How to Compost at Home

Composting is a natural biological process for breaking down organic materials. To work effectively, composting requires an equilibrium between carbon-rich “brown” materials, nitrogen-rich food waste, water, and oxygen for proper functioning.

Compost is an organic soil amendment with rich nutrients that will enhance the condition of your garden or flowerbeds while also helping protect them against pests and diseases that might otherwise affect them.

1. Food Waste

Kitchen scraps such as sweet potato skins, coffee grounds and eggshells can easily be composted at home to create earthy soil amendments. Food waste provides essential carbon for microbiology while other materials provide nitrogen and phosphorous sources. Add wood ash and shred paper products to the pile or bin to reduce odors and speed decomposition, but avoid placing meat, fish, dairy products, fat or bones as this could attract rodents or other pests. If you must include these items, see if your municipality accepts them for large-scale industrial composting or join one of the many food scrap drop-off programs like New York City’s ShareWaste to donate them instead.

Once you’re ready to get started, create a 3-by-3-foot compost pile or open bin in a shaded location and mix alternating layers of greens and browns, starting with dry browns like hay or leaves. Aim for an ideal mix that is both wet enough to hold together without becoming soggy, and not anaerobic decomposition and smells; wet the material as you layer for air pockets to form, turning your pile regularly with a pitchfork or garden fork in order to speed decomposition processes and prevent anaerobic decomposition and smells from anaerobiosis!

Try your hand at creating a “worm bin,” which can be made out of either plastic containers or wooden pallets, with separate bedding materials (e.g. newspaper) and worms for optimal functioning. When your vermicompost has turned black after mixing and turning it, use it as soil amendment! After this stage is completed it should “cure,” giving microbes time to complete their task and complete nutrient transformation into compost.

2. Greens

Microorganisms work to break down organic matter when green (nitrogen-rich) and brown (carbon-rich) materials are combined in the correct proportions for composting, creating an ideal ratio of two or three parts carbon-rich browns to one part nitrogen-rich greens in their environment. Compost is an invaluable soil amendment that can be used to grow healthy plants such as kitchen scraps, grass clippings, leaves and cardboard to produce rich compost heaps containing valuable amendments that enrich soils for healthy plant growth. Ideal compost mixes should contain two to three parts carbon rich browns to one part nitrogen rich greens when mixed together for maximum effectiveness when creating rich compost piles from mixed organic material sources containing both elements containing two to three parts carbon rich browns to one part nitrogen rich greens.

Decomposition is made easier with earthworms, fungi and other organisms such as earthworms that chew up coarse materials; thermophile microorganisms produce heat which breaks down sugars and starches into simpler molecules that can then be taken up by plants during growth; tougher molecules like cellulose and hemicellulose are broken down further using enzymes resulting in rich compost that can nourish garden plants.

Compost is an excellent soil amendment that helps increase drainage and retain moisture, while acting as mulch can prevent soil erosion. Home composting can be an economical way of diverting waste away from landfills while recycling materials that benefit gardens and landscaping plants.

Start a compost pile at home easily by placing a 3’x3’x3′ bin in an area with plenty of sunlight and access. Keep the pile moist by mixing regularly using either a shovel or tumbler; during seasons with heavy rainfall, be wary to ensure it does not become too wet – too much moisture could disrupt air circulation within your pile and lead to poor decomposition and anaerobic fermentation which produces compounds toxic for certain plants.

3. Browns

Reducing the ratio of compost browns to greens is one of the keys to success for an at-home compost pile. Without enough carbon-rich brown matter, green compost material quickly turns slimy, smelly, slow to decompose, and may even attract unwanted insects. Browns provide bulk and structure while creating high temperatures necessary for effective composting of weed seeds and pathogens.

Dried leaves make an ideal compost brown material. Collect and store them during autumn for winter use or add them directly into your bin throughout the year as they provide balance to all those green food scraps entering it from your kitchen. Cardboard, paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls and newspaper can also make great brown materials; take note when recycling any Amazon boxes that arrive on your porch! Just be sure to remove tapes or stickers first!

Small branches and twigs make excellent compost browns to help get your pile hotter, accelerating decomposition. Collect these in the yard or from around your neighborhood. If you want to make your composting efforts even more efficient, invest in a screen or piece of hardware cloth and screen the finished compost before returning it back into the active pile or creating new piles. This will enable you to filter out any pits, twigs or eggshells which have not broken down fully as part of its composition – enabling you to return any additional material sifted by this device back into its active pile or use as the basis for new compost piles. These sifted materials will also make an excellent mulch layer in your garden or flower beds. To achieve an ideal balance of compost browns and greens, set aside an area outdoors where you can keep your compost pile. Ideally this should be easily accessible year-round with both sunlight and shade available to it.

4. Water

Compost needs water in order to break down organic materials and release nitrogen that plants need for growth. A compost pile that lacks sufficient moisture will either slow decomposition and produce foul odors or create anaerobic conditions and make it difficult for microbes to do their work effectively. To prevent either of these scenarios from occurring, maintain moisture by watering regularly at weekly intervals – like watering a sponge.

Your compost should only contain untreated or chlorinated tap water as this could interfere with material breakdown and lead to contamination of the final compost product.

Ideal compost pile dimensions should be three feet wide by three feet high by three feet deep – equivalent to one cubic yard in size – so as to allow bacteria, fungi and other organisms to do their work in an aerobic environment where there is plenty of oxygen present.

As part of a balanced compost pile, it is crucial that both brown and green materials be present to create an ideal mixture. Green material provides nutrients essential for decomposing brown materials; thermophile microbes that break down organic matter require carbon (browns) and nitrogen (greens) in equal measures in order to survive and feed off of these organic materials – creating heat in turn that evaporates excess moisture out of your pile – helping aeration create uniform texture while speeding decomposition; the result being an abundance of nutrients designed to make your garden bloom strong and robust!

5. Air

Like any living thing, decomposers require oxygen in order to thrive. Composting relies on microbes that feed off oxygen to break down waste into usable compost; too little or too much oxygen could slow the decomposition process or even lead to anaerobic conditions that cause foul odors and slow decomposition. For optimal airflow in compost piles or bins, layering (start with greens then browns; wet the layers as you build), regular turning, bulking agents as aeration agents as bulking agents help increase circulation.

Composting requires a delicate balance of carbon to nitrogen for it to work effectively. Decomposers rely on nitrogen-rich green materials like leaves to break down organic matter while the carbon in brown materials helps them stay alive as they work. A general guideline suggests two to four parts carbon to one part nitrogen; materials high in carbon such as dead leaves, branches, twigs, paper scraps and egg cartons make excellent additions to a compost pile.

Heat is another integral element in composting at home. As bacteria and fungi digest waste, they release heat that drives air circulation throughout your pile – this makes keeping it hot vital as heat-loving microbes require more oxygen to break down waste efficiently.

Turning a compost pile or using a worm bin are great ways to improve airflow in material, as are bins made out of wood that provide more oxygen-rich environments than solid-sided plastic containers do. Bulking agents such as straw or wood chips also create air pockets in compost piles that make it easier for aerobic bacteria to reach decomposing material more effectively.