When to start making compost
Composting 101: Stupid-Easy Compost Making in Piles & Bins
today I want to share with you all the
bare bones to starting a compost pile we
move to our off-grid property a little
over a year ago and even though we
weren't planning to have a really big
garden our first year we just had a lot
of other things to take care of we did
want to start composting and amending
our soil because when we're ready to
garden we want to be good to go
and building compost and soil is just
something that takes time so we thought
why not get started now instead of later.
We did quite a bit of research online
before getting started and honestly it's
really easy to get overwhelmed. There is
a scientific process behind composting
and it's really easy to get lost in the
details and the intricacies. So, I just
wanted to create this video to show you
just how easy it can be. Where to put
your compost pile? We chose to find a
happy medium and put our compost
somewhere where it wasn't going to be in
the way so is it in our main living and
walking area but we also didn't want it
too far from the house because we knew
that if we're putting our kitchen scraps
in the compost pile the further away the
less likely it is we would compost. So, we
tried to find that happy medium having
it too close to the house you risk it
smelling if it's getting out of balance
too wet
things like that; so that's why we chose
to have it out of the way and also we
didn't know how big we wanted to grow
our pile so we put it in a space that
allowed it to grow. One tip of advice if
you have a bigger property and you have
a little bit of flexibility on where to
put it, you might want to put it a place
where you can back a trailer up to the
pile because we frequently are out
and about when we pick up things for the
compost pile and it works really well if
we have a trailer of stuff to just dump
it off right here like we did with this
grass yesterday. What do you put your
compost in? Well, Mother Nature doesn't
use anything. Stuff just falls on the
ground and it decomposes and it's okay.
So, if all else fails you don't need
anything, just make a heap on the ground
and call it a day. We chose to use
pallets because we already had them, we
feel that this does keep it a little bit
more contained and gives you a compost
area and we also feel that it helped us
build up rather than out so we've liked
them they've worked really well for us.
Another option is to buy a compost bin
or tumbler, this might be a popular
option for
small scale composting or maybe if
you're in more of an urban environment
and you don't want some pile like this
sitting out in your backyard or maybe
you're afraid the neighbors are going to
complain. Bins and tumblers can be a
really good idea, I'll link to a few of
them below this video. What do you put in
the pile? Organic waste. Brown stuff and
green stuff, carbon and nitrogen - however
you want to word it. It's advised that
you don't put in meat products, dairy and
that you don't use waste from animals
that are meat-eaters and there's
probably a few other things. I'll go
ahead and link to some do's and don'ts
below the video. Nitrogen (or green stuff)
is things like lawn clippings. It's
advised that you try to get this type of
stuff pesticide and herbicide free if
you can because that's going to make its
way into your compost and ultimately
your garden. Also, things in this category
are food waste - coffee grounds. Coffee is
pretty much our main food group so we
have that one covered. Manure, that's a
really great source of nitrogen... Again,
for manure you probably want to do a
little bit of homework to see what that
animal ate to make sure that's something
that you don't mind being in your garden.
This type of stuff also tends to be wet
and retain a lot of moisture. If you get
too much nitrogen in your pile there's a
good chance that your pile will get kind
of stinky or slimy and that's a sign
that you need more carbon. Carbon is a
lot of that drier stuff, this stuff may
be a little easier to get it really
depends on who you are and the season. An
example of carbon are things like leaves;
those are pretty easy to come by in
fall. Sawdust, that's really easy for us
to come by on our property. Cardboard,
paper and even hay or straw. So, how do
you get all this stuff? In a perfect
world you would have all this stuff on
your property and plenty of it. We have a
few of these things over property but in
all honesty, it's not enough to amount to
anything.
So, we started looking beyond our
property for materials and resources.
This morning I woke up and I thought, you
know what I'm gonna get some carbon
today... So I went to our local park and
there's a lot of trees there - it's fall.
All the leaves are on the ground, so I
went with my rake and a few trash bags
and I came back with a trailer full of
gold.
For making the pile; you add a little bit of
green, you add a little bit of brown, a
little bit of green, little brown, shake
it all around and that's it. Let me tell
you another secret, if it's not perfect
that's okay. This wasn't perfect and I
don't know about you but this looks like
compost to me, usable compost. But now,
let's talk about caring for your pile.
While it can be complicated it doesn't
have to be, and it isn't for us.
We simply grow the pile to the best of
our abilities and we try to water it
every once in a while.
Ideally you want to keep the pile moist.
For us because we're off-grid, water isn't
in abundance so we try to do what we
can. We do try to churn the pile and mix
things up when we remember; again, that's
probably every two to four weeks. I don't
know that this is absolutely critical
but it can help speed things up.
When will the compost be ready? I believe
that really depends on the pile
maintenance and also what you put into
the pile, likely the time of year that
you start the pile.
We started this one in spring (early
spring) and the pile was pretty large
when we started and it's condensed down
a lot.
We didn't take super great care of this
one but I'd say that looks like pretty
good compost and that took probably
about six months... And for the basics,
that's about all there is to it guys.
That's it. We're huge advocates of simply
getting started. While we do try to do
research and understand what we're
getting ourselves into... Ultimately, we
don't want to suffer from analysis
paralysis. So, while there's probably a
lot we could be doing differently in the
end, this is working out pretty well for
us and we do have usable compost that's
ready to go in the garden. If you enjoyed
this video and you want to learn more
about the development of our off-grid
homestead, we have a lot of projects in
the works right now... We're working on
building a timber frame barn, we're
working on building a large garden, we're
working on fine-tuning our solar power,
things like that. Then feel free to
follow our blog, its PureLivingforLife.com
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all that in the description below this
video and we'll see you next time!
