Browns (contain carbon)
Dry leaves, wood chips, hay, shredded paper,
newspaper and cardboard
Ideas
Greens (contain nitrogen)
Kitchen scraps (fruits, vegetables, coffee grounds),
fresh grass clippings, fresh plant material from your
vegetable garden
What Not to Compost
Meat scraps or bones, dairy products, cooking oil,
pet droppings, diseased plants, or pesticides
© landscapeforlife.org
Methods
Slow/Cold Composting
Pile your green and brown material somewhere in your garden, and moisten the
pile each time you add material. You should have rich compost in a year or two.
Faster/Hot Composting
Mix and soak equal amounts of green and brown material. Each time the inside of
the pile reaches 140 degrees and then cools (measure with a compost thermometer
or old kitchen thermometer), turn and mix the pile with a pitchfork. This adds
oxygen and restarts the process. When the pile stops heating up, your compost is
ready – in months instead of years. You may want to have more than one pile to
avoid adding fresh material to compost that's almost ready.
Fastest/Vermicomposting
Put your green and brown material in a compost bin and add red wiggler worms.
The worms work fast, turning everything into compost in about a month.
Compost Tea Recipe
1. Fill a bucket one-third full with finished compost.
2. Top off the bucket with water (non-chlorinated if possible).
3. Let the mixture sit for two or three days and stir daily to add oxygen.
You then have compost tea, a booster shot of nutrients for ailing plants. Soak
the soil around a plant, or filter the tea through an old cloth, put in a spray
bottle, and use it throughout your garden.
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