let's build the pile. First thing I'm going to do is layer some straw. Your compost pile will decompose faster if your brown materials are shredded. Now I'm going to add a layer of green. Be sure and alternate your brown layers and green layers about four to six inches thick. Depending on what kind of brown and green materials you use, the ratio will vary. Start with a 50-50 mix and watch your pile. If your pile isn't getting hot enough, add a little bit more green material like the chicken manure. Or if it starts to have an ammonia smell, add a little bit more brown material like the leaves. Then you want to remember, layer your pile. Brown, green. Make sure and water in between layers. You want your compost pile to be moist like a damp sponge so that it decomposes quickly. I've given you some ideas on things that you can use for your compost pile. Now I'm going to tell you some things that you shouldn't use. Manure is okay, but no meat or dairy scraps. No dog or cat poop! No human poop either. Your compost will decompose faster if you stir it or aerate it. If you have a tumbling compost bin, this part is much easier. You should turn your compost pile at least once a week. A well aerated pile will turn out finished compost in a couple of months, where an unturned pile can take as long as a year. Today I'm using a compost aerator. To speed up the composting process, you can take some inoculant and add it to water and spray it on your compost pile. This inoculant contains specifically cultured bacteria, enzymes, and fungus. Your compost pile has to get hot, and a great tool to measure the temperature is this compost thermometer. A good batch of compost should warm up to 120 to 160 degrees over time, killing most seeds, but preserving the beneficial microbial life. Once it cools off again, it's ready for the garden. Well I hope that my very basic tips on how to build a compost pile helped, but if you want more information, I recommend this book, The Rodale Book of Composting. Easy methods for all gardeners. Imagine if we all composted, we could reduce our landfill waste up to 30 percent, and we'd all have healthier gardens. So compost, and grow organic for life.