Aug
Making Compost Quickly
You do not need a compost bin to compost. In actual fact, your yard does not even need you to compost. If you let the leaves fall from the trees & just left them there, eventually they had decompose all by themselves. But if you want to use compost in your vegetable garden or flower bed as a natural fertilizer or to improve drainage or to get one of the many other benefits of compost, you will want a lot of it & fast. Waiting for nature is not a very practical way to get compost. If you want your yard waste & kitchen scraps to decompose quickly, you will need to do a few things to speed up the process.
First off you will need a compost bin. Sure a compost bin is not necessary to make compost but it will help make it faster. A pile of yard waste will decompose quicker if it has some depth. Four foot squared (Four feet high, four feet wide & four feet deep) is a great size to get your compost cooking.
The ratio of greens to browns is important too for quick composting. You should attempt to get you greens (grass clippings, kitchen scraps, coffee grinds) to browns (fallen leaves, hay, shredded newspapers) ratio somewhere close to 1:20. This ratio is also best for preventing a smelly bin.
Keep your compost wet. You do not want it soaked but you also do not want it too dry either. You’re going for a slightly damp feeling. If it rains once or twice or two times or two times a week, then you probably will not have to add any more water.
Mix your compost. This is hard work but it is one of the best tips for making compost quickly. Get your pitch fork & just start turning the contents of your pile over at least once a week.
Compost will happen on it is own if you let it… Things will decompose & break down all by themselves. But if you follow these tips you can definitely make compost quicker than mother nature can.
When Anthony Tripodi is not gardening, he’s usually taking pictures of compost & writing about it on his blog, http://compostbin.blogspot.com
