Forsyth
County North Carolina
Top Q&A Homeowner Questions May 2008
Q. What is it about composting? A. May is an excellent month to start composting. Any month will do, but a warm weather start will yield quicker results in your great backyard adventure. There is much talk about the benefits of composting, recycling by keeping yard waste out of land fill, enhancing your garden with handy homemade organic material and actually feeling very good about it.
Q. What are the takeaways from this activity? A. The availability of a cost free, home produced source of rich organic amendment material for your lawn, garden beds or flower pots is immensely satisfying. When you create a compost bin or bed, you immediately become host to microbes and worms as well as mineral rich friable soil. At its simplest level, composting costs nothing except a little time and a small output of physical energy.
Q. Is this a complicated process? A. No. There are many sources of research-based information from NC Cooperative Extension which describe the science of decomposition, as well as the steps necessary to start the process. Good information and good graphics are provided in, “Composting, a Guide to Managing Organic Yard Wastes.” Call Forsyth Co. Extension at 703-2850 and to get a copy of this publication. Here are two other websites with valuable information on composting:
Q. How do you do it? A. We started out with bins made from salvaged wood skids or pallets. Now I compost in the “leave and heave” style at the back of our small urban lot. Starting on the bare ground, I add leaves which have been cut smaller by the lawn mower and wintered over at the back of the lot. I also layer in grass clippings, kitchen scraps such as fruit and vegetable peelings or forgotten produce from the fridge, coffee grounds and filters, egg shells, small amounts of saw dust from the hobbyist’s shop, old mulch and bean and pea vines after backyard harvest. I avoid citrus and corn cobs because they decompose so slowly. Just remember: no meat, no grease, and no cat or dog waste. Well rotted manure of animals that don’t eat meat- horse and cow in particular is the gold standard in composting if you have a source. You can also work in soil you have dug from other parts of your yard. Then turn the pile over with a spading fork about once a week. Rain will fall adding moisture, or if things get really dry give your compost pile a good watering with the hose. I think you will appreciate the outcome.
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