Not So Perfect Composting

If you haven’t already started a compost bin, perhaps this is the year to start. Composting isn’t hard, you just have to remember to turn it once in a while, and feed it a regular diet of compostable material, such as garden and grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds, leaves, dryer lint, and even hair and animal fur. You probably noticed this long list did not include meat, fish, bones, dairy products, or pet poo, all major no no’s for a healthy compost pile! The compost experts suggest feeding your compost bin with a 50/50 weight combo, balancing fifty percent green compost material with fifty percent browns by weight. But don’t be scared off by suggestions from compost experts or advocates, because they are just that - suggestions. Too many people have chosen not to create a compost pile for fear of not doing it “just right”. While making sure compost piles have exactly the right layers of material and the perfect ratio of carbon to nitrogen is highly important to professionals who are making compost for the marketplace, the average backyard composter doesn’t have to maintain that elusive “perfect compost bin”.