Faster Compost - Accelerate Your Composter
Most every gardener knows some of the benefits of compost, but often they have a hard time making enough for their use. Here are some tips to getting your compost bin working faster.
We all like to have more compost than we can make. Compost is good for the garden soil in many ways. Compost improves the structure of the soil, allowing it do drain better even while it retains water better. It buffers the pH of the soil, reducing that acidity of soils that are too acid, and reducing the alkalinity of alkaline soil. Sifted compost is a good seed starting medium, great for those small seeds like carrots.
While the exact ratio of high carbon to high nitrogen materials doesn’t have to be exact, it does help to make sure that we don’t have too much of one or the other. You need to avoid using all one type of material like lawn clippings or leaves. Try about an even mix of brown and green materials for you composter, and it should heat up without overheating and smelling.
The more you can break down the material going into the pile, the better it will work. This reduces the breakdown needed by the pile, and at the same time lets more of the internal structure of the material be exposed to the microbes. Reduce the size of the large stalks and branches with a pruner, and smaller pieces can be run through a lawn mower. You may want to buy a leaf shredder to do a thorough job.
Composting one batch at a time is a good way to speed up your composter. Once you have a pile working, start another pile or keep your kitchen waste in a kitchen compost container. You may want to have a smaller bin on the patio, and transfer the contents to a larger working bin in the yard for the fast composting.
The more often you can turn the pile, the more active it will be and the faster the compost will break down. This has the dual advantage of bringing fresh composted material into the hotter center of the pile, while improving the air flow throughout the pile as well, refreshing the oxygen supply to the microbial activity in the hot middle of the pile.
The ideal moisture level is a pile that is like a damp cloth. Don’t let it get too much water, which can cause a smelly slimy mess, and conversely too little water can lead to an inactive compost pile. This leads to the need to make sure you can keep water from getting in during times of heavy rains. With these tips in mind, you should be able to make more of that black gold this garden season.
