Why make compost?
Compost is one of nature’s best mulches and soil amendments, and you can use it instead of commercial fertilizers. Best of all, compost is cheap. You can make it without spending a cent. Using compost improves soil structure, texture, and aeration and increases the soil’s water-holding capacity. Compost loosens clay soils and helps sandy soils retain water. Adding compost improves soil fertility and stimulates healthy root development in plants. The organic matter provided in compost provides food for microorganisms, which keeps the soil in a healthy, balanced condition. Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus will be produced naturally by the feeding of microorganisms, so few if any soil amendments will need to be added.
Most gardeners have long understood the value of this rich, dark, earthy material in improving the soil and creating a healthful environment for plants. Understanding how to make and use compost is in the public interest, as the problem of waste disposal climbs toward a crisis level. Landfills are brimming, and new sites are not likely to be easily found. For this reason there is an interest in conserving existing landfill space and in developing alternative methods of dealing with waste. Don’t throw away materials when you can use them to improve your lawn and garden! Start composting instead.
Our hands our being forced to deal creatively with our own yard waste, as one by one, cities are refusing to haul off our leaves and grass clippings. About one third of the space in landfills is taken up with organic waste from our yards and kitchens, just the type of material that can be used in compost. With a small investment in time, you can contribute to the solution to a community problem, while at the same time enriching the soil and improving the health of the plants on your property.
Want the super quick version of how to make compost? Visit our Composting Tips page.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
How to compost cotton plants after harvest which is in huge quantity. What are the catalyst which can accelarate the decomposting faster.
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I am not really an expert on large scale municipal or farm scale composting. Just home composting.
You might try this link to learn more: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/farmcompost.html
Great information. One story- when we started composting 20years ago (!) we cut the trash we put out to the curb in half! Also, the trash we put out was way less smelly. I love composting! Once you start, you can’t get enough for your garden!
should i add lime to my compost, or anything at all?
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No, you should not add lime. Lime affects the pH.
Compost is typically pH neutral, so you don’t need to add anything that would change that.
I can’t really find a downside to composting at home. Reduce the waste I send to the landfill and fertilize my garden. There are terrific options for all types of home composters, so there really is no reason not to do it. I love it that many communities are starting to encourage residents to compost.
I’m cleaning up the garden — first preparation for fall — and there are a bunch of mushrooms/toadstools under my raised beds. Soem are fairly large. Do i put them into my home compost bin or into the city’s yard waste bin (along with the weeds)? If they can go into my home compost bin, do i have to identify them first? Thanks!
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Mushrooms and toadstools from your yard are fine to add to your compost. You don’t need to identify them first.
Great! Thanks!!
thank you very much,this is my try at making compost, I need all the help I can get. this website has been very helpful.
My neighbor has begun composting yard waste on his property. He has fenced in a large area at the back of his property, which unfortunately is the front of my property, and the pile is about 15 feet from my kitchen window. I am concerned that this will not only be unsightly, but also have an odor. Any suggestions?
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The good news is that yard waste does not generally generate many smells. But I agree that it might be a bit unsightly to have it in a spot near the window.
My best suggestion would be to ask him nicely if he could maybe move it to a different part of the back of his property that isn’t so close to you.
What do I start it with? Do I need dirt or sawdust, etc? I have fruit and veggies skins and peels, but what else do I need. Thank you, Sami
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Just start with what you have. In the end, everything breaks down! It will just happen faster or slower, depending on how you do it.
Ideally, you’ll want to have a good mix of carbon rich materials and nitrogen rich materials. Fruit and vegetable scraps are nitrogen rich, so you might want to find something like leaves that are carbon rich to mix in with what you’ve got to keep a better balance.
i like to know why you can,t use black walmut leaves for compost. i have a large leaf vac that you tow behind a tractor and cuts them into small pieces
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Black Walnut leaves can be toxic to other plants, so it is best to avoid composting them.
http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/yates/MG4.25.01.htm
http://web1.msue.msu.edu/msue/iac/greentip/blackwal.htm
Im thinking I did something wrong. My compost pile is actually in my garden. And I rotatiled my garden this summer before planting vegtables and I had the worst weeds ever! And only in my vegtable garden-not in my flower beds. Is it wrong to have the copost pile in my garden-I did it again this year and Im wondering if I should rotatil now, and move my pile next year??
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Are you adding weeds to the compost pile?.
In theory, a compost pile that gets hot enough will kill all of the weed seeds. But if you don’t get your pile hot enough, then it won’t. You can avoid the possibility by not composting any weeds — particularly weeds going to seed.
If you aren’t adding weeds to the pile, then it might just be the act of rototilling is stirring up the dormant seeds that were already sitting there in the soil, which has nothing to do with where your compost pile was located.
In that case, you might try solarizing the soil to get the weeds.
http://ag.arizona.edu/gardening/news/articles/12.8.html
i have a compost bin in my backyard my neigbors don’t like it what should i do?
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I would probably move it to a different spot in the back yard further away from them, just to be neighborly. I would also make sure that I was composting correctly, so that I wasn’t generating any bad smells, or leaving vegetable or food scraps on top of the pile so that it could attract rodents. (It’s better to bury any food scraps deeper into the bin.)
But if your bin is kept closed, and it doesn’t smell, then there really shouldn’t be much to complain about.
Do you know anything about the use of worm compost? Is it as good as regular compost?
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Worm castings, the finished result of composting with worms, is very good for your soil. I would describe it as equal to regular compost.
okay thank you so much!
i loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove to compost!
got it………. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m new to composting and it’s coming up on the Wyoming winter now. Can I start a compost pile now or should I wait until the spring when it’s warmer?
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You can start, but the composting process slows down or even stops during extended cold periods. The materials will pile up, but they won’t really break down until it starts to get warm again.
As long as you have room for the materials to pile up though, you might as well add to the pile rather than throw that stuff away.
Here’s a good page about it: http://compostinstructions.com/composting-year-round/
would shredded paper be of any value in a backyard compost?
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Paper is a carbon rich material. You can use it in composting, as long as you don’t use too much and overload the pile. Newsprint is best.
You’ll probably want to avoid slick colored paper, because the inks can have toxic materials in them.
As long as it isn’t slick colored paper though, it should be fine.
This summer I bought a new house and started a compost pile in a standard size black plastic compost bin. I believe the dimensions of the box are 3 by 3 by 3, and I put it in a sunny spot in my yard. My problem was I had an abundance of grass clippings this summer. To add more brown I raked out the leaves from under the trees in my yard. Because the trees had a lot of low hanging branches, it seems the leaves had not been raked in a few years. As I raked up the leaves I got a lot of small sticks in the pile. I added these to the compost bin and it didn’t stink as much as before. My new problem is that the sticks aren’t decomposing at all as far as I can tell. I’ve gotten the large sticks out and it’s down to the smaller ones. When I turn the compost, I pull out any sticks that are bigger than a pen. Do you have any suggestions?
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Sticks are always slow to decompose.
You can either put them through a chipper shredder when you are adding them to a compost pile, or you can use a compost screen to screen them out when you take the rest of the finished compost out.
Thanks for the answer. I’ll just keep pulling out the big ones. I sort of wish I had forgon the leaves and sticks, and just left the compost as it was. This year I’ll be sure to keep a bag of leaves out by the bin, this time without the sticks.
I have been composting for years and have the richest garden soil around. I keep an attractive compost jar on my counter and put veggie peels, coffee grounds and crushed egg shells in it and bury it in a different spot in the garden all year long. Also mix in grass clippings and leaves at the end of the year. If the grass and leaves are under the dirt they decompose much faster than leaving on top. It works for me. Can you see any downside to this method.