Composting your kitchen scraps and yard waste at home is easy once you set it up. You create rich, living soil when you compost. It’s free, it’s easy, and after you start it becomes part of your regular routine.
Yes, you can pile things up in the corner of your yard but you run the risk of rats and other animals rummaging through your compost if it’s not in a covered container or screened off. Do yourself a favor (ahile preserving good relations with your neighbors) and buy a compost bin, worm farm, or tumbler. Search on craigslist and Nextdoor because people move or lose interest and list bins they no longer want.
What you don’t compost is as important as what you can. Meat, bones, grease, and pet waste are no-no's. Weeds with seeds are also discouraged. Unless you want weed seeds in the compost you add to your garden and yard. Doesn’t make much sense does it?
You can wait for things to decompose and break down on their own or you can jumpstart your new (or dormant) compost efforts by adding compost from an existing pile. Kinda like borrowing a sourdough starter, beer yeast, or heaven forbid a SCOBY from someone who&rsqo;s already doing what you want to do yourself. The other secret is adding red wiggler worms to your pile and let them eat and create rich worm castings. #vermiculture
I layer my compost like making lasagna. Don’t let your compost dry out. It should stay moist like a wrung out sponge.
To turn or not to turn. That is the question. Hey, I’m lazy. I let my worms mix the pile for me. I may turn every month or so more to check on the pile’s progress than anyting else. And yes, your worms won’t die in the winter unless it’s really, really cold for long periods of time. I’ve been known to put a 5 gallon bucket in the basement or garage.
I find that tree leaves are the best, especially maple. Avoid evergreen needles or black walnut, beech, oak, holly, sweet chestnut or eucalyptus. I can’t speak highly enough about adding edible mushroom scraps to your compost. The mycelium will grow through your pile and if you’re lucky it will fruit giving you more mushrooms. Ask your food co-op or grocery store to give you what they trim away. Better yet, go to your local farmers market and buy Oyster Mushrooms or Lion’s Mane. Great to cook with and high nutritional value as well. Mix the mushroom scraps with spent coffee grounds.
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