Water occasionally, or let rain do the job. The good news? Basically you can just have a heap of compost — but don't put it up against a wall as it could stain it. "Browns" are more carbon rich — think egg cartons, newspapers, dried leaves, and pine needles. Optional: Cover top of compost with a tarp to keep it moist. * Check with your local composting or recycling coordinator to see if these organics are accepted by your community curbside or drop-off composting program. Woody, earthy, but also a sweet smell. Do you attract animals to your pile? "All you need is a container you can seal and Bokashi mix, a colony of bacteria on grain." If you do not have space for an outdoor compost pile, you can compost materials indoors using a special type of bin, which you can buy at a local hardware store, gardening supplies store, or make yourself. Just as in a fire you need to structure the wood to get the air going, in compost you have to do a similar thing, adding spaces to give oxygen to those heroic microbes. 21, 2020. We Insist: A Timeline Of Protest Music In 2020, Worms Make Great Pets, And Other Reasons To Compost At Home, This Is A Good Time To Start A Garden. When you're composting, your kitchen scraps should be part of a deliberate layering process to speed up decomposition.There's a method for … In the composting … Composting is nature’s own waste management process that nutrients are recycled back into an ecosystem. Your compost should be ready in two to five weeks. In other words, it is the process of taking organic materials, such as leaves, vegetables, fruits, logs, eggshells, coffee grounds, banana peels and dead animals and placing them in a pile or container along with water. Helpful tools include pitchforks, square-point shovels or machetes, and water hoses with a spray head. We'd love to hear from you. If you do have some outdoor space, your compost bin doesn't have to be complicated. (Here's some more info on how to use worms and Bokashi.). Of course, it's totally fine if you want to give your food scraps to someone else to make compost. Backyard Composting United States Environmental Protection Agency, Cornell Waste Management Institute's Small Scale Composting, U.S. Department of Agriculture Backyard Composting Tip Sheet. In warm weather, the process can yield usable compost … (Of course, in the age of the coronavirus, make sure your community garden is open, and practice social distancing.). And the feel! And for every component to break down, it might be a year.". Add brown and green materials as they are collected, making sure larger pieces are chopped or shredded. Or you can go bigger. Or you can simply get in there with a pitchfork and mix it around, bringing scraps from the middle and bottom to the top. He says you gotta ask yourself, "Do you attract rodents? An old trash bin, an old wooden chest — just work with what you have available. Water - Having the right amount of water, greens, and browns is important for compost development. Once your compost pile is established, mix grass clippings and green waste into the pile and bury fruit and vegetable waste under 10 inches of compost material. Jacqueline Weiss Updated: May. Encourages the production of beneficial bacteria and fungi that break down organic matter to create humus, a rich nutrient-filled material. "I think keeping it simple," Diggs says. Typically the more compost you have, the faster it will go. As for how much you turn it, you'll probably turn it less if you have the right ratio of greens to browns. If you're one of the millions of Americans now stuck at home because of the coronavirus, it might feel like you're cooking more than you've ever cooked in your entire life. There are many different ways to make a compost pile; we have provided the following for general reference. Now that you’re ready to get started, you’ll … Subscribe to our newsletter. Covering helps retain moisture and heat, two essentials for compost. Your kitchen trash is already full of vegetable scraps, eggshells and fruit peels—go ahead and learn how to compost at home! You can buy “tumbler” compost bins that you turn with … Diggs says the browns are key because they allow water to flow, and air to flow, something called aeration. Composting allows you to expedite this natural process to produce a regular supply of compost … When you make the first chop of the butt of that asparagus, boom, it could go right in there.". Like banana peels, or, if you're me, a frightening amount of pineapple tops. Those are compostable in industrial facilities, but they don't really work for home composting. We'll teach you how to turn your food waste into beautiful earthy compost in five simple steps. Other things that may attract pests? "If one hundred percent of it is water, then nothing is going on. Before you start piling on, recognize that there are two types of composting: cold and hot. Browns - This includes materials such as dead leaves, branches, and twigs. Food scraps and yard waste together currently make up more than 30 percent of what we throw away, and could be composted instead. Or sometimes a sour smell. If you have a good life hack, leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823 or email us at LifeKit@npr.org. Hot composting is better suited for advanced gardeners. He says you don't need a big container for "vermicomposting" — a 5 gallon box will do. Greens - This includes materials such as grass clippings, vegetable waste, fruit scraps, and coffee grounds. How fluffy it is!". Regular mixing or turning of the compost and some water will help maintain the compost. If you want to break down your food scraps in your own apartment, there are still options. For this step, you gotta think about the space you're currently living in. This activates the compost pile and speeds the process along. How to Compost at Home. You can buy “tumbler” compost bins that you turn with a handle, making mixing easier. Ultimately you always want more browns than greens — again, gotta have the dry to sop up the wet. Sometimes two to one. Mixing the greens and browns together regularly helps increase the pile’s heat, which speeds up the composting process. A good thing to remember is that green materials are typically wet, and brown materials are typically dry. Choosing a Home Composting Style that’s Right for You. Remember to tend your pile and keep track of what you throw in. "It doesn't have to be, you know, all the things that you find online that are really cute little ceramic containers," says Diggs.