How to Compost

In this post, I will teach you how to compost your yard waste, food waste and some animals feces. To compost these materials, you will need to fallow 10 simple steps.
Step 1: Chose a location for your compost
You will need to find a location in your yard that is relatively dry and far enough away from the house where if it begins to stink, it won't carry into your home. Often near trash cans is a convenient location because it makes it easy to sift out unwanted materials before placing them in the compost container (I will discuss which materials can be composted later).
Step : Build a composting container.
Whether your container is a hole in the ground or a wooden box, it will need to be in a location where you can regulate the moisture. Meaning if you decide to do an in ground compost container, you may want to keep it near the top of a hill so if it rains, the compost won't turn into a cesspool and begin rotting. I would recommend a large bin and poke some holes in it to allow for air flow, or if you have a lot of material to compost, building a box out of wood will work.
Step 3: Gather compost materials
In this step I will list off some of the acceptable materials you can add to compost container.
-Grass clippings
-Freshly cut trimmings from trees and bushes
-Young weeds (before they develop seeds)
-Vegetable waste (such as cucumber shavings, lettuce leaves, ect.)
-Coffee grounds or tea leaves
-Fruits
-Brown leaves
-Small twigs
-Herbivore manure (Such as horses, goats, or chickens)
-Paper bags
-Hair
-Egg shells
Step 4: Add composting materials
In this step it is important to alternate dry and damp materials when adding them to the container. You want to make sure you are not compacting all the material down as well to allow for good air flow to quicken the composting process. It may be a good idea to put dry loose materials near the bottom initially to allow for air flow throughout the pile, and with wet materials leaking towards the bottom, the dry material can absorb this moisture to keep an optimal moisture level throughout the container.
Step 5: Mix materials
It is important to keep all materials in the compost container at a good moisture level and for there to be air flow in the container. By mixing materials repeatedly you will achieve both of these. All the materials will be mixed allowing for all materials to decompose at the same rate and the air pockets from turning the materials around will quicken the overall process.
Step 6: Check the moisture of your compost
In this step you will check the moisture of your compost materials. If the compost is too dry, you can add wet materials or water (but be careful not to add too much) or if the compost is to wet you can add dry materials to absorb some of the moisture.
Step 7: Turn the compost layers
This step is a little different from step 5, because in this step, you don't just mix up the materials a little, you actually put the top layer on the bottom, the side layers in the middle and the bottom layer on the top. This can be done through using 2 containers or by placing a tarp on the ground to minimize the mess. During this step, you will also want to break up clumps and check the moisture on the different layers.
Step 8: Sift through compost to remove slow decomposing materials
It's important that all materials are decomposing at around the same rate. If you see that there are a few branches, twigs or other materials that don't seem to be breaking down at the same rate as the rest of the compost, you may want to remove the items. Or another option would be to compost them in a separate bin to be added with the next batch, or you can also shred the material which will allow for it to decompose quicker.
Step 9: Once the compost is complete, sift through and remove large chunks
You want to make sure that materials are fully broken down before adding the compost to your garden or it may deprive the soil of nitrogen or other nutrients.
Step 10: Add compost to soil
In this final step, you will want to add the compost to the soil. If you plan on adding a vegetable garden, it is a good idea to mix it well into the soil so as the plant's roots go further into the soil, they will still find nutrients.

I hope this page was helpful. If you have any questions or comments please send me an email under my contact page. Thanks for reading!
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