Finished compost is the best thing you can do for your garden, lawn, and flower beds. No matter what type of soil you have, compost will improve it by adding nutrients, giving better drainage in a clay soil, or retaining moisture in a sandy soil.

Everything you need to know about composting.

Start a compost pile near the spot where you will be using it. Use what you have on hand or collect it from neighbors who don't compost. Other places to get ingredients for your pile are from the grocery stores (they throw out a lot of things from the produce department), the beach, barber or beauty shops, a dairy, riding stable, brewery, seafood processing plants, vacant fields, or the zoo (zoo doo is the best thing I have ever added to my pile).

Ingredients to add to your pile: any vegetable or fruit trimmings, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells, pet or human hair, sawdust, floor sweepings, houseplant trimmings, fireplace ashes, newspaper, grass clippings, leaves, plant trimmings, twigs, weeds, seafood shells, contents of your vacuum cleaner bags, straw or hay, manure from plant eaters (rabbits, cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, zoo animals), used bedding from poultry, gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, pet mice or rats (do not use droppings from dogs or cats, they can carry disease), seaweed, and everything left over in your garden at the end of the season.

Compost happens, no matter what you do to the pile. The easiest way (also takes the longest time) is to just pile it up on the ground or in a bin and wait. Pile the ingredients up until it reaches 3 or 4 feet, then start a new pile right next to the old one. Add water as needed and in about a year, you will have finished compost. You can add more ingredients to the top of the pile as it shrinks and scoop out the finished compost from the bottom as needed.

To speed up the process, use the right mix of ingredients, using equal amounts of brown and green items. Brown ingredients are things such as leaves, hay, paper, pine needles, sawdust, straw, or vegetable stalks, and are high in carbon. Greens are fruit and vegetable waste, grass clippings, weeds, coffee grounds, cover crops, manure, and seaweed, which are high in nitrogen. A pile of all brown ingredients won't decompose very well; one with all green ingredients will get slimy and smelly. Layer the ingredients in your pile (3 or 4 inches of brown, then 3 or 4 inches of green), add water (the pile should be as wet as a wrung-out sponge). Turning the pile makes it decompose faster, but you will still get compost without turning it.

If your pile is wet or foul-smelling, aerate the pile, add dry ingredients, and protect from rain. If its dry, aerate it, add water, and cover with plastic to retain moisture. Damp, sweet smelling heaps with little decomposing needs to have nitrogen sources added and aerate it. Avoid thick layers of a single ingredient such as leaves or grass. Shred them in a shredder or run over them with the lawn mower before adding to the pile. This will prevent your pile from becoming matted and undercomposed. Screen out undercomposed materials and add to a new pile. You can aerate your pile by turning it, stirring it with an aerating tool made especially for that purpose, or install ventilation as you build the pile. Use PVC pipes or cardboard tubes that have holes drilled in them. Layer the pipes or tubes across the pile as you build or insert a pipe into the center of the pile like a chimney and build around it.

Sheet composting is an easy way to skip the pile. In the fall, just top the garden soil with what ever ingredients you are using (kitchen scraps should be buried). Leave them there through the winter. In the spring, work them into your soil. You can also sheet compost between rows or unplanted parts of your garden during the growing season. You can make a compost pile right in your garden. In one of your beds, use hay or straw bales, or chicken wire to form a bin, throw in the weeds and other spent plant matter. Next year, disassemble the bin, spread the finished compost over your garden. Form a new bin in another location in your garden and plant your vegetables in the great soil where the old bin stood.

You can get double duty from a pile that isn't being turned by growing a crop of melons or pumpkins on top of it. The vines will cover up the pile, making it more attractive. Best of all, you won't have to move the vines at the end of the season. They will already be in your compost pile. You can also plant an annual cover crop such as clover or vetch on top of the pile in the fall or early spring. Then just dig the crop into the compost pile when it flowers. Gives your pile an added boost of nitrogen.

The main purpose for a bin is to keep your compost area tidy, keeping loose, dry materials in and curious critters out of your pile. But just making a pile on the ground without anything to contain it will work as well. Compost bins can be made from many materials. Old or left over fencing, cinder blocks, bricks, old garbage cans, bottomless carboard boxes, an old playpen, old pallets, snow fencing, chicken wire, hay or straw bales or stock tanks. (I have 2 old tanks that my brother used at his radiator repair shop and they work great). Just make the most of what you have available. There are also a variety of commercial bins on the market, but these are usually expensive and hold less.

To learn more about composting,
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