Back to the Compost – part 2 (starring Michael J. Box)

We’re coming back to composting today, this fascinating process. We talked a bit about the process of composting the other day as well as the economic and ecological benefits of composting. Today, we’re getting a bit more hands-on and explain some of the basic do’s and don’ts! Here we go!

The ABCs of composting

Here’s a great site to start : http://www.plowhearth.com/magazine/compost_how_to.asp . In short they write that there are 4 key words for composting : Green, brown, air and water. The fifth word is : balance. The right balance between the green and the brown materials as well as right amount of air and moisture. Here is a short list of things to compost.

Things to Compost
Green Materials	Brown Materials
· Grass clippings	· Wood chips and sawdust
· Garden trimmings	· Shredded yard wastes
· Green leaves	· Pine and fir needles
· Livestock manure	· Straw and hay
· Fruit and vegetable scraps	· Dry grass and leaves
· Coffee grounds and filters	· Nut shells
· Tea leaves and bags	· Stale bread
	· Shredded paper

Source : http://dpw.lacounty.gov/epd/sg/bc.cfm

The proportion of brown to green materials should be between 5 :1 to 8 :1, but this is just a general benchmark and may vary. Experiment!

Air and Water

The composting occurs as millions of bacteria and fungi magically decompose your food scraps and other materials and in order for this to happen (and to accelerate the process), you must oxygenate your heap. This can be done by turning over the heap (with a pitchfork for instance). The more turning, the quicker the composting will take place.

As for moisture, here’s what our web site tells us « the mixture of materials should remain about as moist as a wrung-out sponge---damp, that is, but not soaking wet. »

If you keep these two conditions, you should be good to go!

I’ll leave you with some images to do the rest of the explaining! Next time we talk about composting, we’re gonna bring worms into the mix, tons

of worms! Kind of like a horror movie where there are be worms coming out of the walls,

attacking people and eating them! Except, in this case, it’s not a horror movie at all, and they wouldn’t kill you… it’s actually quite the contrary! We must love the worms, not fear them! Composting worms, coming up soon!

Mathieu