How to Make Compost:

Making compost is often considered to be complex but, all you need to do is provide the right ingredients and let nature do the rest however, a little know-how will help you make better compost and more efficiently. Making compost is good for your garden, wallet and the environment. This also is a great way to recycle a lot of the waste that we as humans create.

This is a process that, on a backyard scale, involves use of a well-managed, controlled pile or a completely enclosed composting unit, similar to the Earth Machine-type containers that many municipalities make available to their residents.

Compost is the left over material you get when organic waste items decompose. Bins help because instead of throwing waste products into a landfill where they will take longer to decompose, you can collect them in the bin and help them to decompose faster while recycling.

Bacteria is the main reason that compost happens; tiny bacterial organisms eat up all the waste products for energy and cause the waste to decompose into a fine soil. You will know when it is ready to use when it has shrunk to one-half its original volume, and has lost the identity of the original material, and has a pleasant earthy smell.

Most of the raw materials that go into your pile or bin, come directly from the yard and or garden. By using this material, we cut back on the amount of waste that we send to the landfill, and this is an excellent way to reduce yard waste while producing a valuable material for improving your soil. This is both good for the environment and good for our pocket books.

Yard waste accounts for more than 20 percent of all trash in landfills and food scraps make up ten percent of your waste. Bins have become so easy to use that there are even kitchen bins you can purchase to collect kitchen scraps. Other materials like vegetable peelings, eggshells, coffee grounds, can also be placed inside the bin or on the pile.

Once you start using your kitchen scraps you will see how easy it is to reduce waste and add organic fertilizer to your plants for free. If you use this material in your garden the bacterial organisms mixed into the soil can stop soil disease-based organisms.


Other materials that can also be used are Grass clippings, livestock manure, and they are good sources of nitrogen. Yes yard waste is good but the more different ingredients you add ,the richer the final product will be. If done correctly the material will be rich in nutrients and minerals, free fertilizer essentially. Partially decomposed organic material used in gardening will improve soil and enhance plant growth.

Gardeners generally seem aware that it's beneficial to gardens, and making compost is an excellent way to dispose of yard and garden debris, including fallen leaves. Most people do not realize the important part that worms play in our lives today by the way they can break down nearly any organic waste matter into "worm castings", thus turning waste products into a valuable and truly organic fertilizer.

there are things that should not be used like, cat, dog,or human feces because they are not compost materials and they can contain unhealthy bacteria and meat and bones are not recommended as they usually attract rats and raccoons. Due to the problem of shrinking space in landfills, many communities forbid dumping yard waste such as grass clippings, leaves, and branches, or charge a premium for taking them.

If all our urban organic waste was turned back into crop nourishing humus, think how fertile the ground would become and what good crops we could grow.