Two years ago I started composting the cut grass from the lawnmower and occasionally some thin twigs and leaves. “Composting” as in dining it all in a cheap plastic compost container without any bottom.
In my head worms and other things would find their way there and start munching away.
In reality the end result was dry cut grass cakes and twigs. So this spring we got rid of the contents.
So … What beginners guide to easy composting do you recommend.
I would like to start easy and in a distant future, if all goes well now, I might get an isolated container for leftover food and scrap. But that seems very distant right now.
Read the book “The Humanure Handbook” by Joseph Jenkins. It’s the best book written about composting in general and humanure in particular. It’s available free from his website. I got it from the library and liked it so much I bought it and have read it 4 or 5 times. Here’s what building a basic compost bin entails.
https://humanurehandbook.com
Build a compost bin with metal fencing similar to chicken wire, or other materials. The bin must be AT LEAST 1 cubic meter in size - mass is important. Bigger is better, though increasing the height above 1 meter makes it harder to manage and sqeezes oxygen from the pile. I like piles that are 1 meter high, 1 meter deep, and multiple meters wide. For your first real bin I’d suggest 1m3.
Add a minimum of half a meter deep of sponge material like dead plants to the bottom of the bin to keep certain contents like manure etc. from contacting the soil. A deeper sponger material is better and it will all turn into compost. To add material, form a depression in the center of the pile and add your food scraps (including meat, egg shells, old bread, fruit/veggie scraps, etc.) in the center. Add any other things as well at this time such as compost toilet material, used kleenexes, yard scraps, plain brown cardboard with tape removed, etc. Then cover this with a cover material such as hay (best) or dry leaves or other plant scraps. The cover material keeps flies away and prevents odors. You should be able to stand next to it with visitors and not smell anything.
Some people say not to add a huge number of things to compost like meat, milk, etc. and that’s because they’re not composting - they’re doing something else that can’t handle these inputs and wrongly calling it composting. Vermiculture for example is a different process (worm digestion) that results in a different product (worm castings, aka worm poop) that sells for a very different price. You can compost all these things and more, including large animals like bears and horses.
You don’t need to (and shouldn’t!) turn a compost pile. Doing so releases a ton of microorganisms into the air that you’ll breathe in; it releases a ton of heat for no good reason; it loses moisture; and doing so is 90% of the work and is unnecessary to create compost. Work smart and let microorganisms (especially thermophilic bacteria) do the work for you.
Buy a compost thermometer (roughly half a meter long) and keep it in the middle of the pile 24/7. The high temperature of compost destroys seeds and kills pathogens. General rule of thumb: 60C for an hour kills pathogens, 55C for a day, or 49C for a week. Of course a properly managed biologically active compost pile will easily reach over 55C and stay there for days. The highest I’ve seen is 67C, which it held for a day or two. Hitting those high temperatures means your pile has sufficient mass with a nice balance of carbon and nitrogen and is moist, not soggy or dry.