How to Speed Up Your Composting
As a gardener, you likely already know about compost, kitchen scraps, leaves, hay, grass clippings and other organic materials that, when placed in a compost bin or pile, turns into rich soil to use in your garden. Compost is a natural process. You can say it's the most important recycling process in the ecosystem! Every living thing on the planet eventually dies and breaks down into soil, to help new plant life (and, subsequently, every other living thing) flourish.
We want to simulate this process on a small-scale in our backyard. Instead of having to buy fertilizers and soil every year, compost is a great way to not only have access to a constant and free source of nutrient-rich dirt, it also helps cut down on the amount of garbage we throw into landfills.
When I first started composting many years ago, I simply nailed two crates together, punched a couple holes around it, and covered it with a sheet of plywood. While it worked, the process was very slow. Anything I placed in the crates wouldn't become useable soil until the following year. I thought that was the way it was, until I found out that, under proper conditions, compost can actually be made in a month or two!
The rate of decomposition has to do with microscopic bacteria and other microorganisms that live and thrive in your pile. The key is to give them everything they need to work and multiply. The more microbes and the more you feed them, the faster the process of composting.
Here is how to make your microbes very happy to turn your kitchen and yard waste into dark, rich compost:
Step One: Have the Proper Size Pile
Compost only happens if the center of the pile is hot enough to quicken the decomposition process. For this to happen, your pile needs to be at least three feet cubed, or about four feet tall and about 3 feet wide (the size of a large garbage can). This allows heat to be retained, even on colder days. Piles larger than five feet cubed (about 6 feet tall) are too big, as they do not effectively allow air to reach the center.
Step Two: Keep the Pile Moist, But Not Too Moist
Like any living animal, the microbes in your pile need water to survive. Your compost should have enough water to be moist, but not sopping wet. Too wet, and fermentation sets in, making it smell. Check every few days to make sure it is not too dry. If, after a heavy rainfall, your pile is sopping wet, add dry leaves, shredded newspaper or dry wood chips.
Step Three: Allow Oxygen to Reach All Areas of the Pile
Microbes need oxygen to survive. This is why you can't make your pile too big. There will be little chance of oxygen reaching the center. Too little oxygen, and your microbes will die. A wet, oxygen-poor pile encourages anaerobic bacteria (microbes that do not need oxygen to survive), making your pile sour and smell like a swamp. Actually, this is why swamps smell the way they do. A swamp is nothing more than a massive anaerobic mess of composting. Composting will be slow and slimy. You do not want this, and neither do your neighbors. To encourage oxygen-rich, smell-free microbes, turn your pile to aerate it. Take a pitch fork, shovel or special compost tool and literally twist and sift the compost pile, allowing oxygen in. Do this every few weeks. If you have heard of compost tumblers, this is the reason they are so effective. The action of tumbling the compost around helps aerate the materials, resulting in super-fast compost making
Step Four: Layer Your Compost with Green and Brown Materials
Finally, your busy-working microbes need two types of food to thrive- green, nitrogen-based material for protein, and brown, carbon-based material for energy. Mix these in layers for optimal effect, at a ratio of about half and half. Green materials: kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings Brown materials: old leaves, wood chips, shredded newspaper Mix these together. When adding new materials, sprinkle water if they are not damp, then add some extra soil from your garden to introduce more microbes already in the soil. Following these steps and maintaining moisture levels and oxygen, and your pile will heat in the center. Before you know it, you'll have fresh compost in about a month or two. Top it up in your garden beds to introduce more nutrients or use it as mulch. There is nothing better for your garden!
Chris Molnar happily toils in his garden and is the editor of Goorganicgardening.com, a website filled with tips and practices on organic gardening. He has an extensive section on compost bins and tumblers, and would love to hear your questions and comments on composting!