Composting

There are two routes to good composting – the cool route (as in temperature – not fashion) and the hot route

The Cool Process

Get as many organic items as you can. It can be kitchen garbage (but no meat or fats), garden weeds, lawn rakings, leaves, old newspaper if shredded. The rule of thumb is that if it came from a plant source originally, it is a good thing to compost.

It is a great idea (if you can) to get some small items as well as some tougher and larger items. The bigger bits (like weed stems – not chunks of firewood) can be put on the bottom of the container and this helps somewhat with drainage.

I use an old metal barrel for most of my kitchen garbage that doesn’t get fed to my worm bin and I start it with old twigs and cardboard to block off the bottom of the barrel. I then pile everything else in on top as I collect it. I did put some rather tall woody weed stems upright against the side of the barrel to aid in getting oxygen down to the lower levels as the pile settled.

Wet It Down ? ?

Sometimes you’ll find the recommendation to wet everything down. I find that kitchen garbage – coffee grounds, vegetable trimmings etc is quite wet enough and with the average rainfall we get (my bin is either uncovered or covered with screen depending on whether I remember to put it back on) I find the pile stays relatively damp enough.

You want it “damp” but not soggy and it may take a little experimenting. In my case, I’m quite content to let it take care of itself and take a rather hands-off approach to the barrel composter at the foot of the veg garden.

Turning - Well, Maybe

Those dedicated to the process will dump out the container and turn it over, mixing it up regularly. I’ve seen recommendations from monthly to every six months. I mix it up when I put it in and when I take it out. But then again, I’m a lazy gardener and prefer to let Mother Nature do the work. Yes, it takes longer if you just leave it alone (about twice the time) but neither it nor I are going anywhere soon.

Harvesting the Compost

Generally, compost in a small barrel or drum will take 6-12 months to produce anything useable. It’s more a rotting down than a composting process. The smaller the container, the longer the time. The colder the climate, the longer the time. Remember in a frozen winter, nothing is happening in the compost bin so you may find that what you fill in summer number one isn’t going to be ready until the end of summer number two.

Take anything that looks “finished” – brown and crumbly with some bigger (harder bits like eggshell) bits left – and spread it on the garden. Everything else that is still recognizable goes back into the composter. That’s the key – if you can tell what it is – it’s not really ready unless it’s a tiny bit and then it will be (practically) ready to spread.

In my case, I take this material from the bottom of my barrel leaving anything on the top to continue “working”. Whether you open the door and dump it out – refilling the uncomposted material or ??? depends on what style of composter you’re using.

Use what you have and watch your garden thrive.

For information on hot composting click here.

Click here for free newsletter and to ask about composting