Composting

Composting is making a big pile of yard and kitchen waste in a big, smelly, unsightly compost heap out in the yard, and then turning it over to get the composted soil from the bottom, and then mixing that compost in to your garden. Sure, you know that the compost is really, really good for conditioning your garden soil and adding organic material and nutrients. And it’s really good for the environment, because otherwise all that stuff ends up trucked to a landfill. Composting is a sustainable practice that reduces or eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers so you don’t need to worry about gradually poisoning your soil with chemical residue. But, listen, you and I both know that a sprawling compost heap is really ugly in your yard, smells bad, can get all moldy. The heat generated by the decomposing material can attract snakes. Kitchen scraps attract skunks and all manner of vermin in the night, and, last but not least, it’s a whole lot of work. So, all in all, a good idea, but composting is just not worth the aggravation. Right? Well, what if I told you that we could eliminate every single one of those objections and preserve all the benefits? The good news is that’s exactly what I’m telling you. Let me show you how.

First, let's examine each of the possible hassles of composting one by one.

Controlling Odors and Mold

First, compost heaps can smell bad. This is usually caused by lack of oxygen or adding food waste faster than it can be broken down so that the compost material stays too wet. Using a compost tumbler goes a long, long way to solving this problem. With a tumbler, you just need to spin the compost bin every couple of days or so. About 30 seconds worth of effort every two to three days. If you miss a cycle or two, no big deal, nothing bad will happen. Just give it a couple extra spins next time you get to it. It doesn’t get much easier than that! Spinning the compost bin mixes the composting material and adds oxygen as it tumbles. Almost all tumblers will also have a number of air holes/ drain holes around the bin. This also allows excess water to drain from the bin as it spins.

If you are not using a tumbler, then there’s another way to fix the problem. Controlling the ratio of nitrogen based materials to carbon based materials will also help regulate the rate of decomposition and prevent unwanted odors. Usually, odor from the composter means that the concentration of nitrogen-rich material is too high. OK, we don’t expect everyone to be a chemist (I’m certainly not), so how can we tell what’s carbon-rich versus what’s nitrogen-rich? As it turns out, it’s fairly easy. Most green stuff that you would add is nitrogen-rich. This includes things like grass clippings and most kitchen waste (fruit rinds, wilted lettuce, potato peels, and such). So adding too much of these items in relation to other, carbon-rich stuff, can lead to odors or mold. If you start to get these problems, add carbon-rich material. Like what? Well, like all the autumn leaves that you rake up. If they are cut into small pieces by one of those bagger/ shredders or if you use your bagging mower to collect them, they’ll decompose faster, but this isn’t necessary.

Just make sure you avoid Black Walnut leaves in your compost. Black Walnut actually contains chemicals that it uses to discourage the growth of weeds near it base and these chemicals are present in the leaves and will discourage plant growth in the garden (generally, not a good thing). Obviously, avoid things like poison sumac, poison oak, and such. Other than leaves, what else can I add to my compost to increase the carbon content and help dry out my composting materials? Well, many people use a small paper-shredder to shred old bills and other documents to protect against identity-theft. The shredded paper is a great drying agent and carbon-based item to use to balance out green or nitrogen-based material. Try not to use coated or glossy papers, but most newspaper is fine. Just tear it into small bits or use the shredder. Saw dust from untreated wood can be used, but remember it’s easy to add too much paper or sawdust to your compost. We are aiming for a balance. Too much of these plentiful carbon materials will slow down the decomposition process. Even dryer lint can be used as a carbon-rich material for the composter. Another way to avoid problems is to let things like grass-clippings and weeds dry out in the sun before adding them to the composter, just let them bake in the sun on the cement or pavement for a couple days before adding them. This will reduce the moisture content (and make sure tough weeds are dead). Never add kitchen wastes that contain meats or oils to your compost. These things will eventually decompose, but they will smell. Dog and cat poop should never be added to your compost, both because of the smell and also because they can contain diseases and parasites. On the other hand, manure from horses, chickens, rabbits, cows, and goats is a great source of nitrogen-based materials. Just make sure it is fully decomposed before adding to the garden since fresh manure can “burn” the roots of delicate crops.



Keeping the Yard Pretty While Composting


Compost Tumblers

Nobody wants a big pile of decomposing plant material in their yard. This is another reason to use a compost tumbler. A compost tumbler is a barrel or other canister-shaped container that can be spun about its axis to aerate and mix the composting materials. It also keeps the composting materials out of site. In my opinion, compost tumblers are the easiest, lowest maintenance, most effective, and most attractive option available. I use compost tumblers in my own yard. I recommend using two. When one compost tumbler gets near full, stop adding new material and switch to the other one. Give the first tumbler another 3-4 weeks and then pour out the finished compost and spread it into your garden. Tumblers can reduce the time it takes to make finished compost from a full season to just a few short weeks! Here are some pictures of compost tumblers (scroll about halfway down the page).



Compost Bins



In addition to compost tumblers, there are a number of other bins designed to accelerate decomposition and help keep your compost materials tidy and out of sight. Some of these bin-type composters contain individual sliding drawers so that you drop your fresh materials in the top and pull your finished compost out of the bottom drawer when it’s ready. Others have slide-out slats in side to allow you to get in and shovel finished compost from the bottom of the contained pile. There are a variety of shapes and colors. Depending on the model you may need to provide some manual aeration by using a shovel or pitchfork to turn over the composting material from time to time. When using the larger open-bin models, you should take care to turn fresh materials so there is always a layer of older materials on top. My personal preference is for tumbler style composters, but for larger capacity operations, using one or more larger bins may be a more cost effective option than adding more tumblers.



Keeping Animals Away

Any of the above ground composters (whether bin and drawer or tumbler type) will keep snakes from being attracted by the heat of decomposing material. For some of the on ground bin types, this might still be an issue. The key to keeping other vermin from being attracted to your compost pile, is to make sure that you don’t put things in it that will attract them. Never put any meat scraps or oils into the compost heap. These things are very high in energy for their volume so they make very efficient foods for most animals. As a result, they will go to great lengths to find and get at them. Theses items will also cause strong odors in your compost which acts as a long-distance calling card for animals. Keeping the right mixture of nitrogen rich and carbon rich materials keeps the odors away and helps keep the animals away as well. As I mentioned earlier, if the composting material starts to smell, just make sure it is properly aerated and mix in some more carbon-rich material such as shredded paper, sawdust, or dried leaves. Using tumblers or bins that make it physically impossible (or nearly so) for animals to get into the compost is another benefit of these types.


Too Much Work?

So, bottom line, composting sounds like a good idea, and I’ve told you how to avoid the typical issues that can come up to make it a less pleasant experience, but you’re afraid that this is one of those things that you try and after a few weeks you just don’t keep up with it and you stop because you just don’t have the time or energy to put in the work. I really can’t stress enough how easy this is. If you use a compost tumbler, you just spin it every couple of days, and dump the finished compost out and spread it into your garden as infrequently as once or twice a year (or more often at your discretion, depending upon how much compost you need). It’s much easier than those “Six Minute Abs” you paid for a few years ago! From start to finish it works something like this:


As you're preparing dinner in the kitchen, you toss compostable things like potato peels, apple cores, wilted lettuce (without salad dressing), even egg-shells, into a separate little bucket reserved for that purpose. This can be any bucket or container you have on hand or one of the specially designed, and attractive kitchen buckets shown at the bottom of this page. Then once a week or whenever you’re heading out to the garden, you take the bucket with you and empty it into the composter. A quick rinse with the garden hose, and just let it dry while you do your other gardening before bringing it back keeps everything neat and clean. When you mow the lawn or rake the leaves in the fall, the clippings or leaves go into the composter, easier than bagging and hauling to the dump by a long shot. When you weed the garden or thin out your spring plantings, drop them into the composter. Give the tumbler a couple of quick spins every couple of days to keep it aerated and to mix the old and new materials. When the tumbler starts to get full or when you're preparing your garden for planting (or cleaning out the garden in the fall) just slide a tarp under the tumbler, remove the cover, and tip it over to let the compost fall onto the tarp. Drag the tarp to your garden and spread the rich dark compost onto your garden. In the spring or before you plant, just turn it into the soil to mix it up. And that’s all there is to it. If you use compost regularly, you don’t need to drive down to the local garden shop to buy, and then apply commercial fertilizers for your garden. Compost will turn poor unproductive soil into rich, fertile garden loam over time. Each year your garden will get better and better and produce higher yields. Although, you can still, as I do, use a liquid fertilizer that sprays on with your garden hose, if you like, as many plants will benefit by absorbing the nutrients directly through their leaves.

How to Avoid Screwing it All Up

So, what’s the short list of things I shouldn’t do if I want to compost?



1) Never add any meat products or oils to the compost bin.

2) Don’t let the compost stay too wet for very long.

3) Don’t forget to add both nitrogen-rich materials (like lawn clippings, weeds, and kitchen scraps) and carbon-rich materials (like autumn leaves, saw dust, or shredded paper).

4) Don’t spend too much time fussing with the composter unless there’s an obvious problem.

How do I Know Anything’s Going on in There?

So, you think you’ve done everything right, but how do you know if all the stuff you’ve put into your composter is actually turning into usable compost? Well, the action of decomposition creates heat. So, if the process is working, the composting material should be significantly warmer than the air temperature. In fact, the composting material should reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit or more, depending upon the speed with which the decomposition process is occurring. If your compost is not warmer than the ambient temperature about 24 hours after its last tumble (or other aeration), then it’s probably not decomposing properly. If the outdoor temperature is very cold, this can slow or stop the decomposition process (like keeping fresh food in the refrigerator or freezer). So, in really cold weather, don’t worry about it. If the weather is warm and you still don’t have a temperature increase in the compost, then you probably need to do something. Lack of proper decomposition can be caused by lack of aeration. Make sure you are spinning your compost tumbler, turning over your on-ground bin contents, or properly following the directions on your drawer type composting bin. Second, too much carbon (or too little nitrogen, depending upon your point of view) can slow or stop the process as well. Try mixing in more grass clippings, kitchen vegetable waste, weeds, or other similar nitrogen-rich material to your compost. Thirdly, you may have added something that isn’t compatible with composting. If you have used plant materials with pesticides, or have added heavy fertilizer content, too much lime, salt, or anything that might inhibit microbial growth, this could be the problem. As a last resort, empty and rinse the composter and start again.

I Have More Free Time than Money, How do I Build my own Compost Tumbler?

This is fairly easy, things you’ll need: Some stout scrap wood (4 x 4 works best) including at least two pieces about 4 feet long, depending upon the size of the barrel you have – roughly 16-20 feet altogether. A plastic barrel that you can drill holes through and a fitted cover – preferably one that screws on as it will need to hold the weight of the contents inside when you spin the barrel. A length of strong metal rod or pipe that will support the weight of the barrel nearly filled with dirt without bending – ideally threaded at both ends so you can add nuts to stop it from sliding off the frame. Large nails, screws, or bolts to hold the wooden support assembly together. The bottom supports in the picture below are too short. They're roughly 30 inches long, and the composter tends to fall over when it spins since the centrifugal force displaces the center of gravity well beyond the outside of these supports. I recommend going no less than 4 feet long with these bottom pieces (depending upon the size of your barrel). Our barrel is roughly 35-40 gallons. Here are the pictures, don't shortcut ANY of the supports. A half full barrel of compost is a fairly large dynamic load when it's tumbling. Scrimping on wood or effort means it will be likley to fall apart and could be dangerous. All diagonal supports are at 45 degree angles.


Which brings us to the disclaimers. This is heavy weight that moves and can fall over even if built correctly and correctly placed on a level surface. Stand to the side when tumbling. Be prepared for the compost tumbler to fall over. It should happen very rarely, or never, if built with long enough supports, but be ready, just in case. Most of the pieces shown here are 4 x 4 lumber. Don't use anything less strong. If you make the diagonal supports longer, it will be more stable. You should stain or use a wood preservative coating on the wooden pieces of your compost tumbler every year or two as needed. Replace any wood that becomes weak or rotten. Make sure the cover on your compost barrel is FIRMLY attached before tumbling. Screw-on covers work best.

Compost Tea
Compost tea is the nutrient rich liquid run-off from composting material. It makes a great fertilizer for your garden during the growing season.


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