Once you have decided that you want to give composting a try, there are several composting materials that you can use. Most of these raw items are available in your own yard or kitchen and require only a small amount of pre-planning before they can be used.
With these simple ingredients, anyone can start their own compost pile in under a day. If you choose to not use a bin, consider buying some wire mesh to contain the pile. It can be wrapped around the base of the pile in a circular shape. The compost can be ready anywhere from two months up to one year depending on your level of involvement with turning the pile.
Building the Compost Pile
After you pick a container to begin your composting adventure and a location for your compost bin or pile, you are going to need approximately four inches of leaves or other carbon-rich material as a base. If you are able to chip the leaves prior to adding it to the pile it will make things progress and breakdown faster, but it is not a requirement. The number of leaves or carbon material you will need to make a four-inch base will vary depending on the size of the bin you have chosen.
Your next layer should be about one inch of high-quality soil. If you cannot find this in your own garden a small bag of organic soil, purchased from your local nursery will work fine.
Then start layering the food for the microbes to eat. There are two categories of materials you are going to need. First, is often referred to as “brown” and includes carbon-rich materials like yard waste. The second is often called “green” and includes kitchen food scraps and other organic waste found in the garden. A common ratio is two parts brown for every part of green material used.
Brown Composting Materials
These carbon-rich materials are used 2 to 1 with nitrogen-rich materials. So, for every 2 portions of brown, you should add 1 portion of green to the pile. Most of these items can be slow to decompose, so if possible, chop or shred them into small pieces so they will react better with the greens.
- Chicken bedding
- Cardboard
- Corn cobs & stalks
- Coffee filters
- Cotton clothes or napkins
- Dried garden debris
- Dried grass clippings
- Hay
- Leaves
- Nut shells: peanut, walnut, etc
- Old potting soil
- Paper towels
- Paper napkins
- Peat Moss
- Pine cones and needles
- Sawdust
- Shredded newspaper
- Shredded bills and office paper
- Straw
- Tissue paper
- Wood chips
Green Composting Materials
Because they are so quick to decompose, nitrogen-rich materials help to speed up your composting timeline. They work symbiotically with the browns to create beautiful compost materials you can use to improve your soil.
- Apple pomace
- Blood meal
- Bone Meal
- Coffee grounds
- Citrus rinds
- Drier lint
- Eggshells
- Feathers
- Fruit scraps, peels, and rinds
- Deadheaded flowers
- Grass clippings, fresh
- Garden plants, leaves, and trimmings; fresh
- Kitchen scraps
- Manure from horses, cows, chickens, or rabbits
- Pumpkins and winter squash
- Rhubarb leaves
- Sod
- Teabags, grounds, and leaves
- Vegetable scraps
What Not to Add to Your Compost Pile
- Chips or sawdust from trees with aromatic oils (black walnut, red cedar, eucalyptus)
- Sawdust from pressure-treated wood
- Used pet littler or pet feces
- Human feces
- Invasive weeds and plants
- Weed seeds
- Ashed from a coal stove
- Charcoal ashes
- Grass clippings that have been treated with herbicides or pesticides
- Meat or meat products
- Fats
- Bones
- Dairy products (cheese, milk, sour cream, etc.
- Whole eggs (shells are ok)
- Diseased garden plants
be carful about black walnut it can inhibit some plants to grow.