If you want to make great compost, just follow this compost recipe

1. Use equal amounts of “greens” and “browns”
Compost Ingredients

2. Shred or chop all ingredients, if possible

3. Mix together this variety of ingredients as much as possible
How To Build Compost Pile

4. Build the pile large enough to retain heat

5. Turn or aerate the heap regularly to let in the air.
5 Ways To Add Air To Compost Pile

6. Keep the pile as moist as a damp sponge.
Compost Moisture

7. Monitor by using a thermometer and make any necessary adjustment
Compost Cycle

8. Use your compost

Of course all these steps are explained in detail in different posts. Just look under the category “Hot Composting” for the listing of these posts or click on the links .

Marcie

To measure your compost’s heat at different stages of the compost cycle/composting timetable, you need a compost thermometer which can be found at garden centers. Alternately, you can use a meat thermometer mounted on the end of a stick. Either one works well if you wish to have precise temperatures when monitoring the different stages of the composting timetable.

The compost cycle is as follows:

Stage 1: Once your pile has been put together according to the compost recipe and has been covered, the temperature of the pile should rise steadilyand peak between 50 degrees C and 65 degrees C (120F to 150F), 24 hours to one week later.

Stage 2: After the temperature peaks, it begins to drop; now is the time to turn your compost pile inside out. Break up any clumps of material and turn your compost pile so that the outside parts end up being at the base and center of the your compost pile. If the pile is too dry, this is the time to wet it when you are redoing your compost pile.

Stage 3: Now that the compost pile has been turned inside out and any lacking humidy has been added, it is time to cover the pile again, and wait.

Stage 4: According to the compost cycle/composting timetable, the temperature should peak again in about a week if your compost pile is made of well shredded material. (Remember, the smaller the pieces, the faster the compost.)

Stage 5: For the second time the pile begins to cool. Again turn the pile by bringing the inside material to the outside of the pile and the outside material to the base and center of your pile. Add water if necessary for the pile must remain humid.

Stage 6: In another week or two after the temperature peaks again and cools, the compost should be finished. When the compost is ready for use, the temperature of the pile won’t rise above 43 degreesC (110F) no matter how often you turn it.

Dark and crumbly, fresh-smelling material with very little of the original material identifiable signals the end of the compost cycle/composting timetable for this pile.

Now that you have compost, where and how can it be used?

To find out, tune in to my next posts.

Meanwhile, happy gardening.

Marcie

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Because finished compost does not burn plant roots, large quantities of compost can be applied to the soil at any time. Here are a few ways you can use your finished compost:

1. Make  Compost “Tea”:

This is my favorite method– Compost Tea!
Compost tea is a neat way to supply compost nutrients to house plants or to spot-fertilize seedlings. (NOTE: You must use only finished compost to make compost tea)

Soak a burlap bag or old pillowcase of compost in a pail of water until the liquid is tea-colored. Another alternative is to add your compost to a smaller water-tight container and fill with water. In either case, let the tea “steep” anywhere from a few hours to a few days. The longer it steeps, the browner and stronger your liquid. Do not use strong tea if you want to feed the plant by lightly spraying the leaves (foliar feeding).

After the tea has steeped, put the liquid compost through a fine screen to collect any debris. What you have made is a liquid fertilizer that can be sprayed on plants or other garden areas.

Another choice is to stir one part compost into three parts water and pour off the “tea”. Using this liquid to water plants makes a difference, particularly in the middle of the warm growing season.

2.  Soil Improvement:

A. Try digging several inches of finished compost into a flower bed or vegetable garden before planting. How much you use will depend on how much you have available: the soil can use it all.

B. You can also give trees, shrubs, and nursery seedlings a good start by planting them in half-and-half soil and compost.

C. New lawns will develop healthy roots to keep them green if compost is dug into the soil before the grass seed is applied. When an established lawn suffers winter-kill, working some compost into the bald spots before seeding again is another good idea.

3. Top Dressing:

Treating lawns with a half-inch of compost serves as a very effective feeding when the ground has dried in the spring. By sifting the compost first, you can remove any unattractive large pieces or materials that may not be fully decomposed.

4. Side Dressing:

You can also apply compost as a spot fertilizer. Scratch it lightly into the top few inches of soil around the plant that needs a boost, and then water deeply.

5. Mulch:

Mulching should be done late in the spring when the ground is thoroughly warmed, but before summer’s heat to conserve moisture.

Spread several inches of compost on top of the soil around trees and shrubs, from near the base of the trunk out to the dripline.

To keep roots cool and to discourage weeds, you can also mulch around vegetables and flowers as soon as the plants are several inches high.

Finished compost can also be used to help stop erosion. It can be laid down thickly on the area that is eroding away or it can be mixed with water to make a thick slurry and then sprayed on the area that is in danger. I have often used finished compost on the side portions of raised beds to slow down erosion

5. Potting Soil:

House plants, window boxes, and hanging baskets will all benefit from a potting soil mixed with sifted compost.

Compost alone can be used for growing vegetables in containers and for starting plants from seed

For indoor use, you may want to sterilize compost in the oven for an hour at 95 degrees Celsius (200 degrees F.) — but don’t be alarmed by the (temporary) strong smell.

6.   When starting a New Compost Bin

If you are starting a new compost bin, in place of a layer of topsoil for the base, you can substitute (or mix in)  an equal amount of compost material.  This compost already has the microorganisms needed to create new compost.

As you can see, compost can be used everywhere and anywhere soil is needed.

If you have never done any composting, you are probably asking yourself: ” What are the most popular compost containers used by garderners who do this hot composting?”

For the answer to this question, keep checking this blog as I go through the various compost containers and other ways to compost.

See you on the next post.

“Working together to make a difference in our food and environment.”

Take care!

Marcie

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On the other hand, perhaps your pile won’t heat up. What can you do? What are compost activators? When and how can compost activators help?

When a compost pile won’t heat up, the problem is almost always one of three things:

1. The pile is too small
(In a previous post, I’ve explained that the pile must be at least 3 ft (1 meter) by 3 ft(1 meter) by 3 ft (1 meter). If enlarging your compost pile is not feasible, perhaps you could use a different composting method as will be explained in later posts)

2. The pile is too dry
(In Compost Moisture,  I address this problem)

3. The pile needs more nitrogen (i.e. more “greens”). Especially in cold weather, a “starter” or “compost activator” is needed to give it more nitrogen.

Compost Activators to the rescue

If your problem is the 3rd one mentioned above, you can use a Compost Activator to remedy the situation.  Choose a compost accelerator from the following suggestions:

- The first type of compost activators is high-nitrogen fertilizers. Garden suppliers sell compost starters or “activators” often composed of high-nitrogen fertilizers which you can add to your compost pile. In some cases, “inoculants” of dehydrated bacteria are also described as compost activators.

A commercial activator based on high-nitrogen fertilizers does heat up the compost quickly; however, it’s not easy controlling the amount of nitrogen added this way and the excess may leak out or escape as ammonia into the air.

High-nitrogen fertilizers may be helpful, but the benefits of adding more bacteria from a package have yet to be proven. All the bacteria you need should already be present in the soil under the compost pile or the food and garden waste you’ve added.

- A second compost activator is to try soaking ordinary garden soil in water for an hour and dousing the heap with the tea-coloured liquid.

- A third compost activator is fresh stable manure. Fresh stable manure is the ideal compost starter, though it may be hard for some of you to find. Adding it to your compost pile would be harder yet to explain to your next-door neighbours.

- A fourth compost activator is to use several effective organic alternatives such as bloodmeal, finished compost, or well-composted manure, or other “green” material.

For example, you can simply rebuild the compost pile with additional grass clippings or other “green” material. (The list of “greens” and “browns” may be found in Compost Pile Ingredients. )

Of all compost activators suggested, the best solution is to give a boost of nitrogen to the bacteria you already have by adding manure or an organic alternative .

SO, even if you have the proper proportion of “greens” to “browns”, adding manure or an organic alternative such as seeweed is a great idea because it will not only speed up the procedure but will also add to the quality of the compost.

My next topic will be The Hot Composting Timetable and Key Points to Remember.

Until then let’s keep on doing what we can to keep our environment cleaner and our soil healthier so that we in turn can remain healthier longer.

Happy Gardening!

Marcie

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How To Build Your Compost Pile:

1. Before you actually begin to build a hot compost pile, gather an equal amount of both “green” and “brown” ingredients, (see post on “Compost Pile Ingredients“).

Your goal is to have enough to make a compost pile measuring at least 1 meter (3 feet) high, 1 meter (3 feet) wide, and 1 meter (3 feet) long.

Why build a pile 3 ft by 3 ft by 3 ft?

A much larger pile is more likely to compact, shutting out air, and is more difficult to work with.

A smaller pile won’t generate or retain enough heat to effectively kill any harmful bacteria present.

(Note: If you choose healthy ingredients to compost, and keep pets and pests out, there’s no reason for concern.)

2. The next step before actually building your hot compost pile is to chop or shred as much of the material as possible into small pieces for two reasons:

a) Shredded materials make a better home for decomposer organisms because that gives the organisms more surface area to work on.

B) A shredded pile is also better insulated, has more pockets for air, and retains moisture more easily. The finer the pieces, the faster your compost will heat up thus achieve the end results more quickly.

How to shred:

Dry materials such as leaves can be run through a shredder or under a lawn mower.
(In the fall, I’ve used my composting lawn mower to shred withering plant leftovers such as tomato stalks, yellow beans stalks and others. I just spread the stalks thinly over the lawn then ran my composting lawn mower over the material.)

A whipper-snipper in a garbage can works well too — like a big blender.

3. Now that you’ve gathered and shredded or chopped the necessary ingredients, you are ready to build your hot compost pile. To begin your hot compost pile, first create your first 150 cm (6 inches) of well-watered “browns” and “greens” by putting one layer of browns, one layer of greens, another layer of browns etc until you have built up your pile to about 150 cm (6 inches). Then mix all these greens and browns together well. This is your base.

4. Continue that procedure of alternating by adding one layer of brown ingredients followed by another layer of green ingredients, followed by another layer of browns, and so on. As you alternate each layer, mix the layers and add water as needed until the pile is at least 1 meter (3 feet) high. (Note: the ingredients must end up being moist — not dripping wet.)

Why you must add the material in layers and then mix well?

Adding the material in layers simply helps you judge the right proportions of “browns” and “greens.” Thoroughly combining to have the proper mixture of moist browns and greens is what will help accelerate the decomposting procedure.

5. Once you’re done creating your hot compost pile, cover it to protect it from heavy rain, . . and wait. The compost should begin to heat up within hours.

To witness decomposition in action, you can stick a metal rod into the center of the pile for a few minutes then check to see if it has warmed up. You can also use a compost thermometer which you should find at garden centers, or you can mount a meat thermometer at the end of a stick if you want precise temperature readings.

If you see vapor emerging from aeration holes and a fine gray fungus just under the surface, you know you have built an active”hot” compost pile. Congratulations!

On the next post, I will continue this topic by talking about Compost Activators.

Meanwhile, enjoy the sun but be careful for sunburns.

Stay healthy! Be happy!

Marcie

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What Not To Compost

- Rotting meat, fish, fats and dairy products are likely to smell and may attract four footed visitors

- Insect-infested or diseased plants may persist in the compost

- Materials contaminated by synthetic chemicals or treated with herbicides or insecticides should never be used because they will contaminate your compost

- Weeds with mature seeds, and plants with a persistent root system (like crabgrass, ground ivy, or daylilies,) may not be killed by the heat of the compost

- Leaves of rhubarb and walnut contain substances toxic to insects or other plants so most people choose not to compost them

So again, know that these materials must be left out of your compost pile — or you could be very sorry.

Talking about rhubarb reminds me of this little story about using fish as fertilizer:

As a child I lived on a farm nestled along the Bay of Chaleur in New Brunswick where the villagers’ mainstay, of course, was fish. After the raw fish was cleaned and certain parts were salvaged for meals or for freezing, my mother would bury the unwanted portions around the rhubarb. Boy would we get beautiful rhubarb!

So if you want strong beautiful plants or if you have a plant which seems to be failing, go to the nursery, get yourself a bottle of liquid fish fertilizer, and use on your plants (Directions on bottle are easy to follow). Liquid fish fertilizer is almost as good as worm castings.

The next post will explain the steps involved when Building a Hot Compost Pile.

Meanwhile, have a beautiful day. Stay healthy; stay happy!

Marcie

Decomposer organisms work best with as varied a diet as you can feed them. The ingredients are all around us –almost anything that once lived is a candidate for the compost, so try for lots of variety to get a good mix of textures and plant nutrients.

In composting jargon, woody materials that are high in carbon (autumn leaves, paper, peat moss, sawdust, cornstalks, hay and straw, etc) are called “brown” .composting material

Other materials such as garden refuse, manure, tea and coffee grounds, feathers, hair, and food scraps that are high in nitrogen are labeled as “green” composting material.

Some materials can actually be both: for example, fresh grass clippings are “green”; however, dried grass is “brown”.

For successful results, you can use the simple rule that composting material need to be about half “brown” and half “green” by weight. Don’t bother to weigh your ingredients, though — an estimate is fine.

Composting soon becomes a matter of instinct, like the cook who bakes without a recipe. If the pile doesn’t heat up, you know there’s not enough “green” in the compost mix, but if you get a smell of ammonia from your pile, you know that it needs more “brown” compost material.

Here is a short list to help you understand which types of materials are “green” compostable itemsl and which are “brown” compostable items

Anything organic can, in theory, be composted — some more easily than others. You don’t need to have all of the above ingredients in a compost pile, but the important thing is that you do have an equal amount of green and brown composting material for best results.

The list above is far from complete, but common sense suggests a few exceptions. On my next post, I will make a list of the materials which can cause problems if added to a compost pile.

Till then, happy gardening!

Marcie

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The second most important requirement that helps keep the decomposer organisms working just the way they should is having just the correct amount of moisture (water) in your compost pile.

When you pick up a handful of your compost, it should be as damp as a wrung-out sponge — moist to the touch. No water should come out when you squeeze the handful of compost.

Is Your Compost Pile Too dry?

If your compost pile is too dry, you can poke holes in the pile and water it from the top with a trickling hose. Better yet, pull the pile apart and rebuild it, wetting each layer as it goes on. Very fibrous materials such as dead leaves may need to be soaked in a bucket for an hour or two.

How To Remove Extra Moisture (water) from the Compost Pile

A soggy pile should be turned so that clumps of material are broken up, allowing air in and water out. If the compost is absolutely soaked, you can spread the materials to dry in the sun, or scatter peat moss throughout the pile as you rebuild it with the drier materials in the center.

As you notice, it’s not that complicated; it’s simply a matter of being on the alert and making sure your compost pile is damp — not too dry and not too wet.

The next important part of the formula to having a great compost is to add the proper food to your pile. That will be divided into three sections: an overall view, specific materials to use, and specific materials to avoid.

See you on the next post.

Marcie

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When backyard composting, you must often add air to your compost pile because air penetrates only the first few inches of the pile; it cannot easily get through to the middle of the pile.

If you suddenly get that nasty rotten egg smell around the compost, oxygen is lacking and anaerobic bacteria are moving in. In other words, the pile may simply need to breathe, and it is time to add air to your compost pile.

When hot composting, plenty of air is essential to develop the high temperatures needed to kill harmful bacteria and speed the process of decomposition; therefore, air must be added to the pile in one of these five ways:

Five Ways To Add Air To Your Compost Pile

1. Turning: The most effective method of introducing air to your home compost pile is to turn the pile with a garden fork.

Lift the material from the top and sides of the compost pile, toss it into the more active center of the new pile; then add the partially decomposed center to the outside.

In other words, take the composting material from the outside and from the top of your compost pile and exchange it with the composting material in the middle of your pile.

2. Stirring: If you would rather not do the work of turning a compost pile, try stirring it with a stick instead (much harder to achieve desired results). However, this won’t distribute the air as evenly, so the composting process will be somewhat slower.

3. Aerator Tools: At a garden center you can buy an aerator — a rod with flaps on one end and a handle on the other. Holding the tool by the handle, you jab the pointed end into the compost pile as far as you can and then pull the tool back outwards or upwards. As you pull it back out of the compost pile, the flaps unfold to pull up and loosen the materials. Using an aerator is easier than turning, and this method brings more air into the compost pile than stirring .

4. Air Stack: Another approach to bring air to your compost pile is to build your compost pile around a perforated pipe, a bundle of long twigs, or a tube of wire mesh (chicken wire works well) standing on end. In other words, place one of the three perforated pipes in the middle of your empty compost bin, then add the compost material around the item. This allows the air to get to the center of your pile between turnings. With air stacks, you can skip the turning, although the pile won’t heat up as efficiently.

5. Elevated Compost: Most compost piles rest on bare ground, but you can build it instead on a raised platform of loosely spaced boards and allow air to be drawn up into your compost pile from the bottom. If you elevate your compost pile, however, be sure to sprinkle garden soil throughout the pile to introduce those essential soil bacteria.

Of all these five methods (turning, stirring, aerator tool, air stack and elevated compost) of bringing air to the compost pile, I preferred using the aerator tool because I found this method did the best job of quickly bringing air to the center of the compost pile with minimum effort.

The next post will deal with the second of the three essentials needed by the decomposer organisms in your compost pile — Water: how you can keep just the right amount of moistness for the best results.

Until then . . .

Having Your Own Organic Garden Makes Sense!

Get Healthier! Stay Healthier!

Marcie

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In order to end up with a crumbly, dark, soil-like humus, regardless which process you choose to use (and there are many processes you can choose from), you must supply your compost pile with this basic compost recipe: the right combination of food, air, and water.

To begin, composting is a very basic process.   You can simply toss grass clippings and leaves in a heap and let nature do the rest in its own good time…

Or you can help it along by providing a balanced diet of the organic compost recipe for the micro-organisms who will do most of the work and a home that meets their needs. (I will address this part later)

Ingredient 1: Air

The first ingredient we will discuss is air . . . Air provides oxygen and enables bacteria to carry out “aerobic” decomposition . . .lack of air results in anaerobic decomposition.

Anaerobic Decomposition

Although decomposition can take place without much air being supplied to the pile, (anaerobic decomposition), you want to avoid doing so as much as possible.

Anaerobic decomposition is something you normally want to avoid because anaerobic bacteria produce the rotten-egg smell often associated with decay.

Aerobic Decomposition

There are two methods of aerobic composting, depending on whether or not the pile heats up. A “cold” compost pile will decompose as surely as a “hot” one, but it’ll take much longer.

Cold composting is slow but it’s easy.   Someone with more space for compost than physical energy and time to devote to it may opt for the “cold” approach. This could also be the method to choose if your primary concern is reducing waste rather than making quantities of compost.

In contrast, hot composting is a fairly fast method of creating compost and makes efficient use of smaller spaces. It does take more physical effort than cold composting, but gardeners who want as much compost as possible will usually choose this method.

Ingredient 2: The right amount of water

You cannot add too much water to the point that the compost pile is soggy, nor can you let the compost pile become too dry.

Ingredient 3: Food

Almost any organic matter can be used as food for the compost. However, the trick is to have equal proportion of “greens” and “browns” to make the pile heat up.

To end up with a pile of finished Organic Compost (often referred to as Backyard Magic), one must have all three ingredients — air, water, food.

Yes…  the secret to making great compost quickly is to use the right combination of food, air (oxygen), and proper moisture.  By doing so, you will end up with  unique sweet forest-floor-smelling compost which is like magic to a gardener’s senses.

Happy composting!

Marcie

Recommended: How To Compost In Your Backyard, the backyard composting guide in which you will discover four plus composting methods explained step by step from A to Z.