Are you starting a garden this year? Then grab your composting bin because it all starts with the dirt! Follow along as we dig into the compost bin! I will teach you what can go in the compost pile as well as what should not.
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Anybody Can Compost
In third grade, my teacher, Mr. Lentz, taught us about composting. We learned all about decomposition and decomposers. He taught us about taking the rich dirt to start a garden. It was his way of teaching us to take care of our planet and appreciate what was around us. We spent many science lessons behind the school adding to our little pile.
As any excited third grader would, I ran home to start my own compost pile. My mom always had a garden, so I felt obliged to teach her everything I had learned about decomposition and gardening. After a quick snack and informing my mom about the wonders of third grade, I headed to the backyard to start my pile. I found a pallet and some old wire fencing. Then I made a compost pile right there in the yard. God bless my mother, she let me start collecting vegetable scraps and banana peels to put in my pile, which remained until we moved.
When we made our wedding registry, I made sure to put a kitchen bucket and a compost tumbler on it. Both have been put to great use!
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What You Can Compost?
Fruits and vegetables are the most basic compost ingredients. This is all that I knew could go in the pile when I was a third grader. Over time, under the guidance of my mom, I learned that compost piles are for much more than just fruits and veggies.
When you make your morning tea or coffee, go ahead and toss in the coffee grounds and the filter or your tea bag. You can also add the egg shells when you make breakfast. Once you’re done reading the morning paper you can add it as well. Just make sure it’s not glossy and that you shred it first. Nut shells can also get tossed in the compost bin.
Besides food, you can also add nonfood items. Paper products like cardboard and paper without much ink can be added too! Remember, that smaller pieces work best. Along the same line, you can also add sawdust and wood chips.
When you are cleaning up and trimming up don’t forget to fill up the compost pile. You can put in grass and plant trimmings as long as they weren’t treated with pesticides. Plants and the hay or straw you used to mulch them can go in when you are done with them (or in my case, when you forget to water them and they die). Just make sure not to throw in plants with diseases or infected with insects. In the fall, put your leaf pile into the pile as well. When winter rolls around and the fireplace is going, go ahead and toss those ashes in the bin too! Trimming doesn’t only include the yard, but also your hair and your pet’s fur too.
What You Can’t Compost
While lots of kitchen scraps are welcome in the compost bin, some are best left out. Grease, fat, oil, and lard should not be put in the compost bin. Dairy products do not belong in the compost pile and neither do eggs. Meat, bones, and fish should be left out as well. Cooked foods do not belong either. As a general rule of thumb, plant products can be composted, but animal products should not.
Although your pets or the neighborhood strays may wish to add to your compost pile, it is not a good idea to add their waste to the compost pile. That being said, cat litter should not become part of the compost pile either.
Tips for Composting
Keep the Compost Moist
It is important to keep your compost pile moist. You can use a simple garden hose for this purpose or you can use other water sources. Water from a freshwater aquarium can be used in the pile. If you wish to collect rainwater, this too can be added to help keep the pile moist. The trick is to keep it moist, not drenched.
Mix the Compost Pile
If you don’t buy a tumbler, then please keep in mind that you must mix up your compost for best results. This was very difficult for me to do in my pallet and old wire fence pile that I made way back when. It will still eventually make dirt, but it does take longer. With my tumbler, we get compost every year.
Keep Seeds Out of the Compost
I’m passing this along, so that you don’t make the same mistake that I made last year. Be very careful about putting anything with seeds into the compost bin. I made the mistake of putting our pumpkins in the bin after they got soft sitting on the porch. That was in December. In March, I dumped that compost bin into the garden. I planted and mulched my vegetables and herbs. Then this mysterious green plant started popping up all over the garden. It grew faster than any others. As it turns out, my pumpkin seeds hadn’t had the chance to break down because it had been too cold. When I spread out the dirt, the seeds that were hiding inside began to sprout. If you put things with seeds into the bin make sure there’s plenty of time and heat for them to rot before you want to use the compost.
Add Twice as Much Green
For the best results you want to add about twice as much green material as you do brown. Fruits, vegetables, tea, coffee, and grass are examples of the green materials. Brown materials are things like leaves, straw, hay, cardboard, paper, egg shells, ashes, and sawdust. Too much green materials will make it stink, which I’m sure the neighbors won’t appreciate. Adding too much brown material, will slow down the decomposition.
While composting isn’t hard and is nearly impossible to ruin, it is important to pay attention to what you are throwing in the pile. I do not keep track of how much green versus brown I toss in the pile. I water it when I remember and only mix it up whenever I think about it. This means that my pile doesn’t break down as quickly as it could, but it still eventually becomes good garden food. The most important thing is to keep the bad out and only add the good stuff.
The site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As a Revive EO Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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