The Essentials of Composting
Organic Materials
These are your yard clippings and the food that the decomposer feeds on, turning them into compost. The materials that are suitable for composting are either carbon materials (brown and dry) or nitrogen materials (green and moist).
include fallen leaves, sawdust, straw, and dry grass clippings.
include freshly cut green grass and fruit and vegetable scraps.
Just add water and stir
Composting is a very basic process. You can simply put yard clippings into a pile and let nature do the rest in its own time. Compost will happen; yet it will happen very slowly. You can help it along by providing a balanced diet and an enriched environment for the organisms that do the work of composting. Decomposer organisms are made up of both microorganisms, such as bacteria, and macroorganisms, such as worms. Supplying them with their basic needs, food, water, and air, will increase the efficiency of their compost efforts.
Moisture
Decomposer organisms also need water to compost efficiently. The compost pile should be watered periodically, depending upon temperatures and rainfall. A moisture content of 40% is desired. This is the moisture content of a damp sponge.
Air
Like most living creatures, the decomposer organisms need oxygen to survive. A properly aerated (aerobic) pile will compost faster and more thoroughly than an oxygen-starved (anaerobic) pile. The pile is aerated when you turn and mix the material. The pile should be turned every one to two weeks to maintain proper aeration.
Surface Area
It is best to have your materials properly shredded before putting them into a compost pile. Doing so will increase the surface area that the decomposer organisms have to feed upon, which makes the organisms more efficient and able to create compost faster. Always mow or chop up material before it is added to the compost pile. Proper particle size reduction can be explained by an analogy using a block of ice. A block of ice will melt very slowly. Crush that same amount of ice, and it will melt much more quickly. The same principle works for a compost pile. A large piece of organic material will decompose slowly, taking longer to compost. That same item, when chopped up, will decompose much more quickly.