How do I begin a compost pile?
Answers:
Almost any organic material is suitable for a compost pile. The pile needs a proper ratio of carbon-rich materials, or "browns," and nitrogen-rich materials, or "greens." Among the brown materials are dried leaves, straw, and wood chips. Nitrogen materials are fresh or green, such as grass clippings and kitchen scraps.
Mixing certain types of materials or changing the proportions can make a difference in the rate of decomposition. Achieving the best mix is more an art gained through experience than an exact science. The ideal ratio approaches 25 parts browns to 1 part greens. Judge the amounts roughly equal by weight. Too much carbon will cause the pile to break down too slowly, while too much nitrogen can cause odor. The carbon provides energy for the microbes, and the nitrogen provides protein.
Leaves represent a large percentage of total yard waste. If you can grind them in a gas or electric chipper shredder or mow over them, they will reduce in size making them easier to store until you can use them in the pile, and they will decompose faster - an issue with larger leaves. They are loaded with minerals brought up from the tree roots and are a natural source of carbon. A few leaf species such as live oak, southern magnolia, and holly trees are too tough and leathery for easy composting. Avoid all parts of the black walnut tree as they contain a plant poison that survives composting. Eucalyptus leaves can be toxic to other plants. And avoid using poison oak, poison ivy, and sumac.
Pine Needles need to be chopped or shredded, as they decompose slowly. They are covered with a thick, waxy coating. In very large quantities, they can acidify your compost, which would be a good thing if you have alkaline soils.
Grass Clippings break down quickly and contain as much nitrogen as manure. Since fresh grass clippings will clump together, become anerobic, and start to smell, mix them with plenty of brown material. If you have a lot of grass clippings to compost, spread them on the driveway or other surface to bake in the sun for at least a day. Once it begins to turn pale or straw-like, it can be used without danger of souring. Avoid grass clippings that contain pesticide or herbicide residue, unless a steady rain has washed the residue from the grass blades.
Kitchen Refuse includes melon rinds, carrot peelings, tea bags, apple cores, banana peels - almost everything that cycles through your kitchen. The average household produces more than 200 pounds of kitchen waste every year. You can successfully compost all forms of kitchen waste. However, meat, meat products, dairy products, and high-fat foods like salad dressings and peanut butter, can present problems. Meat scraps and the rest will decompose eventually, but will smell bad and attract pests. Egg shells are a wonderful addition, but decompose slowly, so should be crushed. All additions to the compost pile will decompose more quickly if they are chopped up some before adding.
compost pail
To collect your kitchen waste, you can keep a small compost pail in the kitchen to bring to the pile every few days. Keep a lid on the container to discourage insects. When you add kitchen scraps to the compost pile, cover them with about 8" of brown material to reduce visits by flies or critters.
Wood Ashes from a wood burning stove or fireplace can be added to the compost pile. Ashes are alkaline, so add no more than 2 gallon-sized buckets-full to a pile with 3'x3'x3' dimensions. They are especially high in potassium. Don't use coal ashes, as they usually contain large amounts of sulfur and iron that can injure your plants. Used charcoal briquettes don't decay much at all, so it's best not to use them.
Garden Refuse should make the trip to the pile. All of the spent plants, thinned seedlings, and deadheaded flowers can be included. Most weeds and weed seeds are killed when the pile reaches an internal temperature above 130 degrees, but some may survive. To avoid problems don't compost weeds with persistent root systems, and weeds that are going to seed.
Spoiled Hay or Straw makes an excellent carbon base for a compost pile, especially in a place where few leaves are available. Hay contains more nitrogen than straw. They may contain weed seeds, so the pile must have a high interior temperature. The straw's little tubes will also keep the pile breathing.
Manure is one of the finest materials you can add to any compost pile. It contains large amounts of both nitrogen and beneficial microbes. Manure for composting can come from bats, sheep, ducks, pigs, goats, cows, pigeons, and any other vegetarian animal. As a rule of thumb, you should avoid manure from carnivores, as it can contain dangerous pathogens. Most manures are considered "hot" when fresh, meaning it is so rich in nutrients that it can burn the tender roots of young plants or overheat a compost pile, killing off earthworms and friendly bacteria. If left to age a little, however, these materials are fine to use.
Manure is easier to transport and safer to use if it is rotted, aged, or composted before it's used. Layer manure with carbon-rich brown materials such as straw or leaves to keep your pile in balance.
Seaweed is an excellent source of nutrient-rich composting material. Use the hose to wash off the salt before sending it to the compost pile.
The list of organic materials which can be added to the compost pile is long. There are industrial and commercial waste products you may have access to in abundance. The following is a partial list: corncobs, cotton waste, restaurant or farmer's market scraps, grapevine waste, sawdust, greensand, hair, hoof and horn meal, hops, peanut shells, paper and cardboard, rock dust, sawdust, feathers, cottonseed meal, blood meal, bone meal, citrus wastes, coffee, alfalfa, and ground seashells.
Other answers:
Probably the easiest way to do it is to go to your local public works office or parks and rec department and ask if they have compost bins for sale. I know that our local public works department has them for $50.
Check out... &................................ e-mail me & we can talk more about this okay well if u have my e-mail address.well toodles
you get some brick and some fence and put the bricks in a circle or square,then put the fence around it so nothing like animals get into it and put ur stuff in it
pick or make a good spot for saving and layering it all. Then layer things that will make good compost, all the coffee grounds, the remains from all the meals from humans' and animals meals, all the cuttings from bushes and branches clfipped from trees in the yard, layers of animal bedding like hay the chickens used, sweepings from the henhouse and from the barn, and in between all this shovel sand or loam and you can never have too much coffee grounds because the worms love it and they aerreate the soil.
horse manure it works
build an enclosure from chicken wire or anything to hold the compost that allows you to take from the bottom with a shovel.
as far as what to put in you can put any organic material that decays, potato peels, grass clippings,bananna peels, corn husks leaves .....the list goes on
and of course you let it sit over a winter for the decay process to begin and the following spring you can start shoveling it into your garden. and you continue to add material to the top of the pile to add fuel so to speak and your in business. good luck
There are fancy ones that turn made out of 50 gallon drums. I would suggest concrete blockes turned sideways for ventilation. Then just pile in any organic material. If it gets really stinky, add leaves or dirt to cover it. Its a good idea to use a pitch fork once in awhile to let air into it. After a year or so you will have nice compost.
Well, the best compost is usually made of the most useless, nasty, foul, disgusting worthless stuff imaginable. So I'd start out with Rappers, Attorneys, Liberals ( just the Tree-Hugging variety ) and Politicians...then I'd move up the food chian to Dead Fish and Roadkill.
we just made one in our back yard. first you get thest cement blocks and put them to the side and you have to get manuer and lay it down in a dirt area and you carve out enouph space around the edges to put the cement blocks in, then you have to go the hardware store and get cement mix, and you make some of your own and then you lay it inside the cement blocks and on the sides and on top and then you have to get some steel wires like 24ft by an inch and stick one in each of the cement blocks and then you smooth the dirt around it and then you plant whatever you like
go in the back yard and get a plastic garbage can (35 to 40 gal. to start with) cut the bottom out and put up right, and start putting things in it. Make sure there is a lid on it.
The answer you got from Heather (above) is excellent, but here are some tips from some one who had to learn the hard way.
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1) The bigger the bin the better because it keeps the heat in, but mine are a pair of only 2ft x.2.5ft high and I manage.
2) The bin must have holes on the sides to let in air and one side to be opening so that you can easily shovel the contents out for mixing. It must also have a cover which you can open to let in rain, or close it to prevent drying out too much.
3)Remember that for organic matter to rot you need, moisture, air, bacteria and nitrogen (food for the bacteria)
4)Start with a layer of garden soil preferably sandy (not clay), about 3in.thick
-then a layer of composting material 9in thick,
- then springle a solution of 1 spoonful feriliser dissolved in 3 pints of warer (food for bacteria)
- Keep repeating this pattern.
5)You can add manure any amount, any time. Excellent provider of bacteria. Also put in all the worms you can find, beg borrow or steal. They are the best compost workers and charge no wages
6) Keep the compost moist but not soggy, which would prevent access of air.
7) Every 6 months turn the contents of the bin over, The easiest way is to shovel it out and into another similar bin.
Good luck
get a flexible fence like chicken wire that you can make a circle with it. add dirt in the circle. put like fruits veggies disposable kind of stuff in the composed not cans. add more dirt once in a while.
soon you will have a great compose with worms in it. also you a shovel and mix it once in a while
i would start by putting vegetables that would decompose fast!
We we doing one but wasps like them too and we had to get rid of it of because of the wasps.
Call your local county extension office they have all types of information on this subject and what types of compost piles are allowed in your neighborhood.
well, you build a pen, or a box, and fill it with crap and leaves. Short, sweat, and simple...
first u should start to put in like banana peels and apple cores and stuff like that
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Most of the advice you've gottten here is good, but I'd say avoid the banana peel, it takes ages to break down, as does orange/lemon/lime/grapefruit peel. Various people and places suggest egg shells. These take forever to break down, so grind them up real fine if you're including them. Try an online search for worms to help it along, you can often buy them mail order and they'll really help.
Something else that helps is an activator. Cheapest and most readily available one is pee. Yep, really, pee on your compost heap once in a while to help it along.
Thay have some neat rotating barrel composters at most plant stores.But a real simple method is to nail three discarded pallets together dig around a little in your accumulating compost.
When I lived in Europe we had a big yard and started a compost heap. We put some wire mesh fencing around (about two feet high) the area and then just started to throw leftover scraps into it. We would put in coffee grounds, tea, old fruit and vegetables, sometimes egg shells. It was far enough away from out house that we did not have any problem with odors. You may want to turn it every once in a while to ensure even composting. We also threw in all of our lawn clippings after mowing. Then in the winter, we distributed the compost over our flower beds and around trees. Hope this helps.
i think a good way to start would be to put up a fence around the area and whenever you have garbage that is biodegradable just put it inside the fenced area