Question: What materials should we add to a compost pile?
Answer: One of the reasons kids like composting is that there really is no one "proper" way to do it: No matter what you do, eventually everything will decompose and turn into compost. However, to speed the process along, you need to manage four ingredients.
1. Carbon (sometimes referred to as "browns"), such as dried leaves, straw, corn stalks, sawdust, woody landscape trimmings, and shredded paper (the edges of sheet-fed computer paper that are torn off work very well).
2. Nitrogen (greens), such as grass clippings, kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, manure, leafy prunings, and "spent" plants from the garden.
3. Water.
4. Oxygen. You can aerate the pile by turning it "inside out" on a regular basis or putting a sinking into it a PVC pipe with holes.
An easy way to start out is to mix the carbons and nitrogens in about a 50/50 ratio. As you construct the pile, sprinkle it with water from your hose. The ingredients should be as wet as a damp sponge. HINT: Don't try to make the pile and then water it all down from the top. The water finds paths to pour out through the bottom without moistening all the materials!
The pile should be at least 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet (1 cubic yard) to have enough mass to insulate and retain heat. As the billions of microorganisms that are decomposing the material die off, they release heat. When the pile cools, they've probably run out of oxygen, which is where frequent turning of the pile comes in. The more turning and reapplying of moisture, the more quickly the materials will decompose, in perhaps two to four months.
On the other hand, you can construct a good pile and then just let it sit. It will decompose, but will take six to eight months.
HINT: the smaller the ingredients, the faster they will decompose, so chop them up whenever possible.
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