Home Composting Made Easy

By Barbara Pleasant
Published on October 23, 2020
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Home composting is a great way to use fall leaves.
Home composting is a great way to use fall leaves.
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Author Barbara Pleasant makes a new compost pile.
Author Barbara Pleasant makes a new compost pile.
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A gardening shortcut: Potatoes will grow directly in a compost pile (and pansies like it, too).
A gardening shortcut: Potatoes will grow directly in a compost pile (and pansies like it, too).
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Compost can be mixed into your garden soil, or used as a side dressing for plants, as shown here.
Compost can be mixed into your garden soil, or used as a side dressing for plants, as shown here.
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Compost bins come in many designs, from simple and inexpensive plastic mesh to decorative and durable containers.
Compost bins come in many designs, from simple and inexpensive plastic mesh to decorative and durable containers.

Many people start composting for practical reasons. Home composting your leaves, grass clippings, garden waste and food scraps reduces the amount of garbage you generate. Plus, compost is essential for a great garden, and starting your own pile ensures a free, regular supply. But I think there’s an even better reason to compost: it’s fascinating. In fact, once you understand the basics of how the process works, composting can be one of the most interesting and enjoyable aspects of keeping a garden.

Composting mimics and intensifies nature’s recycling plan. A compost pile starts out as a diverse pile of kitchen and garden “waste.” Left alone, any of these materials would eventually decompose. But when a variety of materials are mixed together and kept moist and aerated, the process accelerates. Compost matures into what soil scientists call active organic matter: a dark, crumbly soil amendment that’s rich with beneficial fungi, bacteria and earthworms, as well as the enzymes and acids these life-forms release as they multiply.

Adding compost to garden soil increases its water-holding capacity, invigorates the soil food web and provides a buffet of plant nutrients. Compost also contains substances that enhance plants’ ability to respond to challenges from insects and diseases.

Starting a new compost pile can be a fast, easy project. (See Starting a Compost Pile or Worm Bin.) But new composters sometimes feel frustrated as they struggle to learn more about how the process works — an understandable problem since there is a wealth of information available about composting and not one, absolute “right way” to do it. As we take a close look at 10 basic composting facts, it’s obvious that the world of composting is seldom black and white — or shall we say brown and green? At the same time, composting is much easier than what you might have heard.

Balancing ingredients is optional

To help compost decompose rapidly, a balance of “two parts brown to one part green” is often preached as composting gospel, but in truth, keeping a balanced ratio is simply an option. (Dry materials, such as leaves, pine needles and dead plants, are usually considered “browns,” whereas wetter materials, such as grass clippings and kitchen waste, are considered “greens.”) It’s not that balancing browns and greens is wrong; it simply makes home composting more complicated than it needs to be. You can pile up all your organic material without worrying at all about greens and browns, and it will still mature into compost.

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