Composting 101

Composting is extremely important and helpful to anyone that wants to start. It is a great way to create nutrients for any of your plants, and it even helps the environment. Getting started can be a bit confusing and frustrating, but it can also be easy as long as you follow certain steps and guidelines to maintain your compost pile!

There are certain things that are vital for a healthy compost pile! Composting requires 4 necessities; Water, Nitrogen, Carbon, and Air. When we feed our composting piles these key ingredients, we create our own, nutrient dense soil, that is great for fertilizing both indoor and outdoor plants.

Air and Water

To many, composting is simply putting food scraps together, and letting worms eat at the garbage. However, composting is so much more than that. The processes in decomposition don't just involve worms eating your leftovers. Other factors like air and water come into play, and they are excellent factors in breaking down your compost heaps. Compost piles first need air. Access to air can easily be achieved by adding a base layer of sticks or branches to the bottom of the bin. I personally like to use this cylindrical container, because the holes all throughout allow for easy access to air. Many microbes found in compost piles are aerobic, meaning they need oxygen to break down scraps. The next step is water, which is accomplished through consistent watering. Without adequate moisture, microbes and bacteria in your compost pile will surely dry out. Both air and water play a vital role in composting piles. They provide vital living conditions to bacteria that break down organic matter in the piles, as well as reduce surface area of matter in the pile. Don't forget these key factors when putting your compost pile together!

Carbon and Nitrogen

The end result of composting piles are organic, nutrient dense soils that offer a lot of benefits to your plants. However, the nutrients found in these piles don't just magically appear after a while. Plants need nutrient sources like Carbon and Nitrogen, as these elements help plants in their metabolic processes. Where do we get these nutrients from? Well what you add to your pile tells a lot about what nutrients can be found. Your compost pile needs browns and greens to succeed! Adding browns and greens to your composting piles can enhance it's nutrient levels, and make for a great fertilizer or soil layer when you decide to plant crops.

Browns

Browns are Carbon dense components that can serve as a great ingredient to add to compost piles. Browns are usually dead or partially decayed sources of organic matter. Dead leaves are readily available for me, and are an excellent choice for your browns, as they are thin, and decay quickly. You can also use other types of browns, such as straw, sawdust, manure, and more. All of these are a must for compost piles, as Carbon acts as an energy source for microorganisms breaking down material. For many people living in urban areas, cardboard has acted as an excellent brown, as it is in surplus in many homes. There should be a 20:1 or 30:1 ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen, so remember to add lots of these sources of Carbon to your piles, giving your decomposers all the energy they could need.

Greens

Greens are Nitrogen dense materials that are another excellent ingredient to add to your compost heaps. Greens are usually fresh cut sources of organic matter, as these sources still have a lot of Nitrogen in them. Nitrogen aids plants in the synthesis of proteins when growing, making them a vital component of your compost piles. Greens are often found where we least expect them, as they range from leftover food scraps to plant trimmings! WARNING: Greens don't just contain Nitrogen. A lot of the seemingly harmless greens we add to our compost piles actually do more than we think. To the left, some of the greens I've added were to achieve a type of soil I wanted. Pine needles (as shown above) create an acidic soil when they breakdown, which I used as a base layer to combat the basic soil I was trying to balance. Certain food scraps can act as natural repellents or attracts to insects, such as citrus scraps or bread crumbs. Be aware of these unique green properties when adding them to your compost!

Assembly

The way in which you put together your compost pile is one of the most important factors that attribute to its success or failure. Adding the components of the compost heap in the correct order is extremely important, because the way in which you do so can affect the composting abilities of the heap. For a base layer, its a good idea to add rocks or sticks. Leaving these larger, heavier items at the bottom can be a great way to aerate your pile, if your container doesn't already do so. Next, its important to add in your greens and browns. Alternating components as you put them in is a great way to better mix them in the pile. Furthermore, when previously adding something to the pile, its a good idea to chop it up into finer pieces with a shovel. The smaller surface area a material has, the quicker the breakdown will be. Finally, its important to water you compost pile regularly. Watering the pile can further help with the breakdown of organic material.

Following all of these steps can result in an organic compost heap of your very own. Using these ideas, one can create rich, nutrient dense, organic material that can be used in a variety of ways. From both indoor houseplants to outdoor gardens, using this broken down material can be extremely beneficial to growing plants, and overall help not just the plants and vegetables we make, but the world we live in. Creating compost heaps can help our plants grow, and reduce waste as well as dependence on chemicals, and overall sow the seeds of success for our environment!