Simple Composting Techniques

Composting happens despite how you create the compost heap or how much concentration you give to it. There are almost as many ways to put together a compost pile as there are gardeners. Each individual has their own way of doing it, but all will work and provide you rich, productive compost to add to your gardens. These are some simple ways to create your own fertile and soil-enriching compost.

One way is to simply throw everything onto a pile. No container, no bins, just a pile. Nearly everything in your garden will work; plants, dry leaves, grass clippings, and weeds are fair game to name a few. Simply add kitchen waste such as fruit and vegetable peelings, crushed egg shells and even used paper towels, (but not fats, meat scraps or dairy products). Now, just wait. From the floor and then up the heap, the whole thing will start to compost and decompose. As the ingredients rot, the microorganisms and worms will migrate upwards in the direction of new food, and compost will carry on forming from the bottom up.

If you have access to some straw bales, this can spark another way to make compost easily. Make a simple bin to hold the compost ingredients by stacking the straw bales two high into a 3-sided pen. 10 bales ought to do the trick. The straw bales do a great job of holding the compost and also retaining heat and moisture. Make loose layers of both brown and green ingredients, and every so often add a layer of soil. Within a couple of years the bales will decompose and become part of the compost; the ingredients from your aged straw bale bin will work fantastically in your new one; and the cycle continues.  Straw Bale compost is my preferred method, but there is one more I also like.

The shovel method is also a great way to make simple compost. If you have only a small amount of kitchen waste, this may be the method for you. Find a spot in your yard you think needs enriching and dig a hole. Into this hole you can put your kitchen scraps and chop them up with the shovel, covering them as you go. In time, these scraps will become compost, without any extra work on your part. Feel free to do this with your garden beds as well and next year you will have much richer soil.

Whatever your choice of simple composting techniques, the materials for your compost pile need to be the right mix. Always mingle fresh green nitrogen rich materials, dried carbon rich matter, and garden soil. The green materials can include grass clippings, kitchen excess, garden waste and even weeds that have not gone to seed. The brown materials are commonly tougher dry matter like dried leaves, sawdust, straw, newspaper and even chopped up vegetable stalks. By adding some garden soil, manure, or moderately decomposed compost, you will be introducing the microorganisms and worms that do the work.

Creating compost with these three organic materials in balance is a sure-fire way to create nutrient rich compost to put your green garden in equilibrium.

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