Composting is nature’s way of recycling

Mimics natures flow

Green, brown, breaking down

Garden flourish healthy days

Compost is an important component in gardening for numerous reasons. Compost slows down the release of nutrients in the soil, which improves plant and root growth. It also improves soil porosity, or “the ratio of the space taken up by the pores in the soil, rock, or other material to its total volume.”(Encarta world eng. Dict) This improves the soil’s ability to retain water, and helps to avoid plant disease as well as resistance to wind and water erosion.

Compost can be broken down into a simple carbon: nitrogen ratio composed of green and brown organic materials. Examples of brown materials are dead, dried plant parts like leaves and pine needles. These contain a lot of carbon. Green materials are fresh, living parts like grass clippings, kitchen vegetable scraps, weeds and other plants. These materials contain nitrogen.

There are numerous examples of organic materials that can be used for compost. Some examples are:

Leaves

Food scraps

Garden waste

Sawdust

Newspaper

Grass clippings

Hair

Cow, horse, and chicken manure

Egg shells

Soiled dirty paper (clean paper should be recycled)

Although most organic materials are beneficial for your compost, there are some that are not because they attract animals that may dig up the compost pile. So, do not use:

Meat

Bones

Dairy products

Most animal droppings

Diseased garden plants (they can spread disease back to the garden)

Oils

Fats

Building a compost

It is easy to set up a compost bin. First select a spot to set up your bin. It should be out of the way but convenient to reach with plenty of room to work around. Some good places would be near your garden or in a back corner of the yard. It is also a good idea to choose a location close to a source of water.

It is easiest to build a compost bin in layers of ingredients. Starting with the brown materials (high in carbon), by spreading a layer of leaves or pine needles about 6 inches thick. Next, add a layer a few inches thick of the green materials (high in nitrogen), such as grass clippings and some food scraps from your kitchen. It is helpful to mix the layers up as you make them. Then, sprinkle a shovelful of soil or compost to add microorganisms to the bin. Each layer needs a good sprinkling of water to wet the ingredients. It is important to wet each layer as you build it. Repeat each of the layers until the bin is full. The microorganisms will go to work breaking down the ingredients into compost. For faster results you should mix frequently.

Carbon and Nitrogen sources

Here are some sources of carbon and nitrogen along with their carbon-nitrogen ratio. You can use these numbers to better determine how much brown and green material you should use to make the best mix for composting. Some things, such as sawdust, are very high in carbon compared to their nitrogen content, while others, such as leaves, are relatively low.

Nitrogen Sources

Food Scraps

15:1

Grass clippings

18:1

Coffee grounds

20:1

Horse manure

25:1

Carbon Sources

Dried leaves

60:1

Pine needles

90:1

Newspaper

125:1

Sawdust

625:1

Why is Composting Appropriate?

Composting is appropriate in many ways. One major benefit is the environmental impact. Instead of throwing pounds and pounds of nutrient rich materials away and further multiplying the size of our landfills, composting diverts organic waste back into a viable resource. Keeping organic materials out of the landfills also reduces the production of leachate and methane gas (both of which add to the cost of operating landfill sites).

Another major benefit of composting is that instead of buying fertilizer and in turn raising the amount of embedded energy (transporting, processing, ect.), compost is locally produced, easy to maintain, and no transporting is needed.

Also, making a compost pile is like mimicking the flow of nature. When organic materials collect on the forest floor, they are broken down, and decompose to reenter the cycle of life, giving nutrients back to the very tree that produced them.

And of course, best of all, feeding your soil the nutrients it needs, and knowing where these nutrients came from, will result in a sound body, mind, and spirit.