How do I begin a compost pile?

Question

I would like to know not only how to build it, but what to put in it to begin. I think that you need to "layer" the first stuff you put in, but I have no idea! Please people who have done this give me some tips & websites to check out.

Answer 1

Almost any organic material is suitable for a compost pile. The pile needs a proper ratio of carbon-rich materials, or "browns," and nitrogen-rich materials, or "greens." Among the brown materials are dried leaves, straw, and wood chips. Nitrogen materials are fresh or green, such as grass clippings and kitchen scraps.

Mixing certain types of materials or changing the proportions can make a difference in the rate of decomposition. Achieving the best mix is more an art gained through experience than an exact science. The ideal ratio approaches 25 parts browns to 1 part greens. Judge the amounts roughly equal by weight. Too much carbon will cause the pile to break down too slowly, while too much nitrogen can cause odor. The carbon provides energy for the microbes, and the nitrogen provides protein.

Leaves represent a large percentage of total yard waste. If you can grind them in a gas or electric chipper shredder or mow over them, they will reduce in size making them easier to store until you can use them in the pile, and they will decompose faster - an issue with larger leaves. They are loaded with minerals brought up from the tree roots and are a natural source of carbon. A few leaf species such as live oak, southern magnolia, and holly trees are too tough and leathery for easy composting. Avoid all parts of the black walnut tree as they contain a plant poison that survives composting. Eucalyptus leaves can be toxic to other plants. And avoid using poison oak, poison ivy, and sumac.

Pine Needles need to be chopped or shredded, as they decompose slowly. They are covered with a thick, waxy coating. In very large quantities, they can acidify your compost, which would be a good thing if you have alkaline soils.

Grass Clippings break down quickly and contain as much nitrogen as manure. Since fresh grass clippings will clump together, become anerobic, and start to smell, mix them with plenty of brown material. If you have a lot of grass clippings to compost, spread them on the driveway or other surface to bake in the sun for at least a day. Once it begins to turn pale or straw-like, it can be used without danger of souring. Avoid grass clippings that contain pesticide or herbicide residue, unless a steady rain has washed the residue from the grass blades.

Kitchen Refuse includes melon rinds, carrot peelings, tea bags, apple cores, banana peels - almost everything that cycles through your kitchen. The average household produces more than 200 pounds of kitchen waste every year. You can successfully compost all forms of kitchen waste. However, meat, meat products, dairy products, and high-fat foods like salad dressings and peanut butter, can present problems. Meat scraps and the rest will decompose eventually, but will smell bad and attract pests. Egg shells are a wonderful addition, but decompose slowly, so should be crushed. All additions to the compost pile will decompose more quickly if they are chopped up some before adding.

compost pail

To collect your kitchen waste, you can keep a small compost pail in the kitchen to bring to the pile every few days. Keep a lid on the container to discourage insects. When you add kitchen scraps to the compost pile, cover them with about 8" of brown material to reduce visits by flies or critters.

Wood Ashes from a wood burning stove or fireplace can be added to the compost pile. Ashes are alkaline, so add no more than 2 gallon-sized buckets-full to a pile with 3'x3'x3' dimensions. They are especially high in potassium. Don't use coal ashes, as they usually contain large amounts of sulfur and iron that can injure your plants. Used charcoal briquettes don't decay much at all, so it's best not to use them.

Garden Refuse should make the trip to the pile. All of the spent plants, thinned seedlings, and deadheaded flowers can be included. Most weeds and weed seeds are killed when the pile reaches an internal temperature above 130 degrees, but some may survive. To avoid problems don't compost weeds with persistent root systems, and weeds that are going to seed.

Spoiled Hay or Straw makes an excellent carbon base for a compost pile, especially in a place where few leaves are available. Hay contains more nitrogen than straw. They may contain weed seeds, so the pile must have a high interior temperature. The straw's little tubes will also keep the pile breathing.

Manure is one of the finest materials you can add to any compost pile. It contains large amounts of both nitrogen and beneficial microbes. Manure for composting can come from bats, sheep, ducks, pigs, goats, cows, pigeons, and any other vegetarian animal. As a rule of thumb, you should avoid manure from carnivores, as it can contain dangerous pathogens. Most manures are considered "hot" when fresh, meaning it is so rich in nutrients that it can burn the tender roots of young plants or overheat a compost pile, killing off earthworms and friendly bacteria. If left to age a little, however, these materials are fine to use.

Manure is easier to transport and safer to use if it is rotted, aged, or composted before it's used. Layer manure with carbon-rich brown materials such as straw or leaves to keep your pile in balance.

Seaweed is an excellent source of nutrient-rich composting material. Use the hose to wash off the salt before sending it to the compost pile.

The list of organic materials which can be added to the compost pile is long. There are industrial and commercial waste products you may have access to in abundance. The following is a partial list: corncobs, cotton waste, restaurant or farmer's market scraps, grapevine waste, sawdust, greensand, hair, hoof and horn meal, hops, peanut shells, paper and cardboard, rock dust, sawdust, feathers, cottonseed meal, blood meal, bone meal, citrus wastes, coffee, alfalfa, and ground seashells.

Answer 2

Actually, compost piles are far simpler than most people think. There are a number of websites and books on the subject...just think of it as "rot science". Don't worry about layering, just put what you have in a pile. You can use fancy composters, or a bin, or if you choose, just a pile in an out of the way place. ONLY put plant organics in the pile. No animal bones or fats at all. If you want compost in a hurry, water and turn the compost materials regularly. If not, water when you think of it and let the thing set for awhile. In a year or so, you'll have "no effort" compost.

Answer 3

The pile has to be made of a plastic container like a big trash container exept for the holes that have to be made at the bottom big enough to let the fluids go out but also small to retain the solid content. It has to have a good cover. The smell is sometimes offensive so the whole container must be located far from the windows, outside in the air, on a porch or in the yard or garden.
On dayly basis and in any order you collect the fruit and vegetables leftovers, raw and cooked. It becomes more complicated if you want to use the compost for specific growings.
The more heat the faster you get the compost.
After a few day to 3 weeks your content ferments.
More info, more scientific and comprehensive:
http://www.howtocompost.org/default.asp
search the web with the keywords: gardening, compost, organic gardening.
Good luck.

Answer 4

Actually, compost piles are far simpler than most people think. There are a number of websites and books on the subject...just think of it as "rot science". Don't worry about layering, just put what you have in a pile. You can use fancy composters, or a bin, or if you choose, just a pile in an out of the way place. ONLY put plant organics in the pile. No animal bones or fats at all. If you want compost in a hurry, water and turn the compost materials regularly. If not, water when you think of it and let the thing set for awhile. In a year or so, you'll have "no effort" compost.

Happy Gardening.

Answer 5

Boy all these complicated answers and it's so......simple! Go to your local hardware store and get about six feet of 4' high fence wire with 1" mesh 2" would be OK. in an out of the way location that you can get to with a hose, make a circle with the fence wire. Hook it together with some roll wire that you have also gotten a small one of. You are ready to go. start filling it with anything that will rot. Leaves, household garbage, grass clippings, hedge clippings, dead flower plants......and so on. Get it. About once a week soak it well with water. Garden shops and centers will have composting starter mixture that works well but is not really necessary.

Oh.....by the way. After a whole when you want to use some of the composted material, simply have someone help you turn the wire bin on its side, dig out the compost from the bottom. Then upright the bin and continue throwing stuff in and wetting it down. You can if you would like stir it up a little with a pitch fork.

Answer 6

The answer you got from Heather (above) is excellent, but here are some tips from some one who had to learn the hard way.
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1) The bigger the bin the better because it keeps the heat in, but mine are a pair of only 2ft x.2.5ft high and I manage.

2) The bin must have holes on the sides to let in air and one side to be opening so that you can easily shovel the contents out for mixing. It must also have a cover which you can open to let in rain, or close it to prevent drying out too much.

3)Remember that for organic matter to rot you need, moisture, air, bacteria and nitrogen (food for the bacteria)

4)Start with a layer of garden soil preferably sandy (not clay), about 3in.thick
-then a layer of composting material 9in thick,
- then springle a solution of 1 spoonful feriliser dissolved in 3 pints of warer (food for bacteria)
- Keep repeating this pattern.

5)You can add manure any amount, any time. Excellent provider of bacteria. Also put in all the worms you can find, beg borrow or steal. They are the best compost workers and charge no wages

6) Keep the compost moist but not soggy, which would prevent access of air.

7) Every 6 months turn the contents of the bin over, The easiest way is to shovel it out and into another similar bin.

Good luck

Answer 7

There is a thousand ways to mulch.

Location: Not near a house or building and directly over soil.
Preparation: Dig a post hole about 10" wide 12-24" deep.
Fill the hole with kitchen cuttings, old excess fruit, vegatable materials. No meat. This is a generator of worms and bugs.
Mix in a little dirt in layers and cover.
Structure: The structure doesn't matter. I don't use one. Throw all yard cuttings over the post hole to build a heap of organic stuff.
Be sure to use lawn cutting (green) and leaves.
Cover with an inch of soil or dirt every few weeks. 6" of yard cutting 1" of soil on top.
Things to do: Add lime and sprinked a little over.

If your earth is adobe, hard clay:
Mix gypsum in to keep it from setting up like concrete.
Maintenance: Water weekly, turn the top of the heap and cover with more dirt.

Some people use fertilizer to accelerate the process, but I'm organic and do not believe in it.
Sticks and branches are great, but they need to be cut up into small pieces.

Here is my method. My entire garden is a mulching area. Layers of leaves and cuttings promote bugs and worms everywhere. They build up the soil level and recycle the materials into the ground for the plants to use. A layer on top also shields the hot sun and keeps the soil moist below.
Some garden vegatables don't do well with too much mulch, like pumpkins and squash.
BTW: The more bugs and worms the better the mulch pile. Move the mulch pile to areas where you would like to plant later. It really charges the fertility of the soil below.

Answer 8

The best thing you can get for a compost pile is a pitch fork and elbow grease!

I would start with leaves in the fall, and then anything that is biodegradeable, (no proteins - meats).

Keep all that in a pile, and turn it once a week with the pitch fork. Add daily from your food scraps from the table. Then after a few days, make sure you turn those in, so that the rats dont get to the top and eat the foodstuff.

A properly turned compost will NOT attract rats!

The compost will gain temperatures of 115 degrees or more, and be too HOT for rats to get into! (Yea, I know the stigma, and its why my wife wont let me start one!)...

DONT put it near your neighbors house!! They dont want to smell the garbage!! (If you DONT turn it enough times over and over, it WILL start to stink!!). AIR is what is needed to properly break down the compost, as well as the bacteria that starts to degrade the composted material.

You will start out with a lot of leaves and other debris, and find that it composts down to almost nothing! So, keep adding to it!

Oh, if you DO add grass, remember its 90% water and it WILL STINK if its not turned a lot more than other things!!

I wish you well..

Jesse

Answer 9

I'm assuming that you have a lot of ground that is your property am I right? If I am here is what you do: Take a spade shovel and dig up some dirt that is at least a foot in height. Remove the grass and weeds and other debris like sticks and rocks. After you have done this get a large bag of Miracle Grow dirt and mix that with your dirt. Then after each meal, instead of throwing out your scraps from the table, incorporate the scraps into your dirt pile. Every other day, you want to take your spade shovel and mix up the scraps with your dirt and Miracle Grow dirt. Put your egg shells in there too. Avoid putting in bones, but put your vegetable peelings and fruit peelings in that mixture. Keep doing this and your dirt will become a nice healthy compost heap. You don't want any grass or weeds to grow there, so keep that pile free from those things. In the fall you may want to mulch up any dead leaves and place them in your compost pile. We've done this for the past 30 years and if you use this ground for any of your flowers or vegetables, it is rich with loads of vitamins and minerals. In the Spring you may have to dig another hole of dirt and move the old pile into the new hole. The hole shouldn't be that far away from your original hole. You also may want to get more Miracle Grow dirt too. It all depends on how bad your winters get in your region. Some dirt can be washed away during the rain and snow season. But this is to be expected. Good luck and I hope everything turns out well for you!

Answer 10

When I lived in Europe we had a big yard and started a compost heap. We put some wire mesh fencing around (about two feet high) the area and then just started to throw leftover scraps into it. We would put in coffee grounds, tea, old fruit and vegetables, sometimes egg shells. It was far enough away from out house that we did not have any problem with odors. You may want to turn it every once in a while to ensure even composting. We also threw in all of our lawn clippings after mowing. Then in the winter, we distributed the compost over our flower beds and around trees. Hope this helps.

Answer 11

You don't need a web site or any store bought box.

Start small, especialkly depending on things like what yard waste or food waste will you have.

For a beginner I always suggest the plastic Gallon milk crates, or similar, up on blocks.

Add anything that decomposes, hopefully rapidly, and layer it as often as you have food waste especially.

Yard waste is slow to decompose but adds the nutrients essential to the specific environment.

Add thin layers of soil, stir even on occassion, water, and wait.

The decomposition will sift through the bottom of the milk crate, and you can mix that occassionally with the soil beneath.

Very likely you may also encourage worms to the area,,, let them help you.

If you ever get really into it, get a rabbit, and allow the cage to become a part of the composting process.

Rev. Steven