Making Compost At Home

There are countless things to love about the homesteading lifestyle, but with the years I’ve spent working on different farms around the globe, I’ve learned that there is nothing more critical to the growth of your garden than the quality of your soil. I’m a dirt nerd, so turning something generally considered as waste into something as valuable for your garden as compost is incredible. That’s why I’ve decided to collect every trick in my book and share it with you, so you can turn your food scraps into rich fertile compost to help your plants grow happy and healthy.

Defining Compost

Composting is the natural process of breaking down organic material to make soil. Finished compost contains healthy plant nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. It carries many beneficial organisms, such as worms, and fungal mycelium, that help keep the soil prosperous and your plants happy.

Benefits of Composting

Environmental Effects

Organic material will break down naturally in an oxygen-rich environment. However, when suffocated in landfills, organic material is blocked from the oxygen needed to break it down naturally. Instead, the organic material will attract organisms that can break it down in a low-oxygen environment, producing harmful greenhouse gases like Carbon Dioxide and Methane.

Waste Management

According to a report by the EPA(Environmental Protection Agency), 34.3% of Municipal Solid Waste produced by the U.S. was compostable organic material. With 292.4 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste generated by the U.S. in 2018, there are nearly 100 million tons of waste in our landfills from one year alone that could have instead been used to create compost and help fertilize our crops nationwide.

Saving Your Food Scraps

In many homes, after you chop the top of an onion or peel a banana, you toss the uneatable part into the trash without a second thought. Instead, I’d recommend housing another trash bin held specifically for compostable waste. A simple solution would be to get a 5-gallon bucket from your local hardware store and toss your food scraps into It. Be careful not to overfill it, though, the organic material will start to break down if left in the bucket too long, and your kitchen could start smelling eerily similar to a city dumpster.

Pro Tip: Have an extra bucket alongside your compost bin filled with dried mulch(like straw or wood chips). Add the mulch to any food scraps you toss into the bin. Not only will this mask the smell, but it will save you from having to add the mulch later when you start building your compost pile.

What You Should NOT Compost

While all food scraps can biodegrade, some materials will attract certain pests or pathogens that are disruptive to you or dangerous to your plants.

When composting, you should avoid the following:

-Meat

-Fish

-Bones

-Dairy

-Grease

-Plate-Scrapes

What You Can Compost

Almost anything coming from a plant is safe to compost. They will add healthy nutrients and microorganisms to the compost pile even if covered with mold.

Feel free to include the following:

-All Fruits & Vegetables

-Yard Trimmings

-Egg Shells (but only the shells!)

-Tea Bags

-Coffee Grounds & Filters

-Untreated Cardboard

-Uncoated Paper

-Ash from Natural Wood

-Raw and Cooked Pasta, Bread, and Rice

Different Types of Carbon

There are two major ingredients you will need to collect in order to produce a healthy active compost pile. The first is nitrogen-dense material (often called the Greens of the pile). Here you’ll find all of your fresh plant material like food scraps and yard trimmings. The second major ingredient is carbon-dense material (often called the Browns of the pile). There are several different sources you can use for your Browns, but I’ll just go over the most effective and accessible ones with you.

Wood Chips

The ideal wood chips for your pile will be finely shredded and contain very few pine needles or eucalyptus trees. Contact your local arborist to see if they can drop off a load to your house for free. Be sure to hydrate the wood chips before adding them to your compost pile, this will help keep the pile from getting too dry.

Straw

Straw and hay are other great sources of carbon for your compost pile, but be careful about using them as your only carbon source though. Broken down straw becomes increasingly anaerobic and may cause difficulties if used too heavily in your pile. Straw/hay bales can be collected from a local feed store or plant nursery. Just call ahead to see if they have any extra that you can take for free. You’ll want to give the straw a good soak before adding it to the pile to ensure the proper moisture level of your compost pile.

Dead Leaves

Depending on your yard, you may not have to travel far to find a hearty pile of dead leaves during the fall season. But if you do, asking a local landscaper for excess leaves is another great way to get a large carbon supply for free. Like all your browns, soak the leaves in water before adding them to the pile, and be sure to up the ratio per volume when using dead leaves to 4:1 carbon to nitrogen.

Types of Composting

Passive Pile

If you’re looking to be responsible with your organic waste, but also want the least management of your compost possible, you may want to make a passive compost pile. Passive, or cold, compost piles don’t require any specific ratios of carbon or nitrogen, don’t require frequent aeration, and have no specific level of moisture needing to be maintained. Throwing a tarp over a pile of yard trimmings and letting it sit for a year or two is all the work needed to create a passive compost pile. Just be mindful that the pile won’t reach high enough temperatures to kill off harmful pathogens or parasites that may form, so be careful what organic materials you add to a passive pile.

Active Pile

An active, or hot, compost pile requires a considerable amount of management to produce rich soil in a more timely manner. Depending on the size and method, an active pile can produce compost in as little as four weeks. Though this requires an attentive balance of carbon and nitrogen-rich materials to decompose optimally. An active pile also requires specific levels of moisture, and frequent aeration to promote the specific organisms necessary for the process. An active pile should ideally reach temperatures high enough to kill off harmful bacteria and volunteer seeds.

Designing Your Bin

Closed Bin

A closed bin is an enclosed structure designed to retain heat and moisture in your pile, while also protecting it from pests. A closed bin will often have an open bottom, so make sure to start the pile somewhere on existing soil so the nutrients from the process can seep down and enrich the land around it. Closed bins are often made from recycled plastics and can be purchased at a reasonable price. However, I prefer to build a compost pile myself to ensure the ideal 3’x3’x3’ scale of my pile. I also prefer to build 3 piles all next to each other leaving one pile active, the other open for when it’s time to flip, and the third pile for finished compost.

Open Bin

An open bin is much easier to make but does not allow any protection from pests. I recommend only using an open bin for piles designed to compost yard waste exclusively. An open bin can be as simple as crafting a cylinder from mesh or chicken wire and throwing the yard waste inside.

Tumbler Bin

A tumbler bin is an ideal way to aerate your compost pile without putting any strain on your back. Tumbler bins are enclosed barrels built to be rotated. Tumblers’ natural ability to maintain aeration makes them incredibly efficient at producing finished compost. Just ensure there is a way for air to circulate through the enclosed barrel and you should have the dark rich soil you’re looking for in no time.

Making Compost

Tools

Once you’ve built your bin, you’ll want to secure a handful of tools to help you manage your pile effectively.

The list is as follows:

-A pitchfork

-A sharp shovel

-A wheelbarrow

-A hose and adjustable spray nozzle

-A compost thermometer

Hydrating Mulch

The balancing act of maintaining moisture in the compost pile can be particularly tricky. Not enough water and the micro-organisms won’t be able to breed and the composting process will stop. Too much water and you drown the micro-organisms to a similar result. An expert way of ensuring the moisture of your pile is soaking your browns before adding them to the pile. Ideally, you’ll want to put the browns into a wheelbarrow(or bucket if your pile is small enough) and hose them down with the shower head. Move the wood chips around until all of them are nice and wet. If done correctly, this should feel very similar to mixing cement. Once wet, add to your pile with the nitrogen and carbon at a 2:1 ratio and repeat until you’ve filled the pile.

Note: Ignore this step if you add mulch to your food scraps in the kitchen. You may want to water if needed, but more than likely your mulch will already be wet enough from the water broken down in the food scraps.

Building the Pile

You’ll want to build your pile in layers to ensure the proper proportions of carbon and nitrogen-rich material. Start by guarding the bottom of the pile with chicken wire or mesh to protect your pile from any burrowing pests. Next, you’ll want a layer of 6-8 inches of dry mulch to further protect the pile from below. The next layer will be 6-8 inches of nitrogen and 6-8 inches of wet carbon. It does not affect the process if these two piles have been mixed, as long as the specific ratio has been met. Repeat with the same ratios until the bin has been filled. The top layer should be one of wet mulch or existing compost. Always make sure to protect your pile from the sun as well as from pests.

1.     Chicken Wire/Mesh

2.     Dry Carbon(Mulch)

3.     Nitrogen (Greens)

4.     Wet Carbon (Mulch)

5.     Repeat 3 & 4

6. Wet Carbon/Finished Compost on Top Layer

Temperature

When flipping an active pile, you’ll notice steam rising from the center. As the micro-organisms work to break down the organic material, they create a by-product of energy in the form of heat. While being a great indicator that your compost pile is breaking down properly, you’ll also want to use the pile's temperature to mark when it is ready to be flipped.

Place your composting thermometer in the pile's center and record the temperature. Most Composting thermometers will be labeled to tell you how active your pile is.

You’re going to want to record the temperature of your pile every couple of days and flip it once it has dropped below 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Every time it is flipped the temperature of the pile will spike again but with diminishing returns. Depending on the size of the pile you could be flipping it once every couple of weeks for a total of 3-4 flips before it is finished.

Maintaining The Balance

When flipping, you’ll be looking out for if your pile is too dry, too wet, or has an imbalance of carbon or nitrogen. If the pile is too dry, you may want someone else to help you hose the compost pile while you flip it. Hosing a set pile from the top will lead to too much runoff for it to be effective, so make sure you water it during the flipping process. If the pile is too wet you can add dry mulch throughout the flipping process to balance it out.

If there is too much carbon in the pile, it will appear dry and inactive. The simple fix is to add more nitrogen-rich material during the flipping process. If the pile has an excess of nitrogen-rich material you’ll know by the foul smell emitted as you flip the pile. Add dry or wet carbon depending on the pile's moisture to balance this out.

Finished Compost

You may be ready for sifting when the pile has been flipped several times and you can’t see any of the food scraps anymore. It’s important to check the moisture with your hands. Finished compost should be moist, but not sticky. It should be almost cool to the touch, and smell great like fresh soil. You’ll want to use a shovel at this stage and sift the finished compost into its own pile or a container. Be careful to cover your finished compost with some form of mulch or all that hard work will be undone if the compost gets too much sun exposure.

Pro Tip: There are loads of beneficial micro-organisms in your finished compost, and you can help new compost move along much quicker if you inoculate it with your finished product. Throw in a layer of your finished compost to a new pile to inoculate it with all those healthy organisms.