How to Make Your Own Compost
Ways to quickly and easily complie your compost and diminish the odor, too.
May/June 2002
By Rosemerry Wahtola Tommer
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Photos by Joe Coca
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Before human manipulation, all organic things on earth were completely recycled. Plants, animals, and insects lived on the land. When they died, bacteria decomposed them. They returned to the earth and enriched the soil with their remains. No dumps. No landfills. Simply a never-ending cycle of matter reshaping and nurturing itself.
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You can speed up the process, take away the odor, and make it more convenient, but even if you do nothing, organic things decompose. And that’s what makes composting such a no-brainer.
Start simple
Yard waste—responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the annual curbside trash in the United States—is a great place to begin composting.
“I recommend starting with grass clippings and dry leaves,” says Mary Tynes, editor of www.mastercomposter.com. “Many people begin composting because they’re amazed they can throw food waste outside. But if they don’t know what they’re doing they can attract every stray dog, bear, coyote, and rodent, and odor problems could develop, too. Well, you won’t have any problems with dry leaves and grass.”
Basic ingredients
The word compost comes from the Latin componere, which means “to put together,” and that’s really what the art of composting is—mixing the right ingredients in the right amounts to create a microorganism-friendly environment. These ingredients are carbon, nitrogen, air, and moisture.
Carbon is the energy source—it does for compost what carbohydrates do for your body. To identify carbons, think of things that burn easily: dry leaves, cornstalks, cardboard, hay.
Nitrogen is the protein source—it breaks down the carbon food and heats things up, essentially cooking the pile and killing most vectors such as weed seeds and pathogens. To identify nitrogen sources, think of things that will smell bad if you ignore them, such as grass clippings, manure, and seaweed.
Many microorganisms require air—especially the most efficient ones, called aerobes. Without enough oxygen, aerobes can’t survive; anaerobes take over and slow down decomposition by as much as 90 percent. To be sure your pile has enough air, you need to turn it. Tynes recommends using a bottomless bin or a circle of fencing. To turn, “pick up the bin, set it next to the pile, then shovel the stuff from the old pile into the bin so that the old pile’s top becomes the new pile’s bottom.” And when you turn the pile, says John Harrison, agricultural waste management specialist for Utah State University Extension, that is the ideal time to add more material.
Microorganisms need moisture, too—ideally the same dampness as a wrung-out sponge. Too little moisture will slow a pile down; too much will force out the air and suffocate the aerobes. Tynes says the best time to water your pile is when you turn it, watering it as you go.
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