The Making of Compost

We’ve had a compost pile for a few years now, but during last year’s challenge we got really aggressive about it. In fact, we worried that we might have gotten too aggressive – even going so far as composting used facial tissues. After the challenge, we slowly backed off a bit, especially during the winter when things simply froze on top of the pile instead of breaking down.

Now it’s been a year, and we can examine the results of our efforts. What worked – and what had to be pulled out of the pile and thrown in the garbage a year later?

It turns out a compost pile is a magical garbage eating machine. We were never too aggressive—everything we put in there was fully composted. Guess we need to ramp it back up!

It’s time to start the pile over again. The basics are simple – you need a mix of green (kitchen scraps, fresh lawn clippings, etc.) and brown (shredded paper, dried leaves, etc.) and you need to keep it moist.

We like to build in layers. Step one is to chop up some leaves with the mulching mower.

Now water – keeping it moist is one of the most important parts. That rain barrel sure is handy!

And finally some kitchen scraps. We keep an old ice cream pail under the sink right next to the garbage to collect food scraps.

I also like to throw in a shovel full of the recently finished compost every few layers. The part we don’t really like to think about is the fact that a compost pile is alive, digesting everything in it. A few scoops of fresh compost help seed the pile with the right microorganisms, worms, etc. to get the pile going. This is also why it is important to keep the pile moist, and to turn it often to keep it aerated.