Composting

This morning I attended a composting presentation put on the East Bay Regional Parks District. I had signed up because I curious about composting, but not expecting to actually do it at my current residence. However, it turns out that it's much easier than I'd expected, and now I am inspired to go ahead with this project!

I will be composting on a small scale, since I'll be producing most of the food scraps for it on my own, and I'll just be using the finished product in my small garden. So instead of getting a big tub for it or building somethig, I will buy a large black plastic bin at a home improvement store, drill holes in it, and add worms.

Here are some of my notes from the presentation:

Layer your compost about 50/50 with green stuff (food scraps, grass, fresh leaves) and brown stuff (coffee grounds or tea, dead leaves and small twigs, dry grass, shredded newspaper or other papers). No meat products or dairy. Turn it regularly -- if you turn it more than once a week, you can get good compost within a month! Keep it fluffed up and loose, and moist (about the moistness of a wrung-out sponge).

It needs heat to kill off pathoges and keep it moist and active. A minimum size of 3' x 3' x 3' is suggested, although you can go smaller (as I will) by keeping the dark-colored bin in the sun and adding worms to help process the stuff.

Use a hardware screen as a sieve over a bin or bucket to get the finished product from among the still-decomposing stuff. I will endeavor to stack two bins together with a screen between them, so that I can just shake the worm bin and the finished compost will fall below.

When using your compost for your veggies (as I will!) or heavily flowering plants, mix 50/50 with high quality soil, or add a half inch layer on top of the existing soil (then add mulch on top, to keep the compost in place). When using compost for decorative plants, use a smaller ratio.

"Compost tea": water the worm bin and collect the run-off, dilute, and use as liquid fertilizer.


I am so jazzed about this! First step is to go to the store and buy two black plastic bins, hardware screen, worms, and a hand rake for turning the compost.