How to Start a Successful Backyard Compost
This is a guest post from my dear and lovely friend Dea’ Daniels.
Coffee filters, egg shells, banana peels, cardboard! Dryer lint, apple cores, dog hair, tea bags!
Grimy bits and peels and scraps…
Garbage, right? Nope! Not at all! These grubby morsels are actually food for food!
Much of the waste found in the home, particularly in the kitchen, holds a wealth of nourishment for our gardens and, in turn, our families! It’s likely that 50% (or more!) of your household ‘garbage’ can be redirected towards a much more nourishing and fruitful end.
Less waste and more food? Yes please!
With the gardening season sprouting over the horizon, now is the time to begin thinking of a composting system that will work for your family.
First, a bit of a disclaimer: There is a wealth of information, ideas, and opinions on composting. Soak it up! Read and research and experiment and discover what works for your household. Until then, use this post as a summary and starting point as you dig into your own home ecosystem.
The Basics:
A balanced and thriving compost system is much more than a pile of rotting produce. Instead, it’s a living micro-system filled with teeny living organisms, busily breaking down all that ‘garbage’ into easily accessible minerals and nutrients for your plants to take back up and prepare for your food use.
A well-composted garden is going to grow more vigorously while producing food with much higher levels of nutrients for your family.
The Key Ingredients:
Dry and wet matter (green/brown organic waste)
Oxygen (cuz the little microbes need to breathe, otherwise things get stinky)
Moisture (from water you add as well as natural humidity of the material)
Heat (from the sun as well as the energy of the decomposition)
Space (in the home and yard)
The Inside Setup
Choose an interior container and location.
Much of your composting material originates in the home. Choose a location near your main food prep’ area to encourage regular use.
In our home, we have a simple bucket with a lid. It’s kept under the kitchen sink, next to the trash can. Some families with a smaller volume of organic waste keep their container on the counter. Old clay crocks or pots are often an aesthetically pleasing option. Be sure that your container can be easily transported to your exterior site and rinsed out to avoid odours.
What do you put into it?
All plant and simple-paper waste, including: vegetable/fruit peels, eggs shells, coffee grounds/filters, hair, lint, newspaper, and on and on and…
What should you NOT put into it?
Meat and fat (fish bones/innards are alright!)
The Outside Setup
Choose an exterior dumping/decomposing site.
The primary work of composting occurs outside of your home when the microorganisms present in your local ecosystem interact with (ie. eating and breaking down) the products you provide.
While there are several models of composters you can purchase, save the cash and use something around your yard! Your home composting systems (HCS) is as simple as tying four old wooden pallets together, or making a circular ‘cage’ out of large mesh wire, or adding some vents to an old garbage can, or even just designating a certain corner of the garden.
Points to remember when choosing your exterior site:
- Ease of access. Keep it convenient enough to use; even during inclement weather or busy days when you might feel it’s easier to just ‘trash’ it.
- Also, be sure you can get to it with a wheelbarrow if you want to add a load of grass or leaves, or if you’re ready to shovel it out for garden application.
- Give it some sunshine and air. While that damp spot behind the garage might be out of sight, it’s not going to give you as much zesty decomposition.
This is the site of your chosen bin. Set it up and you’re ready!
How to Build Your Pile
You have your indoor bucket, your outdoor zone/bin, now begin!
First, layer it!
The simplest approach is to start off with layers of dry and wet {ie. green and brown}. Find as many bags of dry materials (dry leaves, straw, newspaper, brown grass, small branches) and as many bags of green materials (green grass, manure, peels, your indoor bucket contents) and layer them in with each layer about 4 inches deep, soaking each layer with water before adding the next one.
{Note: Nature is far more forgiving then we give her credit for, so work with what you have and retain the principle: green and brown make composting go ‘round!
And don’t be scared to ask the neighbors for their old leaves or grass—they’ll be surprisingly thankful! Just avoid materials which have had chemicals applied as they could harm the living system of decomposition}.
A Tip: One of the best kick-off meals you can give your compost pile (exterior) is a good dose of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium (NPK).
While there are some great commercial brands out there, mixing some good ol’ blackstrap molasses into a liter of warm water and pouring it deep into the center of your pile works great! For those who are a bit more adventuresome in their composting, human urine (particularly of males) provides the perfect ratio of NPK…just don’t tell the neighbours!
How to Maintain Your Pile
Finally, maintain.
As your indoor bucket fills, dump it on until it looks like a layer, then add some dry materials. If the season is particularly dry, add some water on occasion.
Once a week (give or take), use a garden fork to do some lifting or turning to add some air for those busy microbes. Depending on the amount of materials, the weather, and the health of your local microbes, you could have beautifully balanced compost within eight weeks!
Note: Depending on space, begin a second pile once the first is about four feet square. By the time the second pile is filled, the first will be ready to apply to your garden!
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So there you have it: a summary and start for you own personal composting adventure!
Try it out and see what happens! In the end, you’ll have less waste, a richer garden, and greater bounty on the table (not to mention some great science lessons for the kids!)
Do you have a backyard compost at your house?
Dea’ Daniels is a mom, wife, student, freelancer, and Seeker way out in Three Hills Alberta. Her days are filled with the color and energy of her three wildling boys, her pre-midwifery studies, and her paramedic husband. Dea’ writes weekly Life reflections at wholedei.com, as well as sharing research and information on natural living at speronaturals.wordpress.com.
I truly loved visiting your site. Regards
This is a great help. Composting is kind of intimidating to me, mainly because I don’t know what kind of container to use. I have a dog that would love to eat out of it, so it has to be set up to where she stays out, which should be easy since she is a short dog:) You gave me some ideas that I think I could pull off myself, like tying the crates or wiring. Thanks!!:)
Thanks for reading Candace
This is a great post! You’ve taken a subject that beginner gardeners might find challenging or intimidating, and you’ve broken it down into bite-size pieces.
I’ve shared it on Facebook!
Thanks Holly! That’s high praise, coming from you
Thanks for sharing the post!
We have a sorta compose pile going … Just emailed this to the hubby
Thanks Sara!
Haha, yes, they’lleat anything won’t they! At least you get the manure in the end, if you want it
Great post! Thanks for all the info. This might be silly…but one of the things holding me back from starting a compost is I’m afraid it will attract rodents. Is that a common problem? I don’t know if I heard of that somewhere or if I just made it up.
Anyway, pinned this post to my gardening board, thanks for the inspiration and information!
Great question Krissa!
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Have no fear, rodents are not attracted to a healthy compost! The heat and natural breakdown of materials mean that the materials are regularly transforming into a moist black peat-like material (favored more by earth worms and the early birds
I’ve been wanting to start a compost pile for years. I thought about getting a compost bin, has anyone used one of those before? What is the benefit to using a bin (on a stand that you turn by hand) verses a big ‘ole pile in the back yard?
I’m not opposed to the pile but I wonder if our free-ranging chickens would be in it all the time and if that would matter….thoughts?
Well, I personally don’t love buying the ‘turny bin’. We had one out on our ranch and it filled up in a week so we started a pile. Also, those bins are pricey!
For now, we do a pile through the winter (then add it to a pallet-bin in the summer), a pallet-bin-pile at the end of summer , and a standup bin during the hot summer months summer (it came with the property and decomposes quickly from May-September, but then overflows once frost comes).
We had chickens for a year and they liked to pick through it. It made a bit of a mess but also added aeration and manure. If your pile is contained within pallets or wire they could stiil nibble at it without scattering it through the whole yard
What a great informative post! I tried to build compost before but failed at it! I’ll remember this for sure!
Yay!
I used to have a huge compost when we lived in FL, but now I am in CA with virtually no yard. I was thinking about doing a compost using a compost bin because I really miss that amazing rich soil and also the whole concept of using everything and reducing waste. Great POST – you’ve inspired me to get going on this over the summer!
Oh I’m so glad Kelly! Once you get in the habit of it you’ll find it’s quite easy in all kinds of spaces!
Great info! We’re wanting to start composting once we get moved into our own house, again, but I’ve been a bit intimidated by it. I’ll be pinning this for future reference!
Awesome!
We did one last year in a rubbermaid container with holes drilled in the sides and bottom for ventilation and so the worms could enter and do their thing. It took a lot longer to “get going” than I imagined and I think it was too dry. Next time I may try a more open air version like yours. Just have to do some research on keeping the bears away…. (we’re in Alaska)
Yeah, bears like to check it out! Our bears were always a bit more interested in the garden itself (especially the berries!) but anything decomposing is a likely treat for them
Thanks for the info. I am really struggling about getting a compost going. We ended up with compost material in garbage cans and read that you can put bungee cords on top and then have kids roll them around on the ground. What do you think about that? It’s mainly kitchen scraps, but if we add yard waste to it should that be good enough?
And what are your thoughts on adding worms / having a worm bin to get the “worm juice” and add it? Thanks!
Oh how fun! My boys would love that! And yes, adding some good dry waste to that (leaves, straw, cut grass) will help balance that kitchen scraps.
As for the worms…. I love adding earth worms to mine, but the real hardcore composters raise special ‘composting worms’ and add in the worm castings. The compost pile itself is usually too hot for those little guys.
Overall, I don’t currently have enough knowledge to speak to that, so for this year I’ll just keep sending the boys out on worm hunts, tossing them into the pile, and hoping it helps!
I love how you call the scraps “food for food”. I’ve always kinda thought that the 11th commandment should be “thou shalt compost”.
Thanks!!I
It just makes sense, right?
We have always rented to I wasn’t sure about starting a garden or composting but I think we will this year. This is a very informative post that is going to help me out.. thanks Dea!
Thanks Rachel!
We’ve composted wherever we’ve gone; when renting and even when living out of an RV. It really helps with the amount of garbage and most landlords are pleased to have free enriched soil!
Great ideas here! We used to have one until we got chickens, now all our scraps go to them
Oops, my reply to you went up top!
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(Haha, yes, they’lleat anything won’t they! At least you get the manure in the end, if you want it