Non-meat kitchen waste goes straight into the compost bin or pile.
Environmental objectives, sustainable farming and health conscious food production are priority concerns for livestock owners, gardeners and individuals purchasing produce. Manufacturing your own organic compost is easy, "green" because it reduces landfill waste and satisfying because it quickly produces an excellent soil amendment known as "black gold," while dealing with yard and kitchen vegetation waste. Avoiding polluting synthetic fertilizers is simple when natural solutions such as compost amended with aged manure, peat and lime are provided for the home garden. Even larger producers can compost, creating a salable resource of the finished compost itself or the produce grown from using it in the greenhouse or fields. Composting is a convenient way to deal with livestock manure from rabbits to horses. Composted manure can be spread over fields or offered to local gardeners. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Choose a location to set up the compost area. Purchase compost bins and containers or fence off an area where the composting is to be done. Do not set up too close to the house or near any area where odor is an issue. Seed compost containers with soil. Add biological starter (microbial inoculant) or earthworms if speed of decomposition matters.
2. Loosen the soil for ground composting or for direct, open bottomed containers. Secure open bottomed containers to the ground to deter animals. Add a 2-inch layer of leaves or manure -- fresh or "hot" manure is fine. Add another layer of dirt and the optional starter or worms. Do not add meat or animal products to the compost.
3. Begin adding household vegetable waste such as coffee grounds, plant and fruit peels and stale bread, grass clippings and other soft yard waste -- sticks will not decompose but pose no harm. Add more worms and microbial inoculant if desired, and vegetable waste as it is produced.
4. Turn the compost periodically by pitchfork if on the ground or in a large container. Rotate the tumbling container. Check moisture levels and cover in extremely wet conditions or water lightly if experiencing drought. Dry compost will rot slowly and wet compost will be pasty or muddy and smell of rotten eggs or swamp mud. Simply allow the overly wet compost to dry out and the useful qualities will return.
5. Collect finished compost and spread as a soil or field amendment. Finished compost is dark and fluffy with some bits of organic matter remaining. It smells lightly of earth. Compost is not ready if it has large sections of plant matter and still smells of kitchen clippings.
Tags: area where, bottomed containers, compost will, microbial inoculant, open bottomed