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Composting means recycling organic waste by encouraging the microbial process to decompose and convert the material into more useable organic matter. Composting reduces the amount of your household garbage while producing a nutrient rich material for your houseplants or garden. Whether you have a yard full of leaves and grass clippings or a few pounds of vegetable and fruit peels each week, you can design a composting plan suitable for your needs.
If you have a small yard or garden with little or no leaves or grass clippings, you might want to consider vermiculture. Earthworm bins are readily from several suppliers and are efficient at recycling vegetable and fruit materials. If you have ample space in your yard, your choice of composting structures is limited only by your creativity - wooden bins of various designs (slats, lattice, etc), cylindrical wire bins, barrels or metal drums with holes drilled for ventilation, bins made of hay bails, concrete block bins, or no structure at all. Whatever you choose, you can produce excellent compost if you follow a few simple rules.
Moisture is essential for optimal microbial action. In the absence of adequate rainfall, enough water should be added to maintain the pile in a damp, but not wet, condition. The pile should be dish shaped on top to collect water, not mounded to allow run off. The second critical component of successful composting is adequate oxygen. Mixing the compost once or twice a month will introduce necessary oxygen, encourage decomposition, and discourage bad odors.
The smaller the pieces of organic material, the sooner the compost will be ready to use. Shredding material not only speeds up the process, but also reduces the volume of the pile. Leaves can be easily shredded with a lawn mower and collected in the bag attachment. Some leaf blowers can be converted to shredders. A variety of chippers and shredders are available in most areas for purchase or rent. Branches and twigs larger than ΒΌ inch in diameter should be chipped before going in the compost.
Locate your compost bin in an area that is screened from view or where it will not offend neighbors or interfere with activities. The location will preferably be close to your garden or where ever you plan to use the finished product. Remember that properly mixed compost that is turned frequently will not produce offensive odors. Odors are caused by adding excessive amounts of wet plant materials such as fruits, vegetables, or grass, or from over-watering. Avoid locating your compost bin near a well, on a slope that drains into a pond or stream, or under a tree.
Organic materials that are suitable for composting include vegetable and flower garden refuse; prunings from non-woody plants; fruit and vegetable peels and kitchen waste; coffee grounds; crushed egg shells, peanut shells; hay; straw; livestock and poultry manure; grass clippings; and leaves. Materials that are not suitable for composting include coal ashes; large quantities of pine needles or pine bark; citrus rinds; corn cobs or husks; palm fronds; walnut, pecan or other hard nut shells; pet feces; any petroleum product; any material treated with pesticide or herbicide; charcoal; or any bones, meat, grease, or dairy products.
To start you compost pile, remove the sod or grass from the ground beneath you bin. Place large branches or a pallet on the ground for aeration. Add materials in layers, for example, a layer of dry leaves on the bottom followed by a layer of moist grass clippings, a thin layer of soil and manure, another layer of leaves, a layer of vegetable refuse, another thin layer of soil and manure, etc. The soil helps ensure that there are sufficient microbes present to perform decomposition. Small amount of fresh material can be added whenever the compost is turned, however, if large amounts fresh material are available, a new compost pile should be started.
The center of a properly turned compost pile will reach 150 to 160 degrees F. Most weed seeds will be killed at these temperatures. If no heat is produced, either the pile is too small, it has too much or too little moisture, or it lacks enough nitrogen (supplied by manure), or oxygen (provided through mixing).
Composting is complete when mixing no longer produces heat, about two to four months in warm weather for a well managed pile. A compost pile that is not turned or one that has material that has not been shredded may take more than a year to decompose. The volume of finished product will be about half the size of the original pile.
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