Posted on March 31st, 2025

“Composting is the process of converting organic waste into a nutrient-rich soil amendment. It is an eco-friendly and sustainable way to manage organic waste and it can have a number of benefits for the environment.” (1) This quote is from a research publication done in Egypt as noted in footnote 1. I have included a link to the paper if you want to read the entire text.

I have made my own compost for over 30 years. It is not hard to do, nor does it require expensive equipment. You can compost with only a shovel or pitchfork to turn the piles; you don’t even need to have compost bins to make it work. You can turn the piles with a tractor if you are fortunate enough to have one. It can be as simple as digging a shallow trench, filling it with kitchen and garden waste and covering it over. Then plant on it after six months or more has passed. This is how my grandmother used to garden.

To build a healthy compost pile does require some work. First you need a space for the pile and an adjacent space roughly the same size to turn the pile into. I use bins because it contains the material, but you don’t have to have a bin.

Next you need some carbon material, sometimes called brown material. This is carbon rich material such as straw, sawdust, shredded paper and cardboard. Then you need some food or plant waste, sometimes called green material. Green material is material that was either recently alive (like weeds or plant material from your garden) or food waste.

There has been a lot of discussion on and off social media as to the safety of including dairy and meat in your home compost bin. I do not, simply because I don’t want to take a chance of pathogens in my compost. However, I did do some research on the matter and found an article from the Environmental Protection Agency that recommends not using dairy and meat because home compost piles generally do not get hot enough to fully decompose those materials.(2)

Once you have gathered some materials to compost you build the compost piles in layers. I usually put a carbon layer at the bottom. If you use straw, get organic straw. You want to be sure that the straw was not grown with pesticides or herbicides as some of those remain in the straw and will leach into your compost. The next layer needs to be a green layer. Then you just continue this layering. There are a variety of thoughts on the ratio of green to brown material. The one I have seen most often is 6 to 1: that is 6 inches of brown material to every inch of green material..

It is necessary to turn your compost frequently. Turning it promotes oxygen in the layers, which speeds up the composting process. What is meant by turning compost? Just as it sounds, turning compost means moving the layers from the spot where they are to the spot set aside for turning. You can use a pitchfork, moving the layers from the top down. If you live in a dry climate, like I do, it is a good idea to dampen the layers as you turn them. I will move about six inches of the layer, dampen it, move another six inches, dampen it: repeat until the entire pile is moved. Note that I said dampen, not drench. Too much water it restricts oxygen and your pile will not heat up enough to create compost.

How often you turn the compost is up to you. Turning your piles every few days will promote the composting process and get you some nice rich compost sooner. If you don’t have the time to do it that often you can do it less frequently. Just realize it will take longer for the material to break down. It takes time to make compost. Once you start turning your compost pile you will see rich brown composted material near the bottom of the pile. There are many variables that affect how quickly you get compost so be patient and keep turning that pile.

There are many opinions on the way to create compost, some easy and some more complex. You choose the method that works for you and stick with it. Composting works over time. I add compost to my garden soil in the fall to feed the ecology in the soil, then I cover the soil with straw. You can use other methods to cover the soil, just don’t leave it bare and exposed to the elements when you are not actively growing a garden. I add a small amount of compost to the top of the soil in the spring when I plant my seeds and plant starts to give them a nutrient boost. I don’t add compost to the soil at any other time.

I firmly believe that healthy soil grows healthy plants. Healthy plants are more resistant to diseases and pests. This allows me to grow food without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. I believe that healthy plants grown in soil amended with compost taste better and are more nutritious. I have many customers that buy my produce and tell me how much better my produce tastes than the produce they purchase at the chain grocery stores. I imitate nature’s way to build the soil by amending it with composted organic material.

If you have the space for even a small compost pile, give it a try. You will learn more about nature and create a healthier environment in your little corner of the world.

(1) © 2023 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ijss.2023v11i4.48529. Journal homepage: https://innovareacademics.in/journals/index.php/ijss

(2) Composting at Home. Published on Environmental Protection Agency website https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home#avoid