Composting
 
 
Every day, people in the United States throw away kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and fallen leaves and send them to the landfill– permanently. Instead of throwing yard wastes and kitchen scraps out, why not compost them? If done properly, you can make your own compost in about 2 or 3 months without a great deal of hassle.
 
 
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Quick Composting guide:
Composting at home: How you can help save the Earth and your wallet at the same time!
Why Compost?
When you send your kitchen scraps and yard wastes to the landfill, it will decompose into healthy soil, but it will never be used. It will remain mixed with garbage forever underground.
When you compost your wastes, you can take advantage of decomposition and have fresh soil, mulch, and fertilizer every few months! Not only will you be saving landfill space, you’ll be saving money every time you don’t have to buy mulch!
Composting is the process of decomposing organic materials. Compost can be used as fertilizer, mulch, soil, or almost anything you might need around your garden.
What is Compost?
How can the average person compost?
You can put all your grass clippings into your compost bin or pile, but that mass of “greens” will heat up to an extreme 160 degrees and cause a very undesirable odor. To dispose of your grass clippings, try “grasscycling”– leaving your grass clippings spread out on your lawn to decompose. It’s much easier than raking them up and is much better for your lawn.
Grass decomposed rapidly and in a matter of weeks your grass clippings will become integrated into your lawn and act as fertilizer for your grass. It will also increase the soil’s water retention so you don’t have to water as much!
If you are going to grasscycle, make sure to mow often and cut less than 1/3 or the grass growth when mowing. Don’t let large clumps of grass accumulate.
Composting grass clippings– “Grasscycling”
Composting is a natural process- everything you can compost will decompose without human intervention. Therefore, if you were to throw all your yard wastes and kitchen scraps in a bin and leave them there, sooner or later you would have finished compost. However, following a few simple steps that can take as little as 10 minutes a week can rapidly speed up your composting.
There are plenty of expensive tools you can purchase to speed this process, but a compost pile can be simply a pile of decomposing matter in your lawn or behind your home. Because that can be unsightly and disorganized, another cheap way is to make a U-shaped container by stacking bricks or cinder blocks. Small-scale compost piles shouldn’t exceed 5 cubic feet and shouldn’t be smaller than 1 cubic yard.
 
To maximize the speed of your compost, you should have a mix of “browns” and “greens”. Browns are things like leaves, dead plants, straw, shredded paper, shredded twigs, pine needles, and sawdust (from untreated wood). Greens include grass, green weeds, manure, seweed/pond algae, and non-meat and non-dairy kitchen scraps.
 
Ideally, your compost pile should have approximately a 1:3 ratio of greens-to-browns. However, composting is a forgiving process; you needn’t worry too much about the ratio.
 
You want to avoid composting meat scraps and dairy waste. These wastes decompose differently than plant wastes and often attract unwanted pests.
 
To jump-start your compost bin, you might consider adding topsoil or finished compost. You don’t have to worry about attracting bacteria and insects that will decompose your material; they come naturally to your pile without any help.
 
Manure from most herbivores is safe to compost. Do not compost dog or cat manure; they often contain parasites which could remain in your compost and live inside your garden.
 
Do not compost weeds that have gone to seed- they may grow in your compost or infest your garden.
 
Your compost pile is supposed to become warm- if not, try adding more greens. If it exceeds 150 degrees, add browns and water to cool it down.
 
Your compost pile should be about as moist as a wrung-out sponge. If it is too dry, add water. If it is too damp, add browns to soak up the moisture. Too much water will cause the insects and bacteria to drown and emit a foul odor, and too little water will have the same effect.
 
Try to keep lime out of your compost pile. It promotes ammonia odor problems and increases the pH balance of the compost. Compost should have a pH of about 7 (neutral).
 
If you are experiencing animal pest problems, try adding dog hair to your compost pile.
 
From time to time you ought to rotate your compost pile to allow oxygen to enter the center of the pile. This will prevent odors and speed up the composting process. If your pile begins to emit any foul odors, rotate your pile and, if necessary, add water.
In the United States, 251 million tons of garbage is collected and put into landfills every year. That means that each citizen generates approximately 4.6 pounds per day. The local landfill in Upton is estimated to be completely full by about 2028. You can reduce your waste by more than 500 pounds a year  by composting!
Browns:
  1. •Leaves
  2. •Shredded paper
  3. •Chipped wood
  4. •Shredded twigs
  5. •Pine needles
  6. •Sawdust
  7. •(From untreated wood)
Greens:
  1. •Grass clippings
  2. •Green weeds
  3. •Seaweed
  4. •Pond Algae
  5. •Kitchen scraps
  6. •Egg shells (washed)
  7. •Manure
  8. •(Not from dogs or cats)
Composting at Tayamentasachta
Tayamentasachta has a community compost area as well as several large-scale compost piles. Community members are invited to take their leaves from the fall to our compost piles beyond the longhouse. Please, do not bring anything other than leaves, and specifically no grass clippings. Every year, the environmental center invites the community to come and recycle their Christmas trees in the compost pile area.
The community compost area has several compost bins designed for good aeration, pictured above. Students from the middle school frequently fill these bins with weeds collected from Tayamentasachta and the compost made from them is used in the garden behind the bins.
Questions, comments, concerns?
If you have any questions regarding composting, do not hesitate to call the Penn State Cooperative Extension at (717) 263-9226 or E-mail Tayamentasachta at tayamentasachta@greencastle.k12.pa.us.
 
Happy composting!