Build a
Compost Pile
Here's what you need:
1.
Carbon-rich "brown" materials, like fall leaves, straw, dead flowers
from your garden and shredded newspaper.
2. Nitrogen-rich "green" materials,
like grass clippings, plant-based kitchen waste (vegetable peelings and fruit
rinds, but no meat scraps), or barnyard animal manure (even though its color is
usually brown, manure is full of nitrogen like the other "green"
stuff).
3. A shovelful or two of garden soil.
4. A site that's at least 3 feet long by 3 feet
wide.
Here's what to do:
Start by spreading a layer that is several inches
thick of coarse, dry brown stuff, like straw or cornstalks or leaves, where you
want to build your pile.
· Top that with
several inches of green stuff.
· Add a thin layer of
soil.
· Add a layer of brown
stuff.
· Moisten the three
layers.
Continue layering green stuff and brown stuff with a
little soil mixed in until the pile is 3 feet high. Try to add stuff in a ratio
of three parts brown to one part green. (If it takes awhile before you have
enough material to build the pile that high, don't worry. Just keep adding to
the pile until it gets to at least 3 feet high.)
Every couple weeks, use a garden fork or shovel to
turn the pile, moving the stuff at the center of the pile to the outside and
working the stuff on the outside to the center of the pile. Keep the pile
moist, but not soggy. When you first turn the pile, you may see steam rising
from it. This is a sign that the pile is heating up as a result of the materials
in it decomposing. If you turn the pile every couple weeks and keep it moist,
you will begin to see earthworms throughout the pile and the center of the pile
will turn into black, crumbly, sweet-smelling soil. When you have enough
finished compost in the pile to use in your garden, shovel out the finished
compost and start your next pile with any material that hadn't fully decomposed
in the previous one.
You don't need a compost bin to make compost. You
simply need a pile that is at least 3 by 3 by 3 feet. A pile this size will
have enough mass to decompose without a bin. Many gardeners buy or build
compost bins, however, because they keep the pile neat. Some are designed to
make turning the compost easier or protect it from soaking rains.