Composting

My first remembrance of composting is my Grandpa rotting the horse manure for his 2 acre vegetable garden 25 years ago.  About 4 years ago, I read a book from the library which explained composting, and it kindled this inherited need to return to the earth. 

I learned the following formula for making "Brown Gold".  You can make it too, just use this recipe:

Brown + Green + Water + Air = Brown Gold

Brown = Carbon such as twigs, brown leaves, mulch, paper and straw.

Green = Nitrogen such as fresh leaves, vegetable waste, and grass clippings.

Water =  Keep the pile moist, not soaking wet, do not allow to dry out, microorganism need water to live and breed.

Air = Oxygen is key to "fuel the fire"  just like in your fireplace.  You get the oxygen to move throughout the pile by turning it over every couple of days.

You can just put it in a pile or create a container that is open to let air through but that holds the material in a pile.

Compost WILL NOT SMELL if you get it cooking and don't put in things that are listed here.  DO NOT put in dog, cat or human feces (breeds disease), food that are fats or meats, greases, or dead animals.  These will attract rodents...and smell.

If you have problems getting it cooking, you can use Compost Activator.

My personal composting experience was an awesome science experiment. I made a bin that was 12 feet long, the frame made out boards from the rafters in the concrete building that we dropped when we first bought the property.  It had plastic coated wire sides and divider making 3 bins.  This allowed for three different stages of decomposition.

I filled it up with appropriate organic material (including several trailers of horse manure).  Every day any who drove done Eastwood at about 6 Am would see me in my pajamas turning the compost.  It was as important as that first cup off coffee.  Every day it got hotter and hotter, and I swear it smelled like peppermint as it composted.  In about 2 months had my first batch ready to go.  It brown black, rich and loamy, and smelled of the deep forest floor, all humusy and clean earth.  I used it to build one of my first garden beds.   Everything grew like mad, and I was hooked.