Tips on composting for beginners

The easiest route to a constant supply of organic matter is to make your own compost. It's a simple and effective way of keeping your soil fertile and you probably have all the ingredients right at hand.

To make the quickest and most efficient compost, you need to keep a good balance between organic matter rich in nitrogen and organic matter rich in carbon. While carbon and nitrogen ratios vary widely, a simple rule is to remember that nitrogen-rich matter is green stuff like kitchen waste, grass clippings and old manure, and carbon-rich matter is brown stuff like sawdust, bark and old leaves. Keeping the balance is a matter of adding one part green to every two parts brown.

• Don't be deterred because you don't have a compost bin. You can start the pile on the ground. In order to keep it manageable, the size should be no bigger than three feet wide by three feet deep. This is also the optimum size for keeping the heat contained. Add a four-to-six inch layer of matter alternating between green and brown and moisten each layer.
• If you're adding grass clippings, keeping the layer to a couple of inches will keep it from matting together and slowing down the process.
• Kitchen waste can be added as you go along and can be topped by a layer of brown such as newspaper (black print only).
• Contrary to popular belief, compost doesn't smell bad unless the pile contains too much nitrogen. If you water the pile lightly once each week you should eventually see it start sinking. This is a sign that things have been cooking nicely and this is a good time to turn the pile. Simply take off the outside layers and turn them into the middle. If your pile hasn't budged, then there's not enough nitrogen, so you'll need to add more green.
• Within six to eight weeks, your compost should be ready to use. Don't worry if it takes a little longer; just keep it moist and aerated. Don't be tempted to use it before it has finished decomposing, as it will rob the nitrogen from your plants.

• 1 part kitchen scraps (no meat)
• 2 parts old leaves
• 1 part grass clippings
• 2 parts straw

•  Do add coffee grinds to compost.
• Do keep the pile moist but not soaked.
• Do turn the pile at least once every two weeks.
•  Do use compost in your flower and vegetable beds and houseplant pots.

• Don't compost weeds that have gone to seed or that spread by roots.
• Don't add bones or fish, poultry or other meat scraps to the compost mixture. They will attract critters.
• Don't put plants with disease or fungi in the pile. The disease may well crop up in your garden next year.
• Don't add animal feces other than chicken, cow, or horse manure.

Although different composting materials break down eventually, they will decompose at different rates. To accelerate the composting process you can chop larger material into smaller pieces. Make thick layers of different materials and every few weeks, turn the compost over with a gardening fork to mix the material together and aerate the pile.