Lasagna Composting

No dig gardening! Just layer and plant - this creates it's own soil even where there is none.

Do-it-yourself composting guide

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Composting 101

Composting...

How to compost

Composting.....

How to compost in your apartment

Compost in your apartment (without making it smelly) using this guide. Whether you've got two green thumbs or you're an avowed plant-murderer, you need these tips.

How To Compost - Black Gold

Learning what to Compost and How to Compost

How to Make Compost

Create your own compost

t's easy to cook up your own compost. Just layer organic materials -- garden clippings, dry leaves, kitchen vegetable scraps, shredded paper -- and a dash of soil to create a concoction that turns into humus, the best soil builder around.

Before you start piling on, recognize that there are two types of composting: cold and hot. Cold composting is as simple as collecting yard waste or taking out the organic materials in your trash (such as fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds and filters, and eggshells) and then corralling them in a pile or bin. Over the course of a year or so, the material will decompose.

Hot composting is for the more serious gardener, and you get compost in one to three months during warm weather. Four ingredients are required for fast-cooking hot compost: nitrogen, carbon, air, and water. Together, these items feed microorganisms, which speed up the process of decay.

How to Create and Use Hot Compost

To create your own organic hot-compost heap, wait until you have enough materials to make a pile at least 3 feet deep. Then, to ensure an even composition of materials, create alternating 4- to 8-inch-deep layers of green materials (kitchen scraps, fresh leaves, coffee grounds) and brown materials (dried leaves, shredded paper, untreated sawdust).

Sprinkle water over the pile regularly so it has the consistency of a damp sponge. Don't add too much water -- otherwise the microorganisms in your pile will become waterlogged and drown. If this happens, your pile will rot instead of compost.

Check to see if your pile is decomposing by monitoring temperature. Check the temperature of the pile with a thermometer, or simply reach into the middle of the pile with your hand.

During the growing season, you should provide the pile with oxygen by turning it once a week with a garden fork. The best time to turn the compost is when the center of the pile feels warm or the thermometer reads between 130 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Stirring up the pile helps it cook faster and prevents material from becoming matted down and developing a bad odor. At this point, the layers have served their purpose of creating equal amounts of green and brown materials throughout the pile, so stir thoroughly.

When the compost no longer gives off heat and becomes dry, brown, and crumbly, it's fully cooked and ready to feed to the garden.

Good Green Materials

• Fruit scraps
• Vegetable scraps
• Eggshells
• Coffee grounds
• Grass and plant clippings

Good Brown Materials

• Dry leaves
• Finely chopped wood and bark chips
• Shredded newspaper
• Straw
• Sawdust from untreated wood

Don't Compost With:

• Anything containing meat, oil, fat, or grease
• Diseased plant materials
• Sawdust or chips from pressure-treated wood
• Dog or cat feces
• Weeds that go to seed
• Dairy products

Composting Basics | How To Get Started With Composting

Composting is nature’s way of taking waste and turning it into nutrient-rich soil that makes a great amendment to your garden soil or mixed into a potting soil. One of the misconceptions and why more people don’t compost more is that they are worried about the smell or that it could get overrun by bugs. You need some of those bugs to do their job and eat the refuse and produce the compost.

Basically, compost is bug poop. And it is essential to a healthy garden and a healthy environment. Bugs are the Universe’s way of cleaning up our mess!

Most of the bugs that your compost pile attracts are microscopic and you won’t be able to visually see them. If you’re lucky, you will get an earthworm or two that has found their way into your compost pile. One of the things I loved as a beginner was seeing science in action and learning how our environment worked based on something as simple as composting.

To start out your first compost pile you need to decide if it will be a true pile in a corner of your yard somewhere or are you going to invest in one of those compost bins. If you go with the latter, I highly recommend the composting bins that turn. If you have a pile, you can create a bin made out of 4×4 wood or just leave it as a true pile. You will need to turn the pile every week to keep the microbial activity active.

To start your compost, you will need to get a few necessary ingredients.

• Start by picking up any brown materials in your yard like dried leaves or twigs. Break up the twigs if they are branches into small pieces and let the brown materials be your base.
• Then add in green materials which is easiest found in lawn clippings and newspaper.
• If you are a coffee or tea drinker, start to add the coffee grounds with the filter to the pile. This includes tea bags and loose leaf teas.
• Add in egg shells (crumbled up if you can), all your leftover fruits and vegetables except for citrus can go onto your compost pile.
• Stay away from adding meats and dairy as that’s when you attract the bugs you really don’t want as well as animals.

Once you have all of those ingredients on your pile, add in one scoop of existing compost or potting soil if you have it, as this acts like a starter. Then grab the hose and water the compost pile down. Take a break and either use a pitch fork or a shovel to mix everything, or turn it if it is in a compost barrel. Water it down again until it is completely wet, through and through.

Every time you turn the pile over the next six weeks you let in much needed oxygen which reinvigorates the compost. If you turn it every week and keep it moist, you will have finished compost in just six weeks. You can then add this compost to your garden and enjoy watching your flowers and veggies doing a happy dance.