Welcome to Composting
Composting reduces the amount of waste each of us sends to the landfill. In fact, up to 30% of the material we send to landfill is organic and could be composted at home. Composting has other benefits too. Applying finished compost returns nutrients to the land, holds moisture in gardens and on lawns, contributes to watershed health by controlling run-off and naturally fertilizes and provides structure to the soil.
Did you know? Compost contains more nutrients than peat moss!
Learn more about composting and the reasons why it is so important by exploring the following links:
A Look at Waste in Alberta - Past and Present
Setting up an Outdoor Composter
Example of How a "Seasoned" Composter Composts!
If you have a yard (any size will do) then you can set up a composter in your yard by following these simple steps.
You will need:
Add green materials - a source of nitrogen, balanced with
brown materials - a source of carbon,
water, and
air (oxygen).
| TOP |  |
|
| Garden Soil | ||
| Moist Green Materials | ||
| Wet the Pile | ||
| Dried Out Brown Materials | ||
| Garden Soil | ||
| Moist Green Materials | ||
| Wet the Pile | ||
| Dried Out Brown Materials | ||
| Twigs or Other Coarse Materials | ||
| BOTTOM |
Find a suitable spot to build the pile. Place materials directly on the ground; there is no bottom to a compost unit because critters that naturally live in the soil will find their way into the compost.
This material could be twigs, or dried stalks from last year's garden plants. This will help the air to circulate. Tiny organisms living in your compost need air to survive!
Brown materials provide a source of carbon, an important compost ingredient. Examples of carbon-rich materials are dried leaves raked and saved from last fall, grass clippings after it has rested for about a week and turned brown on your lawn, straw, paper coffee filters (unbleached is preferable!), and shredded paper egg cartons.
Tiny organisms need air and they also need water! But don't add too much, or they could drown. Keep the pile as moist as a wrung-out sponge. Take the opportunity to dump any standing water so that mosquitoes won't breed in your yard!
Green materials provide a source of nitrogen, an important compost ingredient. Examples of nitrogen-rich materials include most of your kitchen waste, including peelings, cores, pulp, rind, wilted or rotten vegetables and other non-cooked, non-oily, non-meat or non-bone foods; coffee grounds, tea bags, fresh grass clippings, garden weeds and so on. Weed seeds are not advised, as they could spread if not destroyed by the heat of the compost!
Spread soil from your garden or from elsewhere in your yard. A spoonful of soil could contain 10,000 micro-organisms just waiting to do their work in your compost by decomposing organic matter, turning it into a rich soil conditioner!
Making sure you have enough brown materials to keep your compost balanced is often the greatest challenge. In autumn, rake up one or two large bags of dried leaves; your neighbours will probably be thankful if you gathered theirs, too! Enough carbon-rich, brown material will help to absorb excess moisture and also keep the nitrogen balanced.
Most commercial bins come with lids. If your composter does not have a lid, you could always find or make something to put over the pile. This can be useful during times of heavy precipitation. Too much moisture will drive away the organisms, leaving you with a sloppy mess.
Did you notice how much more the green,
nitrogen-rich materials weigh compared to the same volume of brown, carbon-rich
materials? It is a good habit to add more "browns" each time you add "greens" to
ensure a good balance. Too much nitrogen (greens) may also cause a build-up
of moisture and prevent the flow of oxygen. Without oxygen, decomposition might
still slowly occur, but the by-product will be smelly methane gas, which is
a greenhouse gas!
You can purchase commercial "compost booster" products, but organisms that naturally exist in your soil can do the job just as well and save you a trip to the store! You could also layer in some of last year's compost that didn't fully decompose.
Layer greens, browns and soil and add water and also some twigs or sticks if your pile gets deep. The bulky twigs will allow for airflow.
You can always add greens and browns in that period of time, too. Dryer lint and the odd "go cup" won't hurt either! If you chop materials into smaller pieces, they will decompose even faster!
Turn the compost with a pitchfork or other instrument. If turning it is too difficult for you, stick in some pieces of perforated pipe to introduce oxygen into the deeper layers of the pile.
Does the centre of the pile feel hot? As materials begin to decompose, a fair bit of heat will build up where the pile is most active, usually in the centre. As heat builds up in the centre, different organisms will be attracted to that spot. Some prefer heat, while some prefer colder temperatures. By regularly mixing up the pile, you will disperse the heat and help to mix the organisms through the pile.
If you start building your compost pile in spring, adding greens and browns to it over the summer, mixing and lifting the materials to add air and keep the moisture level similar to that of a wrung out sponge, you can have compost before the snow flies! And if not, you will at least have finished compost by the following spring.
While materials will not readily break down in Alberta's cold weather, they will quickly decompose as soon as the weather warms in March and April. So, keep adding compostables year-round..and watch our landfill space grow. As we dig compost into our gardens and spread it thinly on our lawns, our land becomes nutrient-rich and better able to hold moisture!