What are some good composting methods if you want to do your own composting? How to choose a compost site, contain your compost, and turn it as well as what to add and what not to add to your compost. The...
The first thing to do is choose a site that preferably gets some sun, but also doesn't bake in the sun all day. Compost does have an odor to it and it's not the prettiest thing to look at in the world. Your compost site should also be out of the way, but accessible because if it's too far away, you're probably not going to use it. But obviously you don't want it to be the centerpiece of your backyard. So, choose a good site for it.
You can just compost in a pile, but a more effective way is to have some sort of compost bin. They can be made with wire fencing. Obviously there are several different pre-made compost bins you can purchase. There are a number of different products, but typically something that will contain your compost seems to be the better way to do it. Then you basically add any kind of organic material you can get. The main thing you want to stay away from is anything that would have fat in it. When fat composts, it actually turns rancid. So you obviously wouldn't want to put any meat in there, but you also want to avoid adding dairy products like milk or butter or even some vegetables. Avocados are notorious for spoiling in compost because they have a very high fat content. So things of that nature you don't want to put in your compost bin. But basically you'll add all your vegetable kitchen scraps. Coffee grounds are OK in small amounts. I wouldn't dump all my coffee grounds in my compost pile. There is the idea of sprinkling coffee grounds on your soil - not a bad thing to do if you do a very light application very infrequently. But if you have a compost pile, it would be better to put the coffee grounds in your compost pile and let them compost because it's that same idea that they can be so "hot" - they can have so much acid in them straight out of the coffeemaker that if you just pile it on your plants, it can actually burn them. You can throw your coffee grounds on your compost pile and have that become part of your compost. Other good things to add: leaves, grass if you bag your grass (although I would usually recommend not bagging your grass when you mow it), basically anything that is organic in nature, that will break down and eventually turn back to soil.
Probably the most important thing with compost piles is "turning," which is moving the more composted material from the bottom of the pile and to the top so that the fresh stuff on top gets buried. This gets the disintegration process going. And then, particularly here in Central Texas, one thing we have to do in the summer when it gets really dry and we don't get a lot of rain, is water the compost about once every two weeks. Because basically what you're trying to accomplish with composting is encouraging all these bacteria to decompose the material that's there. And those bacteria, if they get dry enough, will die. So you have to keep them moist to a point. Now, you can keep a compost pile too wet, and if it stays too wet, it goes to a different type of decomposition - anaerobic - and that's when it will start to stink! You can turn a compost that's gone anaerobic around as long as you keep turning it and don't let it get too wet.
