How To Start Composting

• Composting provides rich, natural fertilizer for your garden, your container plants, and your lawn – and even your houseplants, if you’re a condo or apartment dweller.
• Composting saves money, since you no longer need to purchase fertilizer.
• Composting is a natural form of recycling that helps the earth by reducing food waste.

On an average, composting removes 700 pounds of waste per household from landfills. According to the EPA, “Food scraps and yard waste together currently make up more than 28% of what we throw away and should be composted instead. Making compost keeps these materials out of landfills where they take up space and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.”

Greenhouse gases create the greenhouse effect, which contributes to global warming.

Avid gardener and composter Mommyfairyqueen summed it all up. “You get fantastic ‘gardener’s gold’ for beautiful landscapes and vegetables while reducing the waste in already overtaxed landfills,” she told Café Mom. “Compost helps your soil to retain water, helps reduce erosion, provides all the ‘plant food’ your plants could ever want, and enhances plants’ ability to resist problems with insects and diseases.”

Composting might seem intimidating, complicated, and messy, but we’re here to break down the process for you. As a matter of fact, “breaking down” is how compost is created. Organic matter is broken down by organic processes into rich, natural fertilizer that will help you grow the best garden ever.

Begin with the basics
A compost pile requires three basic ingredients:

• Browns: dry materials, such as dead leaves, twigs, and paper
• Greens: wetter materials, such as green yard trimmings, grass, and food scraps
• Water: to help the process along

What can and can’t be composted
You can compost anything that used to be a plant. Even shredded newspaper, cotton and wool rags, and dryer lint fit this bill. A backyard home compost pile is usually created with a combination of kitchen scraps and garden waste.

Warning: Not all organic material can be composted. Here’s a list of items that can’t go in your compost pile, such as bread and cooking oil. And here’s another list that includes some less obvious items that can be composted, like wine and expired spices.

Where should I compost?
Locate the compost pile in an area most convenient for you, but you probably will want to keep it near a water source and easily accessible to your kitchen and your garden. You can start out with a simple pile, or you can purchase or build a bin.

Begin composting!
“Layer green and brown vegetable matter and keep it barely moist. It doesn’t get simpler than that,” advised Mommyfairyqueen. Now, some people like to stir the pile regularly and that is great to mix up the materials you’ve thrown in and even break some things into smaller pieces to help them rot faster, but it is not necessary.”

Compost is usually ready to use from as early as one month to one year. According to the University of Florida, here are the signs that will let you know your compost is done:

• The pile has shrunk significantly, up to one-half its original volume.
• The original organic materials that you put in are no longer recognizable for what they were.
• If you are using a hot composting method, the pile will be no longer generating a significant amount of heat.
• The compost has a dark crumbly appearance and an earthy odor.

If you don’t have enough space in your yard for a compost pile or bin, it’s no problem. This CafeMom Studios video shows you how you can compost in a smaller space, like your garage. Composting is even possible in an apartment.

Rachel Meeks told CafeMom how she set up a worm compost bin in her small apartment, explaining, “My main concern before I started was that the compost would have a bad smell. I shouldn’t have worried — the compost bin has absolutely no smell at all. Ours is hidden inside a cabinet, and no one ever knows it’s there.” (Yes, worms! Don’t worry, they’re not gonna escape!)

If you’re interested in digging into more information about composting, there are many educational and governmental resources available online, like this one from NC State University. Also, HowToCompost.org has some additional helpful tips for beginners. Happy composting!