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In America every year we produce more than 250 Million tons of trash that fills up our landfills and takes land way from nature. More than half of what ends up in our landfills could be recycled. One way you can start is a compost pile. There are so many ways to compost that there is bound to be one that is right for you. There are bins specially made for composting and you can even have an open compost pile.
Composting takes organic matter and breaks it down into reusable nutrients that give back to the earth. Natural composting happens all around you every day. The flower petals that fall off trees, the fruits and berries that fall to the ground, and the leaves in the fall all are part of natures methods of compost. Their organic material breaks down becoming usable nutrients for the next seasons plant life. Composting in your own backyard in sense recycles your organic materials and creates a nutrient rich soil that you can reuse in your garden. Compost can alleviate the need to use chemical fertilizers and remove the cost of buying fertilizers. Your compost is free organic fertilizer!
When composting there are two different types of material. Green and Brown. Green refers to organic material like grass clippings, plants, and coffee grounds. Green material add nitrogen. Brown refers to material such as leaves, straw, hay, and wood shavings. Brown materials add the extra carbons that help your composting process along. When composting you will need both types of material in a balance. With the right balance you can achieve a heated pile that breaks the material down fast without the smell of rotting organic material.
So How Do I Compost?
There are literally thousands of books about composting. Reading all of the material can at times seem overwhelming, however, composting can be fairly simple. You will need to dedicate a space for you pile. Start the pile by mixing into the pile a combination of the green materials and brown materials. You can even add extra nitrogen to speed up the process with Fresh manure, Bone meal, and Alfalfa meal.
Through out the process you want to turn your pile and mix it up a bit. Mixing the pile gets oxygen to the bacteria working so hard to break down the pile. Without oxygen the bacteria will decline and the heat of the pile will decline as well. Keeping the pile moist and oxygenated will help the bacteria thrive.
Starting off can really be just that simple!
As you progress and experience more there are many tricks to increase the heat and bacteria growth speeding up the over all time it takes. Upgrading to tumblers, ways to get oxygen to the piles center, finding ways to break up the material before adding to the compost pile, even different additives that accelerate the process. Composting is such a wonderful way to contribute to our environment!