In a hurry? Here’s the ultimate one page guide to composting.
Photo found on Flickr.com courtesy of Rantz
Don’t be intimidated by composting! Composting is easy to do, and this guide is full of tips on how to get the best results.
If you don’t have time to read this whole site right now, no problem!
Just remember that all organic material breaks down. Even if you just toss your yard debris into a hole in the ground, it will eventually turn into compost. There are ways to get faster results, but it’s not the end of the world if you make step in the wrong direction along the way. For instance, if your compost is too dry, you can put some water on it and set things back on the right course. It’s like driving a car. If you are going in the wrong direction, turn the wheel and get back on the right road.
How quickly compost breaks down depends on four things – moisture, oxygen content, temperature, and a good mix of ingredients. The perfect compost pile is damp without being wet, like a squeezed out sponge. It should also be well aerated, with plenty of the oxygen that aerobic bacteria need. And it should have a mix of different types of materials. If you have just one thing, like grass clippings alone, or leaves alone, then it takes a really long time to break down. But if you have several materials and mix them all together, then they break down much more quickly.
To achieve optimal conditions, here are the things you should focus on:
1) Drainage.
2) Air flow.
3) Insulation.
4) Good Mix of Various Ingredients.
Good compost bins allow liquids to drain easily. Stagnant water can suffocate helpful bacteria, and allowing water to sit practically invites pests such as mosquitoes or raccoons. Many compost bins also offer some cover. A lid that keeps rain and snow out of the compost pile will protect the compost from excess liquid. Even if there’s a drain at the bottom of the bin (such as a spigot or mesh screen), it’s a good idea to avoid putting too much water in in the first place. Water that trickles through the compost can wash away useful nutrients and will also suck away heat. However, if you keep the lid on your compost bin all the time, you’ll want to check and make sure that you’re getting ENOUGH water, because materials don’t break down very well if they are too dry either. The general rule of thumb is that materials in your composter or compost pile should be as moist as a damp, wrung out sponge.
If you live in an arid area, you’ll want to keep an eye on your bin in the summer months to make sure that it stays damp enough when it sits in the direct sun. If it gets too dry, add water with the hose or uncover the pile or bin when it rains. If it seems too damp, leave the lid off in the sun and let some of the moisture out.
Many compost bins are designed to maximize air flow and circulation. This is because oxygen keeps away the stinky anaerobic microbes that can otherwise create odors. Keeping your compost well mixed and aerated prevents those anaerobic bacteria from getting established. Oxygen is fuel for the aerobic microbes that break down trash into finished compost – give them plenty of oxygen and they’ll work quickly. There are tumbling compost bins that help aerate their contents, or you may want to use a compost turning tool like a pitchfork or a specialized compost turning tool.
Temperature is another key to the breakdown of compost. Helpful microbes work best at elevated temperatures, so it’s important to keep their workplace warm. The fastest decomposition occurs between 140 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit, but some breakdown will occur as long as the compost is kept above freezing. Microbes generate their own heat as they work, so keeping the compost bin warm is all about proper insulation. Compost is self insulating – if you pile compost on top of compost, the middle of your compost stack will be the warmest. Position your compost so that the wind doesn’t blow on it and so that it sits in full sunlight. One way to get extra heat is to choose a compost bin with dark colored walls that warm up in the sun. Or if you are using a pile, put a black tarp over it. In hotter areas of the country, you might need to pick a shady spot instead.
The ingredients of your compost are also important. Microbes that break down compost do well on a mix of different food sources. They need plenty of cellulose-rich, carbon material along with nitrogen rich kitchen scraps. The ideal mix is 75% “brown” material and 25% “green” scraps by volume. Or if you are doing it by weight, it’s about a 50 / 50 mix of nitrogen rich and carbon rich materials. That means for every pound of kitchen scraps, it’s good to have a pound of leaves, for example.
“Brown” material includes dried grass, leaves, and shredded newspaper. These types of material take longer to break down than “green” vegetable peels and fruit rinds. If your compost is too wet, add more brown material. If you don’t have a lot of green material, you may need to add water to the compost.
Green and brown doesn’t refer to the actual color of the stuff you are putting in the composter — it’s just shorthand for saying nitrogen rich or carbon rich.
You can see our chart of nitrogen rich and carbon rich materials here on this page.
One last tip – have fun! Don’t take things too seriously and keep trying new techniques.
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a tumbler composting container and keep adding stuff each day but when should I stop putting more into it and where should I put stuff that I keep accumulating for it? I understand it takes six weeks to totally decompose for use, but if I save more stuff in a 5-gallon bucket or something, won’t the critters around here get into it and make a mess? I am very discouraged about this. thank you for any advice you may have.
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There are two ways you can compost with a tumbler, or with any bin, really.
1. You can batch compost, where you load up the bin until it’s full, and then let the whole thing break down until it is completely finished.
2. You can continuously compost, like you are doing, where you keep adding more and more stuff, so that the new stuff is mixed in with the stuff that’s breaking down, and it’s all in there together.
If you want to use continuous composting with a tumbler, you can stop adding when it approaches fullness, and let the last part of the contents break down, and then start over. But it sounds like you don’t like that option.
You can also run two bins at once, where you start adding to the second bin as you wait for the first bin to finish up.
Or, you can make a compost screen (or buy one). When you get full, run the contents through the screen and put any of the unfinished stuff back in the bin and keep going.
Six weeks for compost is an “ideal” situation. Realistically, hardly anyone gets finished compost that fast. So don’t get discouraged if yours isn’t finished in exactly six weeks. It doesn’t mean that you are doing anything wrong.
If I build a compost bin out of scrap lumber how much of a gap to I leave between the boards for air circulation. Also can I use non pressure treated materials.
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Just a small gap of less than an inch should be enough for air circulation. Cedar makes a good choice for building a compost bin if you don’t want to use non pressure treated wood.
You might be interested in this booklet for some ideas:
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/easy-composter-book.html
Does the bin have to have a bottom and a top.
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Tops and bottoms are optional.
A bottom isn’t typically necessary at all, unless you are worried about a stained deck or concrete.
A top can help keep out potential pests, or can keep your bin covered if you get too much rain. But it isn’t required.
Can’t you use an old trash can upside down as a composter, by cutting out large holes all over the place? I would rather recycle that than buy a new item to compost with. Seems hipocritical.
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As long as there is drainage and aeration, yes. Although it seems like it would be difficult to add materials to an upside down trash can. You could keep it right side up, and make sure that you have big holes in the bottom for drainage.
…and what about the germs that composting generates? I want to start composting, but worry about my 2 year old getting near or into the materials and getting sick from the bacteria.
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I have a three year old, and I’ve never really had a problem along those lines. I keep my compost in a closed bin. If you have a closed bin, a child wouldn’t be able to get inside anyway.
My kid enjoys helping throw vegetable scraps into the bin. He thinks it’s kind of fun / yucky to look inside and see the stuff breaking down.
I have just inherited a tumbling composter. I have been searching for an hour on various sites for basic info on how to get started. Almost gave up until I found yours. Thanks for the great basics. Can’t wait to get started.
I have heard that urine helps to compost is this true anyone ?
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It’s nitrogen rich, at least!
Urine is a little too far off the mainstream path for my own personal composting.
But you might be interested in reading this article from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801028.html
I live in Canada, can I compost during the winter, outside?
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Yes and no. If your pile is big enough and you have it set up right, it can generate enough heat even when it’s cold outside. I’ve seen photos of a compost pile that was 140 degrees, with a layer of snow sitting on top of it.
But that’s unusual, and would take a lot of composting skill. What usually happens is that the composting process slows down or even stops. So you can keep adding to your bin over the winter, but it won’t really break down until the weather starts to warm up and the composting process starts up again.
hey i was just reading on composting and i was wondering can i throw good fruit into a dried yard trimming to get it decomposing faster?
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Sounds like a waste of good fruit to me! I’d rather eat it.
But yes, mixing nitrogen rich materials like fruit and vegetable scraps with your dried yard trimmings will speed up the decomposition.
I’m using a continuous type of tumbler for over 3 months in CA. I put 50/50 of kitchen waste (vege only) and brown (brown leaves) every now and then. I turn 2 to 3 round twice a week. It is moist OK inside. Attract a lot of mini flies. I stopped adding stuffs 2 weeks ago since it was getting too heavy to turn. I can still see leaves and small branches remaining intact inside. Anything I did wrong?
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A lot of flies and heavy to turn tells me that you might have too many nitrogen rich materials, and not enough carbon rich materials.
I would add as many more leaves as you can fit into the bin, mix it up well, and add water if that dries it out too much. Leaves compress quickly, so you might even be able to add a bunch of leaves one day, and add more a couple of days later.
Let me know if that helps or not!
When using leaves in the compost bin is it necessary to put the leaves through a mulcher first? I’ve been told that leaves take about three months to break down if not mulched first.
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I don’t bother with shredding my leaves when I compost. But yes, shredding them into smaller pieces will make them break down faster.
It also allows you to compress more leaves in the same amount of space.
Thanks muchly for using the photograph of my compost bin to highlight your article – I’m chuffed.
I’m also quite happy this this compost bin is serving me well. I live in the tropics (Darwin, Australia) and have had far too many bins not cope with the conditions – though that’s probably my brutishness around the bin and not the weather.
Nonetheless, the compost bin pictured is also doing really well in our Wet Season, where several bins I’ve had in the past have tended to leak all their contents this time of year. So far this Wet, we’ve had more than a few good storms and a wee monsoonal trough (2?) and this bin is keeping its content in as it should.
Again – thanks for using my photo.
hello,
I’ve been adding kitchen waste, yard clippings, leaves, shredded paper to my compost bin for over a year…The bin is enclosed, open bottom and has a lid that stays on…I have never aerated the pile and it continues to “melt” down…I would like to use the compost but it just has layers of new stuff on top of older layers…how do I go about utilizing the already cooked products at the bottom?…should I stop adding to it and turn it until it becomes useable dark soil?…
thank you very much
Many compost bins have little doors at the bottom that you can raise up, so you can put your shovel right into the bottom of the bin and take out the finished compost and let the unfinished compost continue to “melt” downward.
Here’s an example:
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/recycled-plastic-composter.html
If you don’t have a bin that does that, you could take several approaches.
1. You could stop adding to the bin until everything is finished, and then unload the whole bin.
2. You could tilt the bottom of the composter upwards by grabbing the top and pulling back, so you’re sort of making your own door at the bottom. Then get the stuff out of the bottom with a shovel.
3. You can run the materials through a screen and screen out the non-finished stuff and throw it back in the bin, and take the finished compost and use it.
I would like to use a large plastic recycle bin for composting kitchen scraps, garden wastes, grass clippings, and newspapers. Besides creating holes on the bottoms and sides and keep the contents moist, do I really need to add red worms like some articles suggest? Also what else can I do to speed up the composting process.
Thank you very much.
I want to do kind of large single batches, can I freeze my table scraps for a month or two then maybe fill a bin every other month, so that i can use the entire bin all at once when finished. Or would that be no different if i added to a bin for two months then moved on to the next bin. I think I just answered my own question. Six bins a year would be pretty sweet, since here in florida we can be planting pretty much year round.
Hello, I am new to composting,
I have a site behind my house, in a ravine that I have been throwing grass clippings, vegtables scraps and all organic materials for years. Could I dig up some of this soil to add to my compost heap or should I just start over? Do you add worms to your compost pile?
Hello,
Will adding soil (from the garden, with worms etc) help increase decomposition? Thanks to your article, i understand the importance of green and brown materials.
Can big pots/jars (ie pottery) with drainage holes at the bottom also do the same job as the plastic tumblers?
BTW, I live in a tropical climate hot and humid 24-32 celcius all year.
thanks in advance.
You can add a little shovel full of dirt when you first start your compost to get the pile going with microbes, but it isn’t necessary, and doesn’t speed up things significantly.
Yes, you can compost in a big pot with drainage holes. Although you’d want something that can hold at least 40 gallons’ worth of material for it to be very effective. Really small containers don’t allow enough materials for the compost to heat up much.
Don’t add worms to a regular compost bin or compost tumbler.
Worm composting is a different type of composting. Regular composting generates heat, and will just kill the worms or make them escape the bin.
A good mix of nitrogen and carbon rich materials that are the dampness of a wrung out sponge is going to be your best method of making compost quickly. As long as it’s a good mix and you keep it aerated and the right dampness, you’re doing good!
Don’t add worms to a regular compost pile. Worm composting is a different type of composting. Regular composting generates heat, which just makes worms try to escape.
The material behind your house sounds like it should already be finished compost or “humus.” You could use it to improve the soil in your garden beds or lawn or whatever. It doesn’t hurt to add some finished compost into your bin when you are starting a new batch, but it isn’t necessary.
Is there a chance of a composter catching on fire while going through this heat process ?
@herb,
No, not really.
It is almost impossible to get a small amount of compost in a bin or small pile to reach that kind of temperature.
Spontaneous combustion of compost piles really only applies to the super large scale kind of composting that cities do, with bulldozers and other large equipment and gigantic piles or windrows.
If your pile is 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet or smaller, you’ll be fine.
@JonRigby2005,
Yes, you can freeze your table scraps and then compost them all at once. But I’d probably just use the “continuous composting” method and add them as you create them.
Your kitchen scraps will shrink in size very rapidly anyway as they break down, so you might not fill up nearly as many bins as you think!
I have had good composting intentions for over a year now but no real compost bin – so I’ve just been collecting what I can in some buckets for now – I had the lid on there but to the side so some air could get in…I haven not been able to turn it or anything…the oldest stuff now looks like a brown slush, but at one time in the beginning, it has maggots in it, which I assumed was a good thing. Also, much of what I have sitting out there now has mold on it…the bucket was full, so it just kind of sat out for a while. All of that considered, were the maggots a good thing, and is the mold okay to have, or not? I am now getting an actual compost bin and was going to just dump what I have collected into it, but should I do that or just start over? Also, I have heard to not put lemons, limes or oranges into the compost – is that correct? Is there anything else to avoid including? Thanks so much!
Misty (Austin, Texas)
Dear Misty,
I am never coming over to your house!
Seriously though, compost happens. Eventually everything will fully decompose.
Rather than using buckets, I would recommend digging a small hole in your back yard and just throwing everything in there until you get around to getting a compost bin.
It is fine to add citrus to your regular compost bin or compost pile. It’s just with worm composting (vermicomposting) that you want to avoid very much citrus, because the worms don’t like the high acidity.
Lars
Great reading: I have found all these questions and comments very helpful.
I have a compost bin going – 2 years now and have successfully used some on a newly planted rose which loved it BUT the compost bin / compost / compost bin area doesn’t smell nice. It “stinks” a bit – not outrageously but enough to make me wonder if I can do something about it…
Thanks
Claire
@Claire
If your compost stinks, it’s usually related to one of three things.
1) Adding meat, bones, dairy or grease. Don’t do that!
2) The compost is too wet and has gone anaerobic. (Let it dry out by leaving the lid off during sunny weather.)
3) It has too many nitrogen rich materials. That can also make the compost too wet, but it will typically give off an ammonia kind of smell. Add dried leaves, dried grass clippings, or shredded newspaper to add carbon and balance things out.
This product also works great to stop odors:
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/biowish-compost-booster.html
The product itself is a compost booster, but it also sells in a different packaging as an odor remover for things like pig farms, sewage spills, etc. It works.
Hi,
So you can use any type of recycle bin or trash can (assuming there are holes placed on the sides and bottom of container) for compost bin?
I just got my first compost bin (black enclosed plastic) today and am not sure where to put it. Do I put it in the sun, partial sun, or shade?
My husband just made me a tumbler. We have one dairy goat which I thought we would be using her straw and manure in the compost, however I have not seen anything mentioned to add manure to the mixture.
Your site has been very helpful and I look forward to your comments. Thanks
@Darcy
Goat poop is nitrogen rich, and fine for composting. Avoid poop from cats or dogs. Goats, cows and horses are okay.
@Janet
If you’re in a cold climate area that isn’t very hot, then a sunny area. If you’re in someplace where it’s very hot, then partial shade or shade. Although really, my own parents have a composter out in the direct full central Texas sun and they do just fine with it.
So maybe I’ll backtrack and say that it’s personal preference, and either one will work!
Hi, I have a compost bin question for you:
We made a rotating compost bin from a 55 gallon plastic food-grade container. It has plenty of ventilation holes drilled into a large (4 inch) PVC pipe that runs up through the center of the bin. We’re adding kitchen scraps daily and brown materials and rotate it several times each week. We’re catching the dark-brown liquid that drains off through a hole in the bottom.
This dark-brown liquid that is draining from our bin – can we dilute it with water and use it as a liquid fertilizer?
I’ve read about many people brewing compost tea by taking compost, soaking in water, then draining – but wasn’t sure if our bin drainage was essentially the same thing, and safe to use (diluted) for our raised bed vegetable gardens?
Thank you!
@Bruce
Technically, it’s compost “leachate” when it’s just the liquid that drains off from the bin, which is slightly different than compost tea, where you put finished compost in a bag and soak it in water.
But yes, you can use it similarly to compost tea. You can dilute it and water it into your plants.
Here’s a link to a study where they used compost leachate with tomato seedlings:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a713731500