Composting is a very popular activity among frugalistas and environmentalists everywhere, and for good reason! It’s easy, natural, helps you save money and aids in making the world a better place to live in.

Let’s take a look at some of the basics of composting to help get you started!

Why You Should Compost

• It’s great for your garden because it improves the condition of your soil by providing essential nutrients. This, in turn, supports healthier and more productive growth of whatever plants you’re trying to grow.
• Compost in the garden also improves plants’ immunity from diseases, giving them a better chance of lasting longer and thriving.
• It reduces the amount of solid waste that would otherwise end up in landfills. The more you compost, the more you’re helping reduce the cost of trash removal and the negative impact of waste in landfills.
• It helps improve water retention in soils that are lighter and sandy.
• It reduces the production of global methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas that’s 21 times more potent than CO2.

So composting can not only help you to grow things more easily in your garden, saving you money on food, but it can also, literally, help you do your part to save the world. What’s your excuse for not getting started today?

What Can You Compost

In general, you can compost things that are “green” and “brown.” Greens, like grass clippings, most kitchen waste and weeds, are high in nitrogen. Browns, like dry leaves and sawdust, are high in carbon. A good goal for composting is to try to maintain a good ratio of greens to browns in your pile. Take it from Savvy Gardener:

Be aware that anything organic will decay (as long as it is organic, the critters will eat it); however, it may take a long time to make compost when the C:N ratio is too high. For example, a pile made solely of sawdust will take years to decay. Adding more greens, such as grass clippings or vegetable scraps, will speed up decay and produce compost in less time. Experiment to find the right combination of materials for your compost pile.

• Kitchen Waste to Compost:
  • Fruit and vegetable peels and rinds
  • Tea bags
  • Coffee grounds
  • Eggshells
  • Potato peelings
  • Old pasta
  • Stale chips or bread
  • Onion skins

  Other Things to Compost

  • Fallen leaves
  • Pine needles
  • Fresh grass clippings
  • Flowers
  • Garden plant remains
  • Sawdust
  • Straw

  What to Avoid Composting

  • Meat and fish parts
  • Bones
  • Fatty foods, i.e. cheese, salad dressing, oil
  • Shredded newspaper of office paper
  • Grill ashes

  How to Do It

  1. Find Space: dedicate an outdoor space to your composting endeavors. It should be convenient to your garden, but you won’t want it to be an eyesore either.
  2. Choose a Bin or Container: you can either opt for an open bin made out of a material like wood or recycled plastic or you can choose an enclosed container. Open bins collect water easily and are convenient for adding your materials. However, they can attract pesky visitors like rodents and insects, become difficult to mix later on and perhaps not look too pretty to your neighbors or visitors.

     A closed container could be more visually appealing and keep pests away, but you’ll most likely have to add water periodically.

  3. Get Your Tools Together: here are some of the tools you’ll want to make sure you have at the ready:
     • A pitch fork or turning fork to help with the mixing process
     • A shovel for removing compost when you want to add it to your garden
     • A garden cart or wheelbarrow for moving big amounts of compost to your garden.
  4. Create a Big Heap with Small Particles: while you’ll want to create a large pile of compost, you’ll want the materials that go into it to be smaller. This is because smaller particles are easier to mix and break down more easily.
  5. Get Started! once you’ve got your bin/heap set up and the proper tools, you can begin throwing acceptable scraps into your bin. Tip Hero’s Ray has a great method for easily getting kitchen scraps into the compost bin. He simply keeps a smaller bucket inside to throw kitchen scraps in as he goes. Then he walks it out to the outdoor bin when it’s full, preventing tons of trips out to the bin. You can keep your mini-bucket covered or uncovered, it’s up to you!

How Long Does Composting Take?

The amount of time it takes for your compost pile to turn into ripe, usable compost varies from home to home. It can take as little as 20 days if you opt for the more labor-intensive hot composting method:

Or it could take as much as 3 months to a year for a regular, no-fuss compost pile to naturally decompose (depended, of course, on how many people are contributing to the pile). Head over to care2 for more specifics on the time it takes to compost based on different strategies.

How to Use Your Compost

Once your compost is ready to use, you can use it in several ways. You can apply it to gardens throughout gardening season as an effective fertilizer. You can use it to feed your lawn in place of harsh chemicals, keeping your lawn looking alive and beautiful. And you can also add it to potting soil to create a good nutrient-rich mixture. Just be sure to “sterilize” compost before you use it to start seeds since some of the fungi in compost could contribute to “damping off” of seedlings (according to The Garden of Oz:

You can sterilize compost by microwaving it, baking it in an oven, or pouring boiling water over it. Of the three methods, the boiling water treatment is the neatest and cleanest. Simply put the compost in a large flower pot and soak it with boiling water from a teapot or saucepan.

Your Turn!

What are your experiences, if any, with composting? Have any great tips or tricks to share? We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments section below. Thanks for being a Tip Hero!

Sources: The Garden of Oz, The Compost Gardener, SavvyGardener

Photo credit: mjmonty, Sustainable sanitation, stevendepolo