Composting at home is a simple task that is easy, and can bring many positive results in the end for your home or garden. The task may at first seem overwhelming or daunting – but have no fear, it’s quite simple.
When home composting, you can add things such as a compost pail to your kitchen. A compost pail will allow you to store food scraps while preparing food, so that you can take them out to the compost bin every few days.
When you take items out to the compost bin, you want to make sure that you have a proper balance of Nitrogen and Carbon rich materials. This means in addition to your food scraps, you want to have leaves, grass, newspaper clippings and items of the sort to aid in proper composting.
Your compost bin in the back could be as intricate as a store-bought tumbling composter, or as simple as a homemade bin created from wire and wood. The most important thing is that you are checking your compost, and turning it regularly. There are numerous books and websites (such as this one) that provide tips on home composting. In addition, there are tools such as compost thermometers to measure the moisture in your compost pile, and compost forks to make turning the compost a painless ordeal.
Composting is a natural process, and is easy to do at home. All you have to do is take a little time out of your day to make sure there are the proper items in your compost pile, turn it occasionally, and let nature do the rest of the work. It’s simple, easy, and in the end you will have richer soil and more brilliant plant life than ever before!
Nitrogen Rich Materials Include:
Vegetables (Asparagus, Carrots, Cucumbers, Lettuce, etc)
Fruits (Apples, Bananas, Blackberries, Melons, Pineapples, etc)
Starch-like Food Items (Rice, Potatoes)
Oats, Oatmeal, Grass Clippings, Sod, Hay, Hops
Coffee Grounds
Carbon Rich Materials Include:
Cardboard
Leaves
Newspaper
Sawdust
Tea Bags
Egg Shells
Corn Cobs and Stalks
Not Recommended for Your Compost Pile:
Bones
Cheese
Diseased Plants
Fish
Meat
Milk (or any other dairy product for that matter)
Peanut Butter
Vacuum Bags (or any other sort of item as such that will contain a lot of dust)
Want to learn more? Be sure to visit our main composting page to get more details about home composting.
I tend to aim for a mix of 3 parts brown to 1 part green. The reason for this is that the nitrogen in the greens encourages the micro-organisms in your compost to multiply and speed up the composting process. And the carbon-rich browns contain the energy, in the form of carbohydrates, that the soil organisms need. Browns also help reduce any odours you may get from having too much cut grass, etc in the mix.
Yes, I agree that you need to be careful not to just throw all your food scraps on your compost pile for fear of attracting vermin. But if you wany to safely compost meat, fish and dairy, plus your cooked food scrapings, consider using a Bokashi Kitchen Composter. Find out more at myBokashi Explained page. But, if in doubt, leave it out. Best of luck!