So, It’s January, and it finally started getting cold. I probably should have mentioned that below freezing isn’t exactly the best time to start composting, but here we are.  Composting is at the most basic level the art of making things rot in such a way that it smells as little as possible, using aerobic bacteria, beneficial microorganisms, and critters like pill bugs and worms, to make a biologically diverse, nutrient rich soil (aka humus) that is like crack for plants.

The bacteria that do most of the work like it hot and damp, and a healthy compost pile should be around 130-160F with the moisture consistency of a wrung-out sponge. If the temperature is too low, you might have too much carbon, and a quick fix for that is to pee on it for a few days to up the nitrogen!  This can also be affected by the amount of material you have in your pile, too much and the pile can collapse under its own weight, suffocating the aerobic bacteria that are working so hard for you. If your pile is too small, there won’t be enough material to allow it to get up to temperature and support the critters chewing it up. The universal standard is one cubic meter, or just over 3 feet cubed (trust me, it’s about ten times the amount of material you think it is). There are complex, expensive machines that are supposed to make smaller amounts work, but I’m going to need the material for my garden anyway, and I don’t want to spend $100+ on something that three recycled pallets and a pitchfork can do just as well.

The general rule of thumb is that you want a ratio of 30 carbon to 1 nitrogen for the ideal mixture to allow it to break down quickly without starting to reek.  Carbons are your “browns”, basically anything dead or woody like mulch, fallen leaves, straw, cardboard, newspaper, sawdust, etc.  Nitrogens are your “greens” like vegetable and fruit scraps, leafy plant trimmings, weeds (before they flower/seed or you will get weeds everywhere next year!!), and even coffee grounds. Animal manure, seaweed, blood(meal), and urine are among the lowest c:n ratios (most nitrogen). Here is a website with a good starting list of  c:n ratios. Too high of a carbon ratio and your compost pile will take very long to break down, but if your ratio is too low (too much nitrogen) your pile will get all slimy and stinky, which also means it’s unhealthy.  Many people say meats, dairy, and oils are forbidden in compost piles, but I think thats more for pest management than it actually doing any damage to your pile, since they all break down the same. My philosophy is, a little bit never hurt anybody, so I’m not going to worry about a little meat or dairy in my pile unless it starts to smell. If I happen to feed a few of the local critters, they’ll only turn the pile a little for me, until the Furry Tinkerer chases them off. (Side note, I know she’ll keep the garden largely pest free for me this summer, she always chases off the squirrels and already caught a rabbit in the back yard).

Composting can be very complicated if you get into higher level science, tweaking the microbiology can yield customized composts designed to benefit specific products such as strawberries or tomatoes.  But for the beginner, there are two basic approaches. The first is the ‘set it and forget it’ approach, where you gather all of your material, wet it down, mix it up, and leave it alone for a few months, checking on it occasionally to fix any problems if it starts to dry out, cool off, overheat, etc.

The other popular beginner method is the Berkeley Method. Here you can get a completed compost pile in 18 days, but it takes a lot of work with a pitchfork. On Day 1 you stack your pile and wet it down so it is slightly damp throughout. Then you leave it alone for the microbes to colonize the pile and start to heat it up. On the fourth day, you get your pitchfork and invert the pile, taking everything from the outer layers and put it in the middle (you will need a second compost area) and stacking the center of the old pile onto the outside of the new one. Check for moisture and water if necessary. You repeat this every other day until you hit 18 days, for a total of 8 turns, or roughly 4 hours of work. That seems like a lot of work, but you condense 6-12 months of waiting into 18 days.

So, I’ve started collecting material for my pile, and like I said it’s a lot more than you think it would be. To get enough for more than one pile before I need it this spring, I’ve started handing out buckets at work to collect peoples’ food scraps, I hit up the local horse stable occasionally for some nice aged manure, and save all my own food scraps of course. I’m going to be contacting a local lunch shop to see if I can’t get their food scraps to kick my composting into overdrive, and I’ll have to tarp the pile to help keep it warm in this weather.

Have you ever composted before? Try it! I’ve already impressed Lady Tinkerer and my parents with how little a yard full of aged horse manure can smell, compost is nothing compared to that.