As with any good recipe, the cook has the last word and this is no different with composting. There are so many great varieties and depending on what you have on hand and what you want your compost to do for you, you will tweek your recipe to suit your needs.
No matter who you talk to about this, you will always hear a single voice when it comes to putting greens in your composting. The more fresh grass clippings and green food scraps you have in your pile the more nitrogen is released and the hotter it will be. Hotter compost piles, decompose faster.
Brown ingredients such as dry grass and wood shavings will add carbon and cool your mixture down. So ideally, you want to have a 50/50 mixture of greens and browns, but this might need a little tweeking.
photo credit: Steven Parker
Here is a list of other great ingredients that you may want to include in your compost pile:-
- garden soil
- finished compost
- bonemeal
- bloodmeal
- fireplace ashes
- crushed fertilizer rock dust
- compost starter
- Your Yard Waste
When it comes to your yard waste, here are a few pointers to prevent problems…
If you have grass clipping and they are a little wet, you will want to mix them in thoroughly in order to prevent and bad odours from developing and any woody materials that are larger than a 1/4″ diameter must be cut and bruised to that there is more surface area to facilitate it breaking down.
Any weeds that you include must go into the hot pile as the heat of decompositing will break them down. This will prevent them from coming back when the compost is used. You will want to include food waste such as veggies and fruit scraps, bread, pasta, coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells.
Manure from cows, horses, chickens and any non-meat eating animals are great for your compost and paper towel, toile paper tubes and other shredded paper can also be added.
Things to be avoided:-
- Do no put any meats or fats in your compost pile. Not only will they attract critters, but they will cause other problems too.
- Any plant that have insect egg infestations as the hot pile may not kill the eggs.
- Highly poisonous or acidic plants
- Ivy likes compost piles, so if you have to include it, make sure you chop it up really fine.
