How do you start a compost pile?

Question

Hi! I want to start a compost pile and use the product to grow a vegetable garden. I don't know how to start one though. Can someone give me step by step of how to start one, what to put in it, and should I use worms. Where should I put it in? Any Help is needed.

Answer 1

Put it somewhere where it will get a bit of sun if possible.  Get a compost bin (most hardware stores carry them, now).  Start with some dead leaves, grass clippings and kitchen waste.  

Kitchen waste:  Everything except fats, meats, bones.  Eggshells are great, as are coffee grounds!

Make sure to keep it layered with 'green' (kitchen waste and grass) and 'brown' (dead leaves, mulch, etc), and aerate it every so often with an auger (should be right next to the compost bins in the store) or a shovel/pitchfork.

Put a bit of water on it if it's too dry.  If it's decomposing properly, it will be warm, and you will have dark brown/black compost at the bottom.

Have fun!

Answer 2

I've never done one but I know what to do you first need a composter (oviously) and you need to put things like banana skins, potato peels stuff like that into it and it will take over a year to change into composte.if this doesn't answer your question ask at your local garden centre or go online to find out more information.Hope it helps!!

Answer 3

There's a new composting forum that you may want to check...

http://www.compostingforum.com

Answer 4

Composting can be an involved process with material being chopped to small sizes and carefully balanced for carbon and nitrogen content so it will heat quickly. Alternately it can be very passive letting nature take its course slowly. Either way your nose is a good guide to how well things are happening. Compost should always smell good.

1 - If it smells fresh like turned soil it is working properly.

2 - If you get it to wet it will begin to decompose anaerobically and produce hydrogen sulfide, the rotten egg smell. The best thing is to turn it and get air in. Possibly layer in fresh dry ingredients to absorb excess moisture.

3 - If the pile has an ammonia odor, you have too much green material (grass clippings, food scraps, green plant material) and not enough brown (dry leaves, woody prunings, pine needles, dried out plants, saw dust). Add more brown material or a shovel of soil and turn it.

4 - If it just sits &/or you see ants then the pile must be to dry. Everything should be moist but there should be nothing dripping. If you piled it to dry, its own heat dried it or the summer weather dried it then you must turn it rewetting the layers as you go.

5 - If it just sits there and won’t heat up despite being moist you have to many browns. Too much carbon prevents the pile from heating. Go to a coffee shop and get some coffee grounds, any grain, seed or meal is a good source of nitrogen. Add some grass clippings in thin layers or get a neighbor to donate kitchen scraps.

Making a compost pile work is a balancing act between adding 'brown' leaves with 'green' kitchen waste and garden trimmings to generate a an optimal carbon to nitrogen ratio. The pile is effectively built out of just two elements, carbon-C and nitrogen-N. It is the balance between these two in the presence of invertebrates, fungi, and bacteria that allows an exothermic reaction to occur and produce the final decomposition. Yard and kitchen scraps are layered with manures or dirt to achieve a C:N ratio that is close to 30:1.

C : N ratios     http://www.compostguide.com/

Compost Mix Calculator

http://www.klickitatcounty.org/solidwast...

A rule of thumb on C:N ratio is make roughly 1⁄4 - 1⁄2 of the pile green nitrogen materials and 1⁄2 - 3⁄4 brown carbon materials.

Green ingredients include grass clippings, weeds, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, seeds, fresh soft green prunings, seaweed, & animal manure (sheep, poultry, horse, rabbit & cow)

Brown ingredients  include dead leaves, straw, hay, wood shavings or chips, egg cartons, & newspaper.

Particle size also affects the availability of carbon and nitrogen. Large wood chips, for example, provide a good bulking agent that helps to ensure aeration (air flow) through the pile, but decompose slower than they would in the form of wood shavings or sawdust. Too much carbon prevents the pile from heating so saw dust in large quantities can leave a pile sitting cold.

Free compost ingredients

http://www.wikihow.com/Find-Free-Compost...

Answer 5

just make some sort of enclosure and pile it up. throw a shovelful of limestone powder in once every 6 mos or so and keep it damp. Turn it over once and awhile to get some air in it,

if you throw in rotting veggies ,etc make sure to cover them up  

Answer 6

www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1232  

www.ehow.com/how_3541_begin-compost-pi...

web.extension.uiuc.edu/homecompost/bui...

www.gardenguides.com/how-to/ tipstechniques/planning/compost.as

www.yardsmarts.com/new_homeowners/ green/article.asp?n_id=48