Backyard Composting Made Easy: Tips and Techniques

1. Backyard Composting Made Easy Brian Rosa NC DENR DPPEA

2. Backyard Composting Made Easy Brian Rosa NC DENR DPPEA 4 Components To Make Compost Containers Tools & Things

3. Backyard Composting Made Easy Why Compost ?

4. Backyard Composting Made Easy 4 Things That Make Compost Happen Brown (carbon) Green (nitrogen) Water (H2O) Air (oxygen)

5. Backyard Composting Made Easy Carbon/Nitrogen Ratio ~ C/N Ratio

6. Backyard Composting Made Easy Brown or Carbon Brown and woody material Leaves Straw Saw dust Wood chips Paper products Hand towels Napkins Paper plates Paper mache egg cartons 1/3 of pile to be brown (carbon)

7. Backyard Composting Made Easy Green or Nitrogen Green or Nitrogen Food Scraps No meat, fat or bones Fruit peelings & pulp Coffee ground and filter Tea bags Grass clippings Weeds Manure (no dog or cat)

8. Backyard Composting Made Easy C/N Ratio Ideal 30:1 for fast hot composting (temperatures up to 140 F) 50:1 for slower, low temperature composting Brown (Carbon) Leaves 60:1 Straw 90:1 Sawdust 500:1 Wood chips/ twigs 700:1 Green (Nitrogen) Food Scraps 15:1 Grass Clippings 17:1 Fruit Waste 40:1 Weeds 20:1 Chicken Manure 7:1

9. Backyard Composting Made Easy Easy method to calculate C:N ratio. 2 parts green, 1 part brown. You can get a c/n ratio of 30:1 50:1 by adding two parts green material to one part brown to your pile. Example: food scraps 15:1. Grass clippings 17:1. Leaves 60:1. 15 + 17 + 60 = 92 divide by 3 = 31. Or. 31:1 C:N ratio.

10. Backyard Composting Made Easy Moisture ~ 60 % ~ Damp - feel like a wrung out sponge. Squeeze a handful ~ Should stay together ~ If water drips out too wet ! ~ If crumbles too dry !

11. Backyard Composting Made Easy Air / oxygen - turn or aerate ~ Speeds up the composting process ~ Re-heats pile to keep it in aerobic state ~ Creates pathways for air & moisture to circulate ~ Eliminates odors ~ Takes care of most composting problems Turn every 7 10 days the more you turn the faster you get finished compost

12. Backyard Composting Made Easy Hot fast batch compost pile. Compost in 1-3 months. Create a recipe that works for you ! What materials are available ? * Remembering you need 2 browns, 1 green. Start with a layer of course materials (stalks, twigs, straw). Then alternate layers of brown & green materials, adding a shovel full of soil and moistening every other layer. Repeat this layering and moistening until bin is full.

13. Backyard Composting Made Easy Hot fast batch compost pile. Compost in 1-3 months. Monitor the temperature of the pile. Within 24 hours, pile should be 120 130 F. After 3 days at 130 F, turn pile the core of pile is finished Add moisture and/or some nitrogen (food scraps or grass clippings). Again the pile should heat back. After 3-4 days, turn pile. Repeat process for 3 4 weeks. * Check temperature by thermometer or place your hand in the middle of pile.

14. Backyard Composting Made Easy Slow or Cold Composting Slow results (3-8 months) Most Common Pros Cons ~ Easy, little effort ~ Decomposes slowly ~ No stockpiling ~ Can cause odors ~ Immediate kitchen scrap ~ Does not heat up disposal ~ Can attract pests ~ Quick disposal of yard ~ Does not kill weed seed debris and grass ~ Compost may be less ~ Great for homes that nutrient-rich generate little waste

15. Backyard Compost Bins 3 Bin System

16. Backyard Compost Bins Earth Machine

17. Backyard Compost Bins Garden Gourmet

18. Backyard Compost Bins Simple Bins

19. Backyard Compost Bins Tumbler

20. Backyard Compost Bins BioStack

21. Backyard Composting Made Easy Accessories ~ Pitchfork ~ Kitchen food collector ~ Thermometer ~ Aerator (Wingdigger)

22. Backyard Composting Made Easy Trouble shooting

23. Backyard Composting Made Easy Other Options ~ Sheet Composting ~ Trench ~ Grass-cycling

24. Backyard Composting Made Easy Vermicomposting

25. Backyard Composting Made Easy Compost Educational Resources How to compost.org Educational Resources http://www.howtocompost.org/cat_education.asp Cornell Composting in schools - Quiz http://compost.css.cornell.edu/quiz1.html NC DENR, Division of Pollution Prevention & Environmental Assistance http://www.p2pays.org/compost/ (This web site will link to most major compost sites)