HOW TO COMPOST: A Simple Way to Compost in the Home Garden

i'm here in my garden and it may not look that exciting but believe me this is where the magic happens in my garden learning how to compost has made all the difference in the health of my garden and soil and in today's video i'm going to share my best tips for composting in the home garden if we haven't met before my name is angela from growing in the garden and i love to share garden inspiration and helpful tips so you can be successful growing your own garden composting is one of those things that we know we should do and we want to do but it is definitely a little bit intimidating to learn how to do it in fact when i very first started gardening i called the city of mesa and requested these bins i read a little bit and then did my best and i was really good at growing bugs and flies but no compost so i called the city of mesa back asked them to pick up the bins and thought there's no way i'm gonna compost that was disgusting i don't want that many bugs things changed when i took the master gardener classes i took a class from a compost expert and she was so excited about compost it got me excited too i learned the basics of composting and what i had done wrong but how i really learned how to compost was when i volunteered at the demonstration garden while we volunteered we actually did the composting and at that point i began to see and understand how composting worked hopefully after watching today's video you'll have the information you need and the confidence to begin composting in your own garden there are as many methods for composting as there are gardeners in today's video i'm going to share the method that i first saw at the demonstration garden and have since incorporated into my garden the first step in learning how to compost is to choose a location for adding your compost bins ideally each compost bin is about three feet wide and three feet deep and three feet tall so depending on how many you want to add you need to have that much space for each one and it's nice to have at least three compost bins so that you can transfer different stages of compost from one to the other you want to have an area that's large enough for three bins ideally the location you choose should have enough room for wheelbarrow access you're going to be hauling stuff in and out and if it's a really tight fit that means you're doing a lot of work by hand and that can be a lot harder it's also important to have access to water an important part of the composting process is wetting down the compost ideally the location you choose for your compost will also have shade composting in full sun is hard in a couple of ways it's hard on the gardener when you're out there working and you're always in full sun being in full sun makes the compost dry out more quickly as well now that you know where you're going to compost the next step is to get your bins you may be able to get bins through your local city the bins that i'm using are simply re retired garbage cans that have the bottoms cut out and holes drilled in them the city of mesa sells them to residents for five dollars so check with your local government and see if they have that your bins should be about three feet wide and three feet deep for the method i use you need at least three bins you can also just make an area out of cinder block out of pallets to kind of corral that compost in that area next you'll need to gather a few tools a composting thermometer takes the guesswork out of how hot your compost is it lets you know exactly what is going on inside your bin another tool that's very helpful is a pitchfork this pitchfork is just the right size and i use it all the time when i'm doing compost whether i'm turning the compost or moving it from bin to bin another important tool to have when you're using compost is some kind of a scoop it holds a lot when i am moving the compost from bin to bin it's a nice deep shovel and allows me to work smart not just hard because it holds so much as i'm using it another tool that i use all the time with the compost are these steel pails they're really handy for distributing the completed compost if you just need a little bit at a time another tool that makes composting easier is either a wheelbarrow or we use a gorilla cart some kind of cart that will hold a large amount that makes your job easier you'll also need a hose with a spray attachment for wetting down the compost the next step in composting is learning what to compost and what not to compost so i'm going to go over a few of the do's and don'ts of what can go in your compost bin great things for compost are leaves you can see these bagged leaves behind me i can't always use them right away in my compost but believe me we save all of the leaves are a definite guess for composting grass clippings i like to use wintergrass clippings but i don't use bermuda grass clippings in my compost i do not want bermuda grass showing up in my garden beds another great thing for compost is coffee grounds if you have a local starbucks make it a habit of going by there as often as you can other composting do's vegetable scraps egg shells plant material from the garden fruit and fruit peels there are of course more things than i listed but those are the basic items that you can add to your compost here's a list of a few things that should not go in compost meat or bones dairy oil any animal waste or if you have diseased plants don't compost those you don't want to spread that disease to the rest of your garden so the next part of composting is understanding the difference between green materials and brown materials because the right balance of the two is what makes compost happen so when you think of green materials you think of things that are nitrogen rich things that are more wet like the grass clippings are often colorful things that are still living in the garden common greens would be the grass clippings coffee grounds green growing garden trimmings fruit scraps vegetable peels vegetable scraps those are all considered green compost items the brown compost items are carbon rich and they're often dry and crumbly those would be things like dry brown leaves egg shells hay straw shredded paper dryer lint those are all the carbon rich brown so now that you know what to compost and about greens and browns i'm going to talk about how you fill the bin the easiest way to ensure that your compost heats up well is to put an alternating layer of greens and browns in your bin so the brown material there'll be more of it than the green material so layer in four parts brown one part green four parts brown and if you're using food waste you want to make sure that that's not on the top and that that holds true for basically all the green material it does best if you end with a layer of the brown material that's where the problems with flies and pests come in is when there is that exposed green material like food scraps or even grass clippings those tend to attract the pests so as you're alternating those layers wet it down a little bit to add some moisture in to your compost pile you don't want the compost to be soaking wet it'll often have the consistency of a dried out sponge once you've got your alternating levels and you end with brown now the fun part now we just kind of sit back and watch what happens and this is where your thermometer comes in so handy so even as soon as a day later you can come out and check and you should see that the compost is beginning to heat up as long as your compost is nice and hot between 110 and 160 you don't need to do much you just observe it and let it do its thing once the temperature goes below 100 it's time for you to do some work so that cooled down compost it's not completely broken down again it needs to have more air and water mixed in with those materials to get it to heat back up you can add more air and water in a couple of different ways you may just need to simply stir it up a little bit and spray some water as you do it give it a nice good stir with the pitchfork and wet it down as you do that and that may be enough to heat that pile back up again or you may need to then transfer compost from one bin into another as you scoop the compost into the next bin and wet it down you're automatically adding more air and water and it will heat back up as you go if you see any big clumps of leaves or grass break those up really well and they will break down better in the compost watch for that compost to heat up and then when the temperature falls down you simply repeat the process again either stirring it within the compost bin or transferring it to another compost bin and allowing it to heat back up as it transfers from bin to bin it will eventually be broken down and ready to add to your garden you'll know that the compost is ready to go when it has a nice earthy odor and is dark brown and crumbly success you did it you composted all that material add the compost around your garden add it to existing beds fill beds back up use it as mulch i never run out of places to use completed compost in the garden where compost can get a little bit tricky is that you're going to be doing that process in different bins at the same time that's why it's nice to have the different bins and as you rotate the compost from that beginning bin to the middle bin and then finally to the bin where it's completed it has a beginning middle and end point and then that first bin is open and ready for you to begin that process again with your new leaves and scraps and all of those things and so you're basically continuing the process and just rotating those through bin after bin after bin until that compost is complete so be patient with yourself as you're learning and pay attention to what works and what doesn't work as you're composting but the process of moving the material from bin to bin and wetting it down as you go will help break down that compost and you'll be surprised how quickly that compost breaks down now we'll talk about a few of the problems associated with composting and some of the obstacles you might face so if you come outside and there are a lot of flies and a lot of bugs like what happened to me when i first started to compost that may mean that you have exposed food or exposed green materials make sure that you end with brown material on the top if your compost isn't heating up it could be for a few different issues if the compost is too wet it won't heat up it's too it's too saturated and so that process that breaking down process won't happen so oftentimes you just need to add in more brown material in order to get that pile to heat back up you may need to transfer to a new bin adding more brown material as you go in order to get the moisture level correct if your compost isn't heating up and it's too dry that may mean it may need more green material do that same thing transfer that material to a new bin adding more green material and also wetting down as you go and hopefully that compost will heat back up as compost is heating up and decomposing you may notice a nice rich earthy smell if you notice a foul rotten egg smell coming from your compost that means something is going wrong usually that means that the material is too wet and too compacted and there's not enough oxygen in there so if you notice that foul odor adding brown material as you go to get it to be the right consistency if you notice a bad ammonia-like smell oftentimes there's too much green and not enough brown so either transfer to a new bin or mix in additional brown material and then that odor should dissipate and you should see that compost heating back up so make sure as you're adding your layers in that you break up any matted grass clumps or matted leaves if you find your compost is taking too long to completely break down try composting smaller pieces rather than larger pieces of compost if you have larger material that you would like to add to your compost pile simply cut it down those materials are going to break down much quicker the smaller the size of the material that you add in the quicker it will compost down if you're noticing rats near your compost you may have food scraps too close to the surface make sure that those food scraps are more in the middle of the pile and then if you add food scraps to the top that you're covering them back up with brown material although composting can be tricky you learn from experience and learn as you go don't be afraid to give composting a try i also have a blog post with a little bit more detail and some frequently asked questions best of luck with your garden and thank you so much for watching you

Channel: Growing In The Garden

Views: 221,470

Rating: 4.9396715 out of 5

Keywords: how to compost, how to make compost, compost, how to make compost from kitchen waste, how to make compost at home, how to compost at home, compost bin, how to make compost from garden scraps, what to compost, how compost works, compost (material), how to compost easy, how to compost in winter, how to compost anywhere, hot compost, how to make hot compost, brad learns how to compost, how to compost with leaves, how to compost in your home, how to make compost pile, mesa az

Id: fLbcPutwuiE

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 20 2021