How to Compost
by Olivia Nusbaum
Benefits of composting
-Enriches the soil
-Reduces waste ending up in landfills
-Helps soil retain moisture, less watering
-Reduces the need for chemical fertilizers
-produces nitrogen
Material needed
Green (high in nitrogen)- Plant cuttings, coffee grounds, kitchen scraps
Brown (High in carbon)- Dry leaves, small trigs, woodchips
There should be 2 parts of browns to 1 part green. When topping off a compost pile the brown should be on the top.
Do and don’t with composting
Do’s with composting
Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Egg, peanut and nut shells
- Stalks, stems and vines
- Coffee grounds and filters, tea bags
- Bark
- Wood ashes (in limited amounts)
- Manure (horse, cow, chicken & rabbit)
- Garden clippings
- Leaves
- Grass clippings
- Apple cores and citrus rinds
Don’t compost:
- Meat and fat
- Fish
- Poultry
- Bones
- Dairy products
- Plastic or synthetic fibers
- Diseased plants
- vegetable oils
- Dog and cat feces
- Weeds which have gone to seed
- Invasive weeds
Pile on method
Build the pile. Put a layer of coarse material, like wood chips, or small twigs on the bottom to facilitate drainage and aeration. Then add materials in layers 2-6 inches thick alternating between "greens" (food scraps, grass clippings, manure) and "browns" (leaves, straw, woody materials) to help balance the proportion of carbon and nitrogen. Water and mix well after every two layers. If you don’t have "greens" and "browns" available at the same time, build the entire pile out of "browns" and then add the "greens" as they become available. When adding food scraps, bury them completely in the center of the pile. Add a shovel full of garden soil periodically. Save a few bags of autumn leaves to use during the following spring and summer. Ideally, the pile should measure no larger than 5x5 wide and high.
Keep the pile moist not soggy
Aerate the pile
Give it air. Oxygen helps the organisms break down the materials. Fluff the pile with a pitchfork every time you add more materials to the pile. If you can manage to do a more aggressive turning in the spring and fall (so that the pile is turned completely inside out and upside down), you can usually get finished compost in one year. Less frequent turning results in slower composting.
How to identify problems
| Symptom | Probable Cause | Suggested Remedy |
| The pile has a bad odor | Not enough air or too wet | Turn pile thoroughly |
| The center of the pile is dry | Not enough water | Moisten materials while turning pile |
| The pile is damp and warm in the middle, but nowhere else | Pile is too small | Collect more material and mix old material into a new pile |
| The pile is sweet smelling, but still will not heat up | Lack of nitrogen | Mix in a nitrogen source such as fresh grass clippings, fresh manure, blood meal, or a commercial fertilizer high in nitrogen |
Work Cited“Home Composting - Turn Your Spoils into Soil.” CT.gov, 13 February 2020, https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Waste-Management-and-Disposal/Organics-Recycling/Home-Composting---Turn-Your-Spoils-into-Soil. Accessed 26 July 2023.