A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO COMPOSTING
WITH CRYSTAL WALKER
Hey, it is Crystal from Crystal's den
and garden aka Crystal's den
I am here to talk to you about one
of my favorite topics - Compost!
We are going to discuss
what exactly is compost,
what are the benefits of compost
what we can and should not compost
and I am going to show you two methods
of composting that I use and I find
super low maintenance and really effective.
Composting is such a beneficial act
that we can do for mother Earth and ourselves.
One of my favorite benefits of composting
is the amount of waste it reduces.
Where I live 15-25% of the landfill
is filled with yard waste and that doesnt
even account for the other organic matter
like food scrapes and paper products
that are in the landfill as well.
When we compost we are recycling
that waste back into the Earth instead
of filling it with landfills that are
emitting methane gas that is not good for the environment.
Composting really has great benefits
in terms of making sustainable choice for Earth.
When you get that lovely compost
you have some great nutrients to add to your garden.
What exactly is composting? What is compost?
Compost is decomposition and breakdown of organic matter.
Bacteria and fungi with help of water and air
breakdown the matter and eat it essentially
that helps it decompose and breakdown
into this wonderful, rich humus like soil that is called compost.
When we use compost, we can use it to make our soil better!
For example, with clay soil it can be really compacted
but when you add compost to it
it helps loosen it up a bit.
With sandy soil, it can be hard for water to maintain moisture.
When you add compost to it,
it helps retain moisture much better.
When we add that compost to our plants
it makes our plants feel super happy
because they get these great nutrients
and they grow in great abundance.
Compost has really great benefits and is a
perfect way to recycle our scrapes and waste back into the Earth
and use it for great purposes.
The bugs, we can not forget about the bugs- the earth worms!
They also help our organic matter decompose and become this great compost.
They eat it, they poop it out and it helps with the whole process.
Definitely can not forget about them!
So what makes up our compost?
We have our nitrogen rich material or our green material,
that is going to be things like,
food scraps so vegetable food scraps,
fruit scraps,
egg shells,
fresh grass clippings are excellent because they have high nitrogen content,
our tea, our coffee grounds,
our nuts,
any type of foliage, we dont want roots of weeds, any type of foliage or
plant that you have or plant that is not producing fruit any more,
All are great nitrogen rich material that can go in the compost.
Then we also have our carbon rich material
which is our brown material or more dryer material,
that is going to be things like
cardboard, not just regular card board also
toilet paper roll cardboard and paper towel roll cardboard.
They are going to be really great brown material to add to the compost.
What else can be composted?
Our saw dust can be composted, regular paper,
mail that you get can be composted
nothing shiny or with a plastic slip, just regular paper.
We also can compost newspaper,
not the classy coupon paper, we want to recycle that but regular newspaper
we can compost that. Along with uncoated paper products
like paper towels, toilet paper, toilet tissue.
Wood chips also really great for composting
and then small, small twigs is awesome brown material we can compost
that we can add to our compost bins and piles.
I just want to say that whenever we have our paper products
whether it be newspaper, paper towel, regular paper
we just want to make sure we tear it up really good
so that it is easy to decompose,
easier for the bacteria and fungi to break it down and get it ready for us.
I cant believe I forgot one of our essential compostable material
which is dried leaves.
Dried leaves are excellent source of brown material
and great to add to your compost.
A couple other things that are really great to add are
hay and straw.
Also, with your cardboard like brown paper sacks or anything like that,
make sure you are also tearing those up when you add them to your compost.
Breads, pastas and grains are also compostable.
Try and avoid composting sweet breads like cake and twinkies.
Avoid composting pasta that has a lot of meat and dairy residual on it.
A few other things we can compost are
pet fur, hair, dust from a dustpan,
wood ashes, ashes from medicinal herbs that we either smoked or burned.
and this next one is sparingly because
we dont want to bring too much smell to our compost
but beer and wine are also compostable.
Water and aeration are also essential component to our compost.
Those come a bit later whenever we make our piles or have our bins.
Then when you add that water and aeration that gives the bacteria and fungi
ways to use it to breakdown the decomposed matter and make it
into a great compost.
We have gone over items that we can compost.
But what are those things that we should not compost.
Some of these items I am naming can be composted in certain environments
but from the methods I will show you today, they are not good to compost.
This will be things like meat, dairy, oils animal bones, pet feces, greases
anything like that we do not want to throw in our home compost.
Especially if you starting out.
Like I said there are other methods
that support composting some of those things
but for what I will show you today, it will not be the best.
Composting things like that will bring rodents, or pests, unwanted pests
and we will have really bad smells and
it may make decomposition process a bit slower.
Stay away from composting those kinds of materials.
Now that we know what compost is
what we can and can not compost
and the benefits of composting.
Lets now talk about where our composting can be located
and methods of composting.
Where you want your compost to be located is upto you.
I personally have chosen shaded area so that the compost does not dry out.
I also chose areas that, one was close to my back doors for easy throwing out
and couple of areas that are close to the garden for when its time to
add compost to the garden.
So really make sure you are choosing the spot in your yard
or wherever you are composting that is convenient for you,
it does not have too much sun, and is conducive to composting in.
While there are various methods of composting.
The 2 that I am going to show you today are
trenching or burying method and cold or passive composting.
I really like these forms of composting
because they are low maintenance
and easy to maintain.
The trenching or burying method are the ones I have been using
for the past 2 years.
Essentially what you do is you dig a hole
doesnt have to a big one , just big enough
to hold whatever amount of compost you are dumping.
Throw the compost in there.
I usually like to add some type of brown
material to mix in there to offset the smell a little bit
so whether that be leaves or wood chips or cardboard.
Adding them in is going to be a beneficial factor.
Then throw the dirt back on top.
Add a little bit more brown material such as wood chips or cardboard.
and call it a day!
I like this method because the compost is nice and buried
so there is definitely not room for pests to come.
That was the main concern when I was first composting because
I didnt want pests coming so I found
this method to be perfect since compost is hidden
then it was easy for it to 1 break down and
2 not be messed up by any type of rodents or pests.
Trenching or burying is a very effective method. It is simple.
We want to add that water and aeration,
you can water the pile, the area where you buried the compost.
I usually like to bury it little bit shallow
so that when I do want to turn it or mix it
I can easily unlift it from the Earth and mix it a bit.
Burying or trenching method is very effective, really easy
and perfect for composting.
The other method of composting I utilise are
is cold composting or passive composting.
I do that a couple of different ways.
Let me show you!
(music playing)
I have a bin here that I have been adding compost to.
As you can see, there are holes through out the whole bin
to provide aeration, that way I do not have to worry about turning it as much.
If you look inside, we will see I have a mix of my brown material
and buried in there is a lot of nitrogen rich material or green material.
Whenever you have a bin like this, it is always good
to have a good ratio of browns to greens.
Some people like to do 3 part brown, 1 part green.
Some people like to do 2 part brown, 1 part green.
I would suggest doing at least 2 or 3:1.
If you are cold composting, just so that you have that brown material
to neutralise the smell so that there wont be too much of stinky compost.
Here is my cold pile.
This pile is filled with old sunflower stalks at the bottom.
Big shout out to Zero journey for that tip!
When you add those stalks at the bottom
it creates natural aeration.
Then what I have done is added variety of things
from food scraps, to grass clippings
to lots of brown material in there,
again get the brown material to neutralise the smell
but also add in that great ratio of browns to greens.
This is a pile that I just let sit along with my bin.
I turn them occasionally, I water them occasionally.
But I do not do too much to them
to over burden myself
and to still maintain low-maintenance compost style.
Now the holes in my trash can do provide oxygen or aeration.
Sticks and the sunflower stalks underneath the cold pile provide aeration as well.
But it is good to turn the pile occasionally
to get to move everything around a bit
and get more airflow in their as well.
I usually like to turn the bin when I dump
my food scraps and brown materials in there
and the cold pile sometimes may take couple of weeks until I turn that one.
But that is the thing about that kind of composting,
when you turn it and how often is upto you.
The more you turn it, quicker the breakdown
But I also do not put too much pressure upon myself to be turning all the time.
Once in one week or once every two weeks
whenever it is convenient for me.
But it is good to turn it occasionally to get more airflow going in there.
In terms of watering those areas,
having the green material is going to allow
for the compost to remain nice and damp.
But if you do notice that your pile is getting dry,
it is good to water it.
Add some water to it.
I do that with both of these if I think is getting too dry.
That will allow you to keep that good balance of H2O with the aeration,
mixed with your green and brown materials.
Let me show you a cold pile that I started back in April.
That is almost done breaking down and
that I will be using in my fall garden.
This is the result of cold pile that I had started back in April.
I probably turned this pile a total of 4 times and
I also added to it for about a month
so its been breaking down since then.
I am really liking the way it looks,
the soils feels nice and fluffy.
You can still see bits of twigs, and some reminiscence of leaves.
The soil feels really good and it is starting to look really nice.
I am really excited and will be adding this to my fall garden.
Thank you so much for watching.
Whether you start composting today, tomorrow, in 10 years, 5 years
I really hope this video gave you some information on the benefits of it.
How you can get started, which waste is compost and
the ways you can compost your compostable materials.
Thank you again for watching.
This has been Crystal from Crystal's den and garden aka Crystal's den!
I can not wait to talk to you next time!
Happy composting!