How to take action- Apartment dwellers can use vermicomposting – worm composters – that fit under the sink or in a cupboard in the kitchen. While you have to be a little more careful about the balance of what you put into the compost, the worms quickly turn it into incredibly rich soil for your potted plants and container gardens. You can also make a compost tea that is such a rich natural fertilizer it will have your friends and neighbours lined up to get some.
- Build or buy a composter. Composters can be as simple as a wood framed box with mesh screening on one or more sides for ventilation. Or, they can be more complex like a three bin covered system, or a tumbling composter you can roll around to accelerate the breakdown of the plant materials. Some municipalities sell ready-made plastic composters at reduced rates.
- For outdoor composting, place the bin in a location where it is out of full sun where it is convenient for you to access to drop off wastes (ideally close to the kitchen). If you live in a drier region, place it somewhere that is convenient for you to water occasionally, as keeping it wet can help increase the composting rate. In a wet region, keep it away from low-lying or wet areas.
- In simplest terms, an active compost requires a mix of wet and dry inputs and half 'green', half 'brown' ones. Green inputs are generally fresher (greener) things, such as kitchen scraps, grass clippings (note that it's best to let grass dry for a day before composting to keep it from matting) and manure. Brown inputs are drier things, such as dry leaves, sawdust, hay and twigs.
- The 'green' things add nitrogen to the compost, while the 'browns' are carbon. You will get the best composting action (getting all the microbes feasting) when your carbon:nitrogen ratio is between 30:1 and 50:1. This doesn't mean you need to add 50 times the amount of brown materials, because it is based on the chemical composition of the inputs. About two parts of green material to one part of brown.
- The next most important thing with composting is to stir it up once a week. The best way is by using a compost turner, which are relatively inexpensive and sold at most places that carry garden tools. Alternatively, you can use a pitchfork or shovel.
- Turning the compost speeds up composting, re-heats the pile, eliminates odors and matting or compressing of layers, and solves most problems your compost can encounter.
- If your compost won't seem to heat up, you can add what's called an activator. The most accessible activator for many people, especially in cities, is coffee grounds. Other activators include: alfalfa meal, dry chicken manure, soybean meal and fresh or dry rabbit manure. These are all nitrogen providers.
- When your compost is ready (anywhere from three months to two years, depending on how good you are at mixing it and adding in carbon and nitrogen inputs), it will smell earthy and be coarse, crumbly, and dark brown or black. You can mix it into soils when you go to plant, use it to start seedlings, put it around existing plants like a mulch, or layer into garden beds. Check out the Grow Some Food tip for more information.
- Research online, or use books or gardening magazines to find out more details on creating a great composting system that will work best for your situation.
- Sheet mulching is an alternative to composting in a bin. It is a method of layering materials right onto the ground and creating compost in place.
Why it makes a difference- In the garden, composting is the key to vital soils that provide a bounty of fruits, vegetables and flowers.
- By creating nutrient rich soils, your plants become more vital and disease resistant, decreasing the need for other types of inputs.
- Composting is a natural and healthy way to augment your soil, and instead of harming beneficial insects, it can help them.
- Fertile soil is one of the essentials for life. By creating more of it and growing beneficial plants and food, you increase biodiversity and decrease erosion.
- Healthy soil that is rich in compost retains water, so you don't need to water plants as much. Water is another vital ingredient for life, and fresh water is in high demand. Reducing water use is an important step toward sustainability.
- Composting reduces the amount of waste that goes to landfills, turning yard trimmings and kitchen scraps into something valuable, instead of further burdening a landfill.
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