Tips When Recycling Waste Via Compost Pile

One of the great things about organic waste is that with enough time and the right conditions it will decompose. But that should not be construed to mean that you can toss any kind of organic material onto your compost pile.

But recycling your yard waste via composting is a great way to go. You can take your lawn clippings, leaves, hedge trimmings and any plant trimmings that are "non-woody" and add them to your compost heap. You can even add the wood items if you first make sure they are chopped into very small pieces.

In most backyard composting, the largest single contributor is the huge amount of leaves that rain down each autumn season. In addition, grass clippings can be added to it if they are not mulched and left to nurture the lawn itself. When lawn clippings are used in the compost mix they should be used together with other yard waste elements.

If you have a supply of wood items such as small logs, branches or twigs, then you will need to have them chopped or ground up if they are more than a quarter inch in diameter. If you just have a few of these larger wood items you want to put in your compost pile, then you can also use a corn knife to cut them down to a size that will decompose easily.

Many types of kitchen waste items are also appropriate to be included in a compost pile. Fruit rinds, vegetable peelings and scraps, coffee grounds and eggshells that have been crushed are all perfectly acceptable to use in composting and this is a very effective way to recycle these kinds of materials.

There are some organic materials that need to be avoided and which should not be added because of potential health hazards or nuisances that can be created. No type of pet feces should be included in a compost heap because of potential diseases that can be transmitted. Any kind of meat, whole eggs, dairy products and grease should also be excluded because they will attract rodents and other vermin.

In most instances, diseased organisms that are common to plants and weed seeds are destroyed through the process of composting, as long as these components are in the center of the heap and the temperature in the center reaches at least 140 degree F. But, experts caution that it is difficult to assure that such waste will be brought to the center during the composting process. As a result, putting large amounts of diseased plants or weeds with seeds into your compost heap could end up causing problems and should be avoided.

A good compost pile needs a balance of materials that will enhance the decomposition process. In general, keeping the mix to a ration of about one-to-one of brown material with green material works well.

Brown material includes items such as manure, decaying leaves, and newspaper and cardboard. Green material would include the hedge and grass clippings, coffee grounds, and fruit and vegetable peelings.

It is a good idea to keep the compost pile contained in a structure of some kind. This not only helps speed up the decomposition process, but it also minimizes the space needed. You can pick up composter bins at most local garden stores and these are a very good way to help you manage your composting while also helping to keep your backyard looking clean and tidy.

Mike Selvon

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Organic Gardening - How to Build an Aerobic Compost Pile

Creating your own aerobic compost is easy to do if you are willing to put the time into it. It is more labor intensive than and anaerobic compost, but the benefits are greater. Turning the pile is a key part in producing a rich humus material that is full nutrients that will have your crops thriving.

To start out you will need the proper carbon to nitrogen ratio of the organic material that you are going to compost. This ratio needs to be as close as you can get it to 30:1, C/N. It is what is going to keep the pile cooking or hot. This is going to take a little time to learn if you have never composted before. All materials are different to some extent.

Once you have started building your pile in the layers of carbon and nitrogen material you will need to add moisture by lightly sprinkling water over the pile, you can cover it with a tarp. This will allow the heat to stay in the pile and start to cook faster. A god tool to have when hot composting is a compost thermometer, keeping the temperature at or near 160 degrees Fahrenheit is very important. After a couple of days have past you should check to see if the pile is heating up, you should be able to feel the heat if you dig into the pile and feel the material. If you start to feel the heat in the material at this point then the pile is starting to cook and in about a week the temperature should be up around 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once a few more days go by you will most likely see a drop in temperature. This is due from the organisms depleting the air source in the pile and at this time you will need to turn the pile and add more moisture, this will replenish the air for these organisms to keep reproducing. Recover the pile once you have finished this step to keep the heat in the pile. Your pile at this point should heat up faster than when you first started the pile, due to the fact there were already a lot or organisms in the material. Keep repeating this step once a week and when turning the pile you want to get the material that is along the outside edges of the pile worked into it so it will start decomposing.

Once the organic materials have composted you will notice a drop in the temperature. This means that it is near completion. After the cooking process has finished and the rich humus material has cooled a new life form will start to move in and continue working the pile, the most common one know to the home gardener is the earthworm.

Now your compost is ready to be used in the garden to benefit your gardens soil structure and plants.

A environment friendly and healthy way of gardening. Organic Gardening is away of gardening in harmony with nature. Growing a healthy and productive crop in a way that is healthier for both you and the environment.

John Yazo

How to Make a Compost Pile

One of the most obvious ways of garden recycling is to compost all your garden waste. Or at the very least, compost all the waste which is simple to compost! While you're at it you could also recycle all (or very nearly all) your kitchen waste too.

But for those new 'Garden Composters' who have not composted before can get bogged down in all the technicalities of how to make a compost pile. Do you need a commercial compost bin or is a homemade item as good?

Making compost at home really is a straightforward affair. You just need a little space and the time to set up your garden composting system. Once you've got it, its yours forever, so set aside one weekend and make yourself a compost pile to be proud of!

Whether you use a commercial plastic compost bin, wooden beehive compost bin, a box made yourself or indeed leave an area with no borders at all and simply create a compost heap on the ground, is not the important bit. All ways will work providing you know how to make the actual compost pile, not the surround for it.

The main thing to remember is that locating the compost pile on open ground will speed up the whole process of decomposition. All the microbes and organisms which carry out the work of the compost heap will be in your garden soil already. So siting the pile on that soil, allows the necessary organisms to access the compost quickly and easily. Later on, when the pile has decomposed to a degree, and cooled, the worms from your garden soil will be able to get into the heap easily and finish off the fine tuning of the heap, creating a fine, crumbly mass of hummus for free.

The second thing to remember is that your compost pile needs to be a layered affair. Put huge masses of one type of thing in it, and you're likely to find those huge masses still there when you want to use the compost. Layer your additions to the heap and organisms can work through it all easily. Different additions will provide different nutrients and texture to the heap. Mix them all up and the resulting hummus will have all those different nutrients, mixtures of textures and water retaining capabilities throughout.

So when you make your compost pile, make sure you add small amounts of everything in layers. So if you're adding some vegetable peelings today, follow them with some grass clippings, then some poultry bedding, then some shredded card. If you don't certain things will compact and ferment rather than breaking down. Grass clippings are often the main culprit, creating a huge swathe of slime within the heap!

So when thinking about how to make a compost pile, just make sure you site the pile on earth, and always add ingredients in layers.

Lec Watkins

The author writes in more detail about garden compost and garden recycling at Garden Composter.