How do I begin a compost pile?

[Sabriel]

I just got a free composter today and have no idea how to start it out. Do I have to have a bunch of stuff ready to go in it, or can I just throw in what I have as I accumulate it?

[HamdenRice]

1. Tell us a little more about your situation. Do you have a backyard? Garden soil available?

What do you intend to compost?

[Sabriel]

2. I have a smallish side yard and no garden

But I'm planning on trying "lasagne" gardening this summer. Compost would mostly be kitchen scraps and the odd flower bed cutting.

We mulch the lawn, so there won't be any grass clippings. Lots of oak/hickory leaves in the fall, though.

[HamdenRice]

3. You can just start putting kitchen scraps in, but

You will need dirt to cover them. The dirt provides the starter bacteria and fungus, prevents them from attracting animals, and prevents any smell.

I would also reconsider your mulching of the grass clippings. Grass clippings are an amazing "accelerant" of composting. I'm not sure how big your lawn is, but you might want to try this experiment to see how fast grass composts. Next time you mow your lawn, put a pile of grass clipping about two feet high somewhere in your yard (not in your bin) and leave it. In 2-4 days check it. In most cases you will find it steaming hot on the inside. That's the action you want in your compost pile. (You can ordinarily just throw the clippings in the bin; I'm just suggesting this demonstration so you can see how fast grass works on its own.) You don't have to compost all your grass clippings, but every so often you should put in a lawyer of it to help all the other stuff compost.

But be careful to mix clippings with other stuff and dirt. Grass has a tendency to mat and turn to green sludge.

[Kolesar]

5. When the old lawyer decomposes...

...put another lawyer in there.

[Sabriel]

6. I didn't think lawyers decomposed.

Don't they just melt, like the Wicked Witch of the West?

[HamdenRice]

4. Forgot to add

Another really good thing to add to your compost pile if you want it to breakdown quickly is animal manure. If there is a horse stable or dairy farm around, they'll usually give away the stuff for free, or for a tip to the "stable boys" for shoveling it into a garbage bag.

Here in NYC, I used to go to a horse stable but that's not practical this year. But because of the large immigrant population there are "live animal" meat markets nearby where they have chickens and goats, so I guess that's what I'll be using this year.

[Sabriel]

7. Can it be fresh manure?

I can get fresh chicken poo and straw, but not the old stuff.

Thanks again for the help!

[HamdenRice]

8. Yes, fresh is better for the compost pile

but you cannot use it fresh in the garden. Fresh is "hotter" than mature, will under most conditions create a hot pile, and will cause other stuff to break down faster and kill weed seeds.

The only disadvantage is that once you put fresh in your compost bin, you know you can't use that compost for a few months.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

9. Timely information

My husband is now out picking up our second load of hot manure. I knew not to put it on the garden, but didn't even think to throw some into the compose pile. Thanks!

[wildeyed]

10. You need to have a mix of 'green' and 'brown' matter in the compost pile.

It has something to do with carbon/nitrogen ratios. Green is grass clippings, kitchen waste and generally wet stuff. Brown is autumn leaves, etc. Sounds like you have mostly green right now. I believe you can use shredded newspaper as brown matter to balance the pile out a little. Also throwing some dirt and/or finished compost on the pile will probably help.

I use a worm farm for my kitchen scraps and cold compost yard waste, so I am a bit foggy on the percentage of green/brown matter you need for a healthy compost pile, but I am sure you could google it up.

[HamdenRice]

11. They do recommend a mix of green and brown, but it's not practical

and not absolutely necessary. The problem is that they are available at different times of the year. Unless I bag up and keep leaves from autumn separate as a brown store, most years, from spring through late summer, only green is available (mostly grass and box wood hedge clippings). Then in the late fall, there's lots of brown, but little green.

I'm kind of wary of newspaper so I often don't have brown to add. The one exception I usually have a little of is sawdust from my amateur carpentry, but it's usually not that much.

The way to balance the green in summer is just mix it with soil. It works perfectly fine. In the fall, I balance the excess of leaves with the last green from pulling up the garden crops, hot manure and again soil.