The Holistic Gardening Series: There's (Black) Gold In Them Thar Piles! (Part 2)

The Basic Process Of Building And Maintaining A Compost System:

Place the working compost pile in a bin, or alternating bins, or on the open ground in a sheltered yet convenient to reach area. You can use wire enclosures, wooden or plastic compost bins, bales of straw, or even pallets to build a bin, if you prefer not to have an open composting system. Start with a bottom layer of coarse material such as twigs or stalks to provide good air circulation. Be sure this layer is in contact with the bare ground. Layer green material, sprinkle water, brown material, sprinkle water, and then add accelerator or starter, and then again sprinkle with water. You can get fancy by buying accelerators or starters, but if you have good soil somewhere in your yard, shovel about an half-inch layer or half a shovel full over the top of each layer. You can add manure, organic fertilizer in a thin layer, finished compost, and even blood meal or fish emulsion which will help to get things started. Keep alternating green, brown, and starter, and sprinkle each layer. Make sure the materials in the layers other than the base layer are finely chopped or shredded. Then, like in a salad, mix the whole mound together. These next three steps are more crucial if you are planning to do hot composting. Be sure the size of the mound is at least 3x3x3 feet if you are hot composting, and no more than 5x5x5 feet total. If you are slow or cold composting, just mix and add the layers. Turn the compost pile every week or ten days to fluff and aerate the compost and to distribute the micro-organisms that help to break down the organic material to compost. In a cold or slow composting system, this is not as important to do. In a hot composting system, add only a bit more material into the center of the pile, and mix it in. With slow or cold composting, you can add whatever you want to the top, and mix it together from time to time.

Just What In The Heck Is Green And Brown??? Green and brown refers to the the abundance of Nitrogen (Green) or the abundance of Carbon (Brown) in the organic material to be composted. All living organisms contain both, but some have higher proportions of one over the other. With composting, you and I want to be sure to add both for balance and to continue the process optimally. So, here is a list of green and brown materials: ~Examples of Green And Brown Materials For Composting~ Green Materials Brown Materials grass clippings dryer or vacuum lint vegetable scraps ground or chopped corncobs fruit scraps and pulp wood ashes in small amounts (Do not use charcoal)! green plant clippings chopped cornstalks and dried clippings of ornamental grasses pulled fresh weeds (remove rhizomes or seed heads) dried leaves, shredded manures of all types excluding carnivorous pets or human dried weeds (Avoid adding seed pods or seed heads) cottonseed meal nut shells or hulls fish emulsion paper, newspaper with organic-based ink blood meal cardboard, finely shredded used tea bags, coffee grounds, and paper filters wood chips, if not chemically treated citrus rinds sawdust (use in small amounts) eggshells, crumbled finely shredded and ground twigs or branches cooked pasta and rice, (Do not add if any fat or oil was added) evergreen boughs and needles. Shred the boughs old bread hair or animal (pet fur) trimmings Composting: |Page 3||Page 1| Page Last Updated March 2, 2006 Copyright 2001-2006, Marilyn K. Burns. All Rights Reserved