Organic Gardening Compost

Growing plants without organic gardening compost is practically non-organic; today’s goal is to learn how to make organic compost. None of that store bought soil for us; we are going to make our own.

A place to keep the compost while it is cooking is handy that way the wind will not blow it all over the place. You can keep the compost pile in almost anything wire, old pallets, even those paper bags they sell in the garden department at your local garden supply store. It is convenient to have more than one storage device, 3 is ideal.

The first composting container is the holding area, where you are going to put everything you are going to compost until you fill your compost bin. Fill it with what you might ask. Well hold on I’m going to tell you.

In the compost community there are 2 types or organic material they are called Browns and Greens. Compostable Browns are things that are made from trees (this is simplistic but it works for now). Fallen leaves, mulch, paper, and cardboard are all browns. Straw, cornstalks, hay, and sawdust are also browns even though they do not come from trees.

Greens are the juicy things. Compostable Greens includes vegetables, fruits, weeds, grass clipping, egg shells, manure, and so on.

Green compostable material are the fire of the compost, they make it get hot. Brown compostable material is the wood it makes the fire burn longer.

In order for you to end up with Organic Compost you need to deal only with organic material that has not been treated with chemicals or only organic chemicals.

Put any and all compostable items into the first bin until it is full. When your bin is full you are going to transfer everything into the second bin. Transferring the decaying material on the top of bin one to the bottom of bin two until you’ve turned the whole thing over. In theory as you filled the first bin you mixed up the greens and browns or at least mixed them when you moved the waste from one pile to the other if not you’re going to have to do a little mixing as you turn.

If you have your compost mixed well enough and have an equal amount of greens and browns your compost should start heating up. Keep an eye on it and when the heating cycle is over you need to turn it into the third bin. Turn the compost pile about once a week until you can no longer identify much and you have a dark crumbly dirt like substance. Just rotate the pile between compost bin 2 and 3, saving the first for collecting compostable kitchen waste and yard waste.

Now take that nice compost and do something useful with it.

The first bin will hopefully be full and you can start again. Just keep filling and mixing and turning until you are organic gardening compost, ok I’m just being silly never compost meat or dairy products.