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How To

How do I make compost?

Composting is easy! Just follow these simple steps to make compost:

1. Add high carbon materials ("browns") fall leaves, straw, salt marsh hay, shredded paper and cardboard (newspaper, paper towels, paper plates, paper bags), chipped brush, sawdust, pine needles (pine needles should not make up more than 10% of the total material in the pile), high nitrogen materials ("greens"), grass clippings, weeds (not laden with seeds), vegetable and fruit wastes, seaweed, eggshells, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, manure (horse, cow, rabbit, chicken, goat, gerbil, etc).
2. Mix or layer materials Every 12" or so add a few shovelsful of rich soil or compost.
3. Keep it damp and aerated. Wait a few months, and voila--black gold! For best results, and to keep out odors and pests, do not add: meat, bones, fat grease, oils, peanut butter, daily products (cheese, butter, milk, eggs), cooked foods with sauces or butter, dog or cat manure diseased plants, weeds gone to seed, weeds that spread by roots and runners (vines).
   
   Prepared by:
   The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection

How do I use compost?

When the composted materials look like rich, brown soil, it is ready to use. Apply one-half to three inches of finished compost and mix it in with the top four inches of soil about one month before planting. Compost can be applied as a top dressing in the garden throughout the summer. Compost is excellent for reseeding lawns, and it can be spread one-quarter inch deep over the entire lawn to rejuvenate the turf. To make potting soil, mix equal parts compost, sand and loam. You may put the compost through a sieve to remove large particles- these can go back into the pile. Mulching Grass clippings, leaves and woody yard wastes can be used as mulch in gardens and around shrubs to keep the soil moist, control weed growth and add nutrients. Woody materials should be chipped or shredded. Use a mulch of pine needles around acid-loving plants. Leaves will work first as mulch, then as a soil enricher as they decompose. Grass clippings should be dried before using as mulch. Do not mulch with grass clippings which have been treated with herbicides; composting them first, however, will break down the herbicides.

How do I compost without a yard?

Composting can be done indoors using an earthworm farm. Not only can you recycle your food scraps, you can also have a steady supply of fishing bait! For more information contact the DEP's Recycling Program.

About

What is composting?

Composting is a controlled process of decomposition of organic material. Naturally occurring soil organisms recycle nitrogen, potash, phosphorus, and other plant nutrients as they convert the material into humus. Benefits of Composting Composting is a convenient, beneficial and inexpensive way to handle your organic waste and help the environment.

What are the benefits?

• Reduces the volume of garbage requiring disposal
• Saves money for you and your community in reduced soil purchases and reduced local disposal costs
• Enriches the soil. Using compost adds essential nutrients, improves soil structure, which allows better root growth, and increases moisture and nutrient retention in the soil. Plants love compost!

What You Should Compost?

Yard waste such as leaves, grass clippings and weeds make excellent compost Fruit and vegetable scraps, plus food wastes such as coffee grounds, tea bags, and eggs shells can be composted. To keep animals and odors out of your pile, do not add meat, bones, fatty food wastes (such as cheese, grease and oils), dog and cat litter, and diseased plants. Do not add invasive, weeds and weeds that have gone to seed to the pile.

What are elements of a good compost pile?

The Biodegraders

Nature has provided an army of workers who specialize in decomposing organic material. These "critters" - bacteria, fungi, molds, earthworms, insects and there soil organisms - eat all types of organic material and in the process convert nutrients into a form plants can utilize. Without those compost critters, we would be surrounded by mountains of leaves and the soil would be barren. The process of composting is simply a matter of providing the soil organisms with food, water and oxygen. They do the rest.

Organic Material

Organic material contains varying amounts of carbon and nitrogen which nourish the organisms naturally present in your compost pile. (Billions of bacteria inhabit the surface of every led and blade of grass in your yard. The critters need both carbon and nitrogen. An easy way to provide both of these is to remember that brown, woody materials, such as autumn leaves, are high in carbon while green, moist materials, such as grass clippings, are high in nitrogen. Alternating layers of brown and green materials will yield finished compost in three to eight months. Leaves alone break down in six to 15 months. Grass clippings or food scraps composted alone result in unpleasant odors because they contain more nitrogen than the compost organisms can use. Layer leaves or straw with green material, or let it dry until it turns brown before composting it alone.

Air

The compost critters need oxygen, just as we do. Lack of oxygen will slowdown the composting process and cause odors. Turn your pile, fluff it with a hoe or compost turning tool, or build air passages into the pile with cornstalks to provide oxygen to the organisms.

Moisture

Compost organisms need a moist environment. The pile should be as damp as a wrung-out sponge, but not dripping wet. Make sure leaves are damp when you add them to the compost pile because they will not break down if they are dry. Since moisture evaporates as the pile heats up (a sign of active composting), let rain and slow replace it, or add water during dry spells. A cover helps retain moisture in hot weather.