Hey, hey…another chance to play in the dirt! For those of us who are project prone, composting is a great way to nourish your garden and build something neato. It’s cheap and easy to learn, but there is a little bit of an art to it that comes with practice. No need to be intimidated, just remember that all organic material breaks down. Even if you toss all your food scraps and grass clippings into a hole in the ground, it will eventually turn into compost. However, there are ways to get faster results. Here’s a few suggestions…

When building (or buying) a compost bin, here are 4 things you should focus on:
1. Drainage
2. Air Flow
3. Insulation
4. Good mix of ingredients (ideal mix is 75% brown material and 25% green scraps. Green and brown doesn’t refer to the actual color of the stuff you are putting in the composter – it’s just shorthand for saying nitrogen rich or carbon rich.)

How quickly ingredients break down depends on 4 things:
1. Moisture
2. Oxygen Content
3. Temperature
4. Again, a good mix of ingredients

I’ve found this site to be a good source of info, check it out. http://compostinstructions.com/about/

Oh, and send us pics of your project!

Nama

Tags: compost, Culture, Environmental, Gardening, Organic, slow food, Sustainability

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 10:43 am and is filed under Culture, Environmental, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.