{Food & Gardening} Fall Composting Tips

Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower ~ Albert Camus

We compost year round and like gardening composting has a seasonal rhythm.? Fall is the best time to optimize your compost results.? Building a better soil is the single most important thing you can do for your garden each year.

Successful composting is the balance between carbon and nitrogen.? The proper ratio is 2/3 carbon to 1/3 nitrogen.?? For example, carbon matter would be leaves, straw, and dry garden waste, and nitrogen would be kitchen scraps, grass and manure.

Carbon

Fall Leaves

Fall is a great time to gather leaves for composting.? Leaves are rich in carbon. Deciduous leaves are best. You should not use evergreen, conifers, holly, laurel, etc.? Good carbon matter is harder to find in the winter so fall is a great time to stock up.? Bag leaves up and keep them to be added to the compost pile during the winter and in the early spring.

Garden Waste

Keep annuals from tired fall gardening crops. Chop up larger stems from tomatoes and broccoli to help speed up the compost process.? Don?t compost plants that are diseased.? Do not compost a plant?s root mass.? I also would not recommend composting plants that are seeding, or weeds you don?t want in your garden.? One year I composted pumpkins that had most, but not all,?of their seeds removed. I had pumpkin sprouts in my compost for months.

Nitrogen

Grass

Grass clippings are nitrogen rich compost activators.? Add grass in thin layers to prevent matting.? Be sure to add twice the volume of carbon materials to balance the carbon-nitrogen ratio.? Remember to consider the chemicals and pesticides that have been sprayed on lawns before using grass in your vegetable gardening compost.

Kitchen Waste

Kitchen food waste adds the wet moisture and micro-organisms needed to break down the compost. Place an air tight container in your kitchen for?food waste.? It is too hard to run out to the compost bin every time you create kitchen waste.? I use a stainless steel canister with a lid in my kitchen. Vegetables, fruit peelings, tea leaves and coffee grounds are my favorite food waste.? Egg shells need to be crushed before composting.? A ?no cooked foods? rule is a good guideline, especially for beginners.? Vegetables cooked with butter or chicken broth shouldn?t be composted until you are experienced.? Certain foods need high heat to safely break down, and some cooked foods attracted animals and pests.

Leaf Composting

Are you using leaves for composting but still have too many fall leaves? Try Leaf Composting. It generally takes longer (4-6 months) to break down. Leaf compost is low in nutrients so you can?t use it as a traditional fertilizer, but can be used as an organic soil amendment and soil conditioner. Think of those leaves as free nutrients for your trees, shrubs, and plants.? Leaf composting is great for those that are interested in only composting their yard waste.

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This fall bulk up your compost and enjoy some?free natural fertilizer this spring.? If you?ve never composted before, fall is a great time to get started!

Happy Gardening,

Bee

Related posts:

1. {Food and Gardening} 3 Steps to Great Soil
2. {Eco Living}New Ways to Look at Fall Leaves
3. {Food and Gardening} Beeing Nice to Pollinators

Tagged as: compost tips, composting, Fall

This post was written by...

The Wooden Bee ? has written 10 awesome posts on Eco Etsy.

The Wooden Bee is operated by a husband & wife team. Bee & Kyle are true Floridians, with a love for all things natural. Together they are raising a young family, enjoying the environment, and creating eco-friendly home decor and upcycled craft supplies. Follow the wood at www.thewoodenbee.com

Source: http://blog.ecoetsy.com/2012/10/food-gardening-fall-composting-tips/html

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