Pile
The method that I use is to make a pile of leaves (instead of sending the leaves to the landfill) and use these leaves to cover the compostable kitchen materials as they are generated. I will periodically move the pile while turning it over. The trick here is to find an area of your yard to place the pile where it is not visible to your neighbors or guests; we are growning acubas, loropetalum, privets, and hydrangeas around our compost pile. Apparently, if the pile is too small, it may not get hot enough to prevent grub worms; I've never had this problem. If you do end up with grub worms, milky spore will kill them off. When you harvest your compost, keep some undigested / partially digested materials as a starter for the new batch.
Bury
You can also dig a hole and and as you put the compost material in, put a layer of dirt on it. When the hole is full, dig another and repeat.
Tumbler
Another method is to purchase a tumbler. This greatly speeds up the composting process, but, is not free. The fastes that you will see compost is 10-12 weeks.
Compostable materials
Leaves
Grass - only if you don't use herbicides and pesticides on your lawn
coffee grounds and filters
apple cores
banana peels
watermellon rinds
basically any raw veggie or fruit
shredded paper
Do not compost meats or foods that have been seasoned.
Procedure:
We thought it was a good idea to accumulate kitchen waste in a paper grocery bag; the beauty of this method was that we could just drop the whole bag onto the pile and throw some leaves over it. The problem with this method was fruit flies and moisture. We found a great container just for compost; there were ventilation holes and a washable filter. We fill it up every day or two.
The method that I use is to make a pile of leaves (instead of sending the leaves to the landfill) and use these leaves to cover the compostable kitchen materials as they are generated. I will periodically move the pile while turning it over. The trick here is to find an area of your yard to place the pile where it is not visible to your neighbors or guests; we are growning acubas, loropetalum, privets, and hydrangeas around our compost pile. Apparently, if the pile is too small, it may not get hot enough to prevent grub worms; I've never had this problem. If you do end up with grub worms, milky spore will kill them off. When you harvest your compost, keep some undigested / partially digested materials as a starter for the new batch.
Bury
You can also dig a hole and and as you put the compost material in, put a layer of dirt on it. When the hole is full, dig another and repeat.
Tumbler
Another method is to purchase a tumbler. This greatly speeds up the composting process, but, is not free. The fastes that you will see compost is 10-12 weeks.
Compostable materials
Leaves
Grass - only if you don't use herbicides and pesticides on your lawn
coffee grounds and filters
apple cores
banana peels
watermellon rinds
basically any raw veggie or fruit
shredded paper
Do not compost meats or foods that have been seasoned.
Procedure:
We thought it was a good idea to accumulate kitchen waste in a paper grocery bag; the beauty of this method was that we could just drop the whole bag onto the pile and throw some leaves over it. The problem with this method was fruit flies and moisture. We found a great container just for compost; there were ventilation holes and a washable filter. We fill it up every day or two.
Composting your yard and kitchen waste yields great fertilizer. Not only that, but, there is no gas consumed to haul all that stuff to a landfill.
The process of composting is not rocket science; but, you can dig in deep at the EPA, if you like. You don't need complicated equipment. Have you ever left a banana in your purse? It will begin to compost on its own. However, you don't get a lot of compost back for the amount of material you put in. Don't expect to get a bag of compost out for every bag of kitchen/yard waste you put in.
The process of composting is not rocket science; but, you can dig in deep at the EPA, if you like. You don't need complicated equipment. Have you ever left a banana in your purse? It will begin to compost on its own. However, you don't get a lot of compost back for the amount of material you put in. Don't expect to get a bag of compost out for every bag of kitchen/yard waste you put in.
Here is the container that we use
to temporarily accumulate compost.
Many come with ventilation holes and (replaceable) filter pads. We just rinse out the filters and re-use. The pepper grinder posing with the container has nothing to do with compost.
Many come with ventilation holes and (replaceable) filter pads. We just rinse out the filters and re-use. The pepper grinder posing with the container has nothing to do with compost.