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Hi guys! Hopefully after reading yesterday’s article, you were inspired to start planting your very own native garden. One thing that every garden needs is good soil, which is why I thought that today I would share some information about composting, a great way to create bountiful soil and use up old food scraps.

Composting is just a fancy word for nature’s way of recycling organic matter. Essentially, you throw a bunch of food scraps and yard waste into a pile, where it breaks down and turns into an extremely nutrient-rich soil. Of course there are a few more steps that help to speed this process up so it doesn’t take forever. 

Composting has many benefits for the environment aside from just helping your garden grow big and strong. For one, it helps reduce food waste, which currently makes up around 20% to 30% of what we throw away according to the USDA.

In addition, composting also limits the need for fertilizers, which supply many of the nutrients within compost in a chemical form. Fertilizers, although easy to use, aren’t great because they tend to runoff into local water supplies, where they cause harmful blooms of algae, eventually leading to depletion of oxygen through a process called eutrophication. This, in turn, suffocates fish–not good. 

Composting has also been found to conserve water. This is because composting increases the health of soil, which means it can retain more moisture, lowering your water bill. As the amount of available freshwater we have continues to deplete, methods like composting will become necessary to conserve the water we do have. 

Finally, composting not only reduces carbon emissions, but also removes some carbon dioxide from the air as well. Normally, when food waste goes to landfills it is broken down in such a way that produces methane, an extremely harmful greenhouse gas. However, decomposition through composting does not release methane, therefore reducing emissions from food scraps. 

Since composting stimulates greater and stronger plant growth, this also means that there will be more plants to take in CO2 and remove it from the air, directly reducing atmospheric CO2. 

All these reasons make composting seem like a no-brainer. If you’re now itching to create your own, here are a few steps to follow.

Firstly, select which type of composting you want to do. The typical compost bin is stationary, with all organic material in a big pile. There are also rotating compost wheels that tumble your compost to maintain airflow and circulation. Finally, worm compost bins are another option, which uses worms to speed up the decomposition process (more info here).

You can purchase your chosen compost bin, either online or at a local garden store, or build your own. 

Once you’ve got your bin, next you need to find a proper location. Choose a flat, dry location in the sun or partial shade, depending on how hot your climate is.

That’s it! You can add anything: leaves, twigs, newspapers, straw, wood chips, vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells and grass clippings. Make sure to “stir” your compost regularly and in a few months time you will have beautiful soil to use in your garden!

For those that are still skeptical, that’s okay. The primary concern that people have with composting is that it may smell or attract pests. However, there are steps that can be taken to minimize both of these.

If your compost smells, make sure that you keep a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of brown and green materials. Brown materials are things like dry leaves, hay, newspaper or cardboard while green materials can be composed of food scraps, coffee grounds and grass clippings.

Also make sure to regularly mix your pile and remove animal-based products like meat as these tend to smell.

To avoid unwanted critters, do not add meat, dairy, oil or greasy foods as this smells super good to pests. Make sure that none of the yummy food scraps are exposed; instead, cover these with a layer of leaves. Here is an additional list of ideas if none of these work. 

I promise that composting isn’t as hard as it may sound. My family has had compost for ten years and I barely even think about it. As long as you maintain healthy, balanced compost, you should not face any problems. 

I wish you luck on your composting endeavors and hope that you find as much joy in it as I do!

Elena