What is Compost?

Compost is a dark, crumbly, and earthysmelling form of decomposing

organic matter.

Why Should I Make Compost?

Composting is the most practical and convenient way to handle your
yard wastes. It can be easier and cheaper than bagging these wastes
or taking them to the transfer station. Compost also improves your
soil and the plants growing in it. If you have a garden, a lawn, trees,
shrubs, or even planter boxes, you have a use for compost.

By using compost you return organic matter to the soil in a usable

form. Organic matter in the soil improves plant growth by helping
to break up heavy clay soils and improving their structure, by adding
water and nutrient-holding capacity to sandy soils, and by adding
essential nutrients to any soil. Improving your soil is the first step
toward improving the health of your plants. Healthy plants help clean
our air and conserve our soil, making our communities healthier
places in which to live.

What Can I Compost?

Anything that was once alive can be composted. Yard wastes, such
as fallen leaves, grass clippings, weeds and the remains of garden
plants, make excellent compost. Woody yard wastes can be clipped
and sawed down to a size useful for the wood stove or fireplace or
they can be run through a shredder for mulching and path-making. How Can I Use Compost?
Used as a mulch or for paths, they will eventually decompose and Compost can be used to enrich the flower and
become compost. vegetable garden, to improve the soil around trees
and shrubs, as a soil amendment for houseplants
Care must be taken when composting kitchen scraps. Compost and planter boxes and, when screened, as part of a
them only by the methods outlined in this brochure. Meat, bones seed-starting mix or lawn top-dressing. Before they
and fatty foods (such as cheese, salad dressing, and leftover cooking decompose, chipped woody wastes make excellent
oil) should be put in the garbage. mulch or path material. After they decompose,
these same woody wastes will add texture to garden

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 The Essentials of Composting
With these principles in mind, everyone can make excellent use of their organic wastes.

Biology machete, or running them through a shredding machine or

The compost pile is really a teeming lawnmower will speed their composting.
microbial farm. Bacteria start the process
of decaying organic matter. They are the Volume
first to break down plant tissue and also A large compost pile will insulate itself and
the most numerous and effective composters. Fungi and hold the heat of microbial activity. Its center
protozoans soon join the bacteria and, somewhat later in will be warmer than its edges. Piles smaller
the cycle, centipedes, millipedes, beetles and earthworms than 3 feet cubed (27 cu.ft.) will have trouble
do their parts. holding this heat, while piles larger than 5 feet cubed (125
cu.ft.) don’t allow enough air to reach the microbes at the
Materials center. These proportions are of importance only if your goal
is a fast, hot compost.
Anything growing in your yard is potential
food for these tiny decomposers. Carbon
and nitrogen, from the cells of dead .Moisture & Aeration
plants and dead microbes, fuel their
All life on Earth needs a certain amount of
activity. The microorganisms use the carbon in leaves or
water and air to sustain itself. The microbes
woodier wastes as an energy source. Nitrogen provides
in the compost pile are no different. They
the microbes with the raw element of proteins to build
function best when the compost materials are about as moist
their bodies.
as a wrung-out sponge, and are provided with many air
Everything organic has a ratio of carbon to nitrogen passages. Extremes of sun or rain can adversely affect this
(C:N) in its tissues, ranging from 500:1 for sawdust, moisture balance in your pile.
to 15:1 for table scraps. A C:N ratio of 30:1 is ideal for
the activity of compost microbes. This balance can be
achieved by mixing two parts grass clippings (which have Time & Temperature
a C:N ratio of 20:1) with one part fallen leaves (60:1) The faster the composting, the hotter the
in your compost. Layering can be useful in arriving at pile. If you use materials with a proper
these proportions, but a complete C:N ratio, provide a large amount
mixing of ingredients is preferable of surface area and a big enough
for the composting process. Other volume, and see that moisture
materials can also be used, such as and aeration are adequate, you
weeds and garden wastes. Though will have a hot, fast compost (hot
the C:N ratio of 30:1 is ideal for enough to burn your hand!) and will
a fast, hot compost, a higher ratio probably want to use the turning
(i.e., 50:1) will be adequate for a unit discussed in the next section.
slower compost. Table 1 provides an If you just want to deal with your
estimate for the C:N ratio of common yard wastes in an inexpensive, easy,
materials. non-polluting way, the holding unit
(also discussed on the next page)
will serve you well.
Surface Area
The more surface
area the micro
organisms have to
work on, the faster
the materials are
decomposed. It’s like a block of ice
in the sun-slow to melt when it’s Table 1
large, but melting very fast when
Some Typical C/N Ratios
broken into smaller pieces. Chopping
(based on dry weight)
your garden wastes with a shovel or

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 Composting Yard Wastes

Holding Units Turning Units

These simple containers for This is a series of three or more
bins that allows wastes to be turned be ready for garden use. See the
yard wastes are the least labor and
on a regular schedule. Turning units Rodale Guide to Composting in your
time-consuming way to compost.
are most appropriate for gardeners library for more information on hot
Which wastes? Non-woody yard with a large volume of yard waste composting.
wastes are the most appropriate. and the desire to make a highquality Advantages & disadvantages This
How? Place the holding unit where it compost. method produces a high-quality
is most convenient. As weeds, grass Which wastes? Non-woody yard compost in a short time utilizing a
clippings, leaves and harvest remains wastes are appropriate. Kitchen substantial input of labor.
from garden plants are collected, wastes without meat, bones or fatty Variations The unit can be built of
they can be dropped into the unit. foods can be added to the center of a wood, a combination of wood and
Chopping or shredding wastes, pile if it is turned weekly and reaches wire, or concrete block. Another
alternating high-carbon and high- high temperatures. type of turning unit is the barrel
nitrogen materials, and keeping up composter, which tumbles the wastes
good moisture and aeration will all How? Alternate the layering of high-
carbon and highnitrogen materials for aeration.
speed the process.
to approximately a 30:1 ratio. These
Advantages & disadvantages For should be moistened to the damp
yard wastes this is the simplest sponge stage. The
method. The units can be portable, pile temperature
moving to wherever needed in the should be checked
garden. This method can take from 6 regularly; when
months to 2 years to compost organic the heat decreases
materials, so you need to be patient. substantially, turn
Because it does not get hot, weed the pile into the next
seeds (and pathogens if present) may bin. Dampen the
persist in the compost. materials if they are
Variations Holding units can be not moist, and add
made of circles of hardware cloth, more high-nitrogen
old wooden pallets, or wood and material if heating is
wire. Sod can also be composted not occurring. Then
with or without a holding unit, by make a new pile in the
turning sections of it over, making original bin. Repeat
sure that there is adequate moisture, the process each time
and covering it with black plastic. the pile in the first
bin cools. After two
weeks in the third bin,
the compost should

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 Composting Food Wastes

Mulching Soil Earthworm

Yard wastes can be used for weed Incorporation Compost
control and water retention.
Burying your organic wastes is the Feeding earthworms in wooden
Which wastes? Woody yard wastes, simplest method of composting. bins is a good way to make high-
leaves, and grass clippings. quality compost from food scraps.
Which wastes? Kitchen scraps
How? You can simply spread leaves without meat, bones or fatty foods. Which wastes? Kitchen scraps
or grass clippings beneath plantings. without meat, bones, or fatty foods.
For woody materials up to 1” in How? Everything should be buried
diameter, rent or purchase a chipper/ at least 8 inches below the surface. How? Fill a bin with moistened
shredder. Tree services, if they are in Holes can be filled and covered, bedding such as peat moss for
your neighborhood, often will deliver becoming usable garden space the the worms. Rotate the burying of
wood chips free. following season. food wastes throughout the worm
bin. Every 3-6 months the worm
Advantages & disadvantages All Advantages & disadvantages This is
population should be divided and
yard wastes will work first as a mulch a simple method, but because of the
moved to fresh bedding. Refer to
and then, as decomposition proceeds, absence of air, some nutrients will be
Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary
as a soil enrichment. A disadvantage lost. Rodents and dogs can become a
Appelhof (available at some library
of mulching with woody yard wastes problem with wastes buried less than
branches) for more information.
is that you may have to buy or 6 inches deep.
rent power equipment or make Advantages & disadvantages This
Variations Using a posthole digger,
arrangements with a tree service. is an efficient way to convert food
wastes can be incorporated into the
wastes into high-quality soil for
Variations Use chipped materials for soil near the drip line of trees or
houseplants, seedling transplants,
informal garden paths. shrubs and in small garden spaces.
or general garden use. The worms
themselves are a useful product for
fishing. However, worm composting
is more expensive and complicated
This brochure is available on our “Small than soil incorporation for dealing
Scale or Backyard Composting” site: with food wastes.
http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/smallscale.htm Variations A stationary outdoor bin
can be used in all but the coldest
For More Information months, or a portable indoor/outdoor
For more information about composting, contact your bin can be used year-round.
county Cooperative Extension Office.

Adapted by the Cornell Waste Management Institute, Dept of Crop and Soil Sciences, Rice Hall, Ithaca NY 14853
<http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu>
from the Seattle Tilth Association.
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