Your garden will love you for taking the first step to having healthy plants. Using a compost system is one of the best ways to ensure that your plants are getting the nutrients they need to thrive. In this blog, we will briefly go over the steps to starting a compost, the ingredients needed, what’s involved in the upkeep, and when it is ready to add to your garden.
Pick a spot
Like with your garden plot, you will want to find a good spot to put your compost system. It should be close enough to your garden to make it easy to move compost to it. If you will be putting it on the ground, it should be in a spot that is not soggy. If putting it in a bin, box, or tumbler, you will want an area that is fairly level.
Compost System Materials
Green to Brown Ratio
When adding materials to your compost, try to keep your green to brown ratios at 1:1. This will keep bacteria and fungi levels in check.
Green compost materials
Materials that still are a little “green”, like vegetable and fruit scraps, fresh-cut grass clippings, or manure.
Brown compost materials
Long dead woody materials, such as twigs, straw, or wood chips.
Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio
The carbon to nitrogen ratio, or C:N, is often confused with the green-brown ratio. Organic material, such as manure or twigs, contain certain levels of carbon and nitrogen. Brown materials have a high C:N ratio, around 30:1 or higher. This means that there is 30 parts carbon to every 1 part nitrogen in that specific item. Green materials have a low C:N ratio, as low as 10:1. Try to keep your C:N ratio to about 20:1.
Decide On Your Compost System
There are many different ways to put your compost system together. I have listed a few here to help you decide.
1) The Indore Process
Start by laying down alternating layers 6-inches deep of green and dry matter. Follow with 2 inches of manure on top, then sprinkle dried blood, hoof and horn meal, or soil. Repeat. Water the pile until it has the consistency of a squeezed-out sponge.
Next, poke ventilation holes in the pile with a long bar. Be sure the holes go all the way through to the bottom of the pile. Wait 6 weeks, checking to see if it has a bad odor, from overwatering, or isn’t fermenting, from too little water.
After the first six weeks, remove the material from the original pile and build a second one with it, turning and remixing the organic matter as you do so. This time there is no need to worry about layering. Allow the compost in pile number 2 to ripen as you begin making the 3rd pile out of fresh materials on the site of the first one. By the end of another six weeks, the batch of compost in pile number 2 should be finished, and ready for use.
2) Sheet Compost System
Sheet composting is done at the end of the growing season. It involves spreading your compost materials directly onto the garden. You then only need to dig or rototill to mix everything into the soil. This method, of course, would not work out if you are planning a raised or container garden. Though this method will eliminate nutrients leaching out, it also won’t kill all the weed seeds. It will also help to improve soils that have too much clay, gravel, or sand.
Add leaves, grass clippings, manure, or whatever organic matter you want to add. You can also add rock phosphate or granite dust. Rototill the materials at the maximum setting of the machine.
3) Quick Compost System Method
This method will yield compost in about 3 weeks. Start by laying out leaves on the ground and add fresh manure and some compost or soil. Rototill it all together and add water. Then pile the materials at least 3 feet high, 6 feet wide, and however long you want. Cover with plastic sheeting for 4 days. Remove the plastic and rototill again to aerate, and build up the pile again, replacing the plastic sheet cover. In another 2 weeks, your compost will be ready to use.
4) Bins and Boxes
These have a neat appearance. They hold the heat more easily than a pile. They will also deter pests from raiding your compost if you are adding kitchen scraps. The lid will keep rainwater out, so you can control how much moisture is in your pile. It is also easier to turn over the contents, thereby speeding up the decomposition. Bins and boxes may cost a little more than other options but may be worth it.
5) Tumblers
Tumblers are similar to bins in that they are self-contained and not messy. They are very easy to use, just turn the handle to mix and aerate the contents. In doing so, this speeds up the decomposition process, producing quicker compost. They can be costly though and are not that big.
6) Pit Compost System
This is a slow but easy composting method, with little investment. In year one, start by laying out a 3 foot wide by however long you want. Divide into 3 1 foot rows, and dig a 1-foot deep trench in row one, leave row two for a walkway, and make plantings in row three. Add compost material and food waste in row 1, and cover with soil. Year 2, use row one as a walkway, make plantings in the middle row, and dig a trench in row 3, filling it with compost materials and covering it with soil. In year 3, make plantings in row 1, dig a trench in row 2, filling with compost materials and covering with soil, and leave row 3 for walking. In year 4, repeat year 1. No maintenance required, no outside investment. It does only work with small amounts of organic matter.
7) Plastic bag or Trash Can
This is perfect for indoor composting. Can be done any time of the year without regard to the weather. It can get a little smelly, so putting it in the garage would be a good idea. It may also attract flies, so need to make sure to keep it covered.
8) Worm Composter
The worm composter is an easy, no odor compost system. It can also be done indoors, or out. Just be sure their box is located where the temperature stays above freezing and below 84 degrees.
To start, fill a 1′ x 2′ x 3′ wooden box with shredded newspapers, manure, or leaf mold. Then add worms that are specifically for composting, such as red wigglers. Just continuously add your ground-up food waste every day. When you are ready to remove the worm castings, in about 2 months, carefully move the bedding and worms to one side of the box. Fill the other side with new bedding, and more food waste. Once the worms have migrated to the new side, you can remove the worm castings from the other side.
There is a also chance of attracting fruit flies, so it should be covered. The temperature of your worm composter will need to be monitored so as not to get too hot for the worms.