Autumn A Good Time To Start Compost Pile
Q. Since there is no leaf pickup program where I live, I’d like to start a compost pile - with all the leaves I have been raking up. Do I need to add anything else to start the process?
A. You’ve asked a timely question. In the fall, yard waste can comprise more than 40 percent of the average homeowner’s garbage. Composting is a practical and convenient way to transform yard trimmings into a valuable resource. It sounds like leaves are in abundance in your yard. Leaves will compost by themselves, but it may take a year or two. The end product of composting is always the same: a dark, crumbly, earthy-smelling, material. It’s a wonderful soil amendment. Leaves will compost faster if you mow them with your lawnmower before mixing them into a compost pile.
If you have other yard debris, such as grass clippings, flowers, non-spreading weeds or other trimmings from your garden, mix them into your pile of leaves. Using both brown materials (carbon-rich) and green materials (nitrogen-rich) speeds decomposition. Brown materials include leaves, pine needles and sawdust. Grass clippings and fresh weeds are common green materials. Mixing materials and monitoring air and water content will produce a high-quality compost in a much shorter time.
You don’t have to have a bin to hold your yard debris, but it is neater and you will have finished compost more quickly. Bins that hold about a cubic yard of materials (three feet square) are a manageable size. This is large enough to keep the microbes happy while they turn yard waste into compost, but not too big to keep oxygen from the center of the pile.
There are two types of composting - active and passive. If you are a passive composter, choose a place in your yard for your heap or bin, and as you acquire yard waste, pile it on top and let Mother Nature do all of the work. In a year or two you can harvest compost from the bottom of the pile as this material will be the oldest and will have composted sooner than the material on top. If you are an active composter, it will take more effort. With a good mix of green and brown materials, if you turn it once a week and make sure that the pile never dries out, you should have finished compost in four to six weeks. Air and water are necessary for aerobic decomposition that guarantees a process free of foul odors.
Bins come in all sizes, shapes and materials. A bin system may have one, two or three sections, be stationary, portable or even rotating. You can buy them or make your own. Free designs are available from the Spokane Regional Recycling Hotline, 747-0242.
For free literature and more information on composting, call the Spokane Regional Recycling Hotline at 747-0242 or the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Recycling Hotline at (800) RECYCLE.
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