The 2020 Home & Garden Guide is sponsored by Weather Tight. You can read the entire guide here.
Today, gardeners are creating mini ecosystems in their own yards, and they’re relying on composting to do it. Big in both the gardening and sustainability worlds, composting costs little yet offers incredible benefits. Some gardeners compost to decrease food waste and live a greener lifestyle; others compost to save money on commercial fertilizers. No matter why you compost, however, you’ll always come out a winner.
Composting is nothing more than breaking down organic material (coffee grounds, banana peels, leaves, flowers, etc.) into a nutrient-dense soil that you can add to gardens, lawns, flower beds, potted plants or even hanging baskets.
It’s a combination of green items (high in nitrogen) and brown items (high in carbon) that makes compost piles sing. Green items include grass clippings, freshly-pulled weeds, eggshells, fruit and vegetable peels, and the like. Brown items are things such as sticks, paper scraps, dryer lint (natural fibers), leaves and whatnot.
Avoid animal products such as bones, meat or fat. Similarly, keep your compost pile free of oily food scraps, butter or grease, and dairy products. Don’t add diseased plants or weeds with seeds.
The quickest way to compost is to pile the waste into a corner of your yard and wait a year for it to decompose. Most homeowners, however, use indoor or outdoor compost containers. A quick internet search on such containers results in everything from countertop canisters as low as $12 to industrial outdoor tumblers that sell for more than $200. Choose the vessel that suits your needs.
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Get Hot & Dirty (& Stinky)
Let’s compost! Begin with a bit of slightly moist garden soil, then layer on the green and brown waste. Most stick with a 50-50 combo of green and brown items. Some swear by a ratio of one-part green to three-parts brown; however, this mixture is most successful in larger, outdoor compost piles.
Moisture is key to the composting process, so try to keep your pile as moist as a damp sponge. If you compost outdoors, sprinkle the pile with a hose from time to time; indoor composters can simply wet paper towels, tissues or paper before adding such items to the pile.
Let everything sit for a week or so. When it begins to heat up (as items decay), it’s time to “turn” it. Simply mix it with a large spoon (indoor composting) or a shovel (outdoor composting). Repeat this step as the items in your compost break down and heat up. Turning the compost adds air, which greatly speeds up the decaying process. If you’d like to skip this step, that’s fine—but it will take longer for the waste to become usable soil.
It can take anywhere from nine months to a year (depending on the size of the pile) for your compost to be ready, so stay patient. Continue to add waste to the mixture, keep it moist and turn it as needed. If things start to stink, mix in more brown items.
Your compost pile is ready when it has broken down into a mixture that’s more soil than anything else. Bits of eggshell, acorns or sticks might remain but that’s alright. As long as the new soil is moist, thick and has an earthy aroma, it’s ready to be used as a natural fertilizer and mulch. Use it to give your tomato plants a boost or add it your zero-waste lifestyle. Whatever your eco-friendly goals might be, let composting be the answer.
The 2020 Home & Garden Guide is sponsored by Weather Tight. You can read the entire guide here.
