What do i need to know about starting my first compost heap?

Question

What do i need to know about starting my first compost heap?

Answer 1

Keep the meat out or you will have bugs and raccoons (and cats and dogs and skunks and foxes, and...) around it.   There should be three times as much brown (leaves) as green (grass) in the mixture for optimum composting.   Just throw everything in though and mix it well.

Answer 2

1) Aim for a 4' cubed pile or bin. Pallets held in place with rebar give you the right size. Larger piles won't get air; smaller ones won't heat up.

2) Use no animal material. There are a few other no-nos, like walnut leaves but you are not all that likely to get into trouble with them.

3) The finer the material is chopped, the faster it breaks down. You can also speed decomposition by using a mix of 2/3 high carbon material (leaves, sawdust) to 1/3 high nitrogen material (grass, table scraps, manure). If you have too much hich carbon material, the breakdown is slower. If there is too much high-nitrogen material, the pile will stink, unless you turn it over with some frequency.

4) Keep the material barely damp. If you pick up a handful, you should be able to squeeze out just a couple of drops of water.

5) Never stick your hand into the pile. It can get hot enough to scald bare flesh.

Answer 3

You can make composting as complicated as you want with fancy equipment and perfect mixes of ingredients, but there's really some simple ways of doing it.

This blog post has links to various sites so you can get enough information to do it your way:

http://www.thenatureinus.com/2008/06/com...