Freecycle Today - Australian Recyclers Community

Composting is recycling. Do you have any compost recipes? Post them here for the community.

Composting Recipe


Composting, the natural breakdown of dead plant and animal tissues into soil, is one of the easiest, most natural processes there is. It has been going on without human help for millions of years.

Backyard composting is a great way to conserve the energy it takes to haul your yard trimmings away. You can then spread the finish product on the soil to make it richer in organic matter.


Although composting requires no container, you can confine it with various materials. The easiest container is made from thirteen feet of two inch by four inch welded wire fence made into a circle.

Hardware stores carry it in various heights. We recommend the 36". The higher the fence you use the more it holds, but the harder it is to turn in your vegetable wastes. When you buy your compost bin wire, have them cut it leaving long wires sticking out on one end. These wires can be bent over to fasten the ends together. To turn the pile unfasten the wire hooks and remove the enclosure. Reform it immediately next to the standing "stack" of compost. Then fork the material from the previous stack over into the empty enclosure. The more often you turn the pile the faster decomposition happens. A hay fork is the easiest tool to turn with.

COMPOST RECIPE

1. 50-70% browns (leaves, hay, dry matter) The "browns" are the carbohydrate or energy foods for the compost organisms. By digesting the browns, the micro-organisms get the energy for their work. The bulk of the browns leave the pile as carbon dioxide breathed out by the “bugs”. Use a mower or shredder, if available, to reduce the particle size. Smaller particles have more surface area and accelerate the rate of composting.

2. 30-50% greens (grass, garbage, manure) The "greens" are the fresh, damp materials that decompose rapidly on their own. They contain nitrogen compounds that are important in allowing the population of micro-organisms to grow. Nitrogen is the key element in protein which is needed to make the tissue for more animals. The greens are also the source of most bad smell related to composting. They should be mixed completely or at least in layers with drier brown materials. Too much green material can collapse in volume and loose its air, and putrefy.

3. 0-5% black (dirt, old compost) The "blacks" are the innoculant, the yeast in the bread, that starts the process. Rich soil or compost has innumerable soil organisms. These bugs provide a "jump start" to a compost pile and can help reduce the time required. While not absolutely necessary, the blacks speed the process.

4. Water (damp sponge consistency) It is very important to have adequate moisture inside the compost pile. The vast majority of problem piles are too dry. Water the pile as you build it, not from the top at the end. Leaves are like shingles and should be stirred and sprayed to insure that they get wet If you do Nothing else, moisten the pile. The pile may also need covering during rainy periods to avoid water logging and losing air.

5. Air (bin with open sides, turning ) Oxygen is required for this "slow fire" we call composting. Without it, biological activity will be severely limited and a shift to putrefying bacteria may occur. This occurs most often when too much fresh green matter or garbage is added and not mixed in well.

Mix ingredients together and turn as you can. If pile is cool, and not yet humus, it needs to be turned.

GRASS CYCLING

If you cut your grass high and often you do not have to bag the clippings. The small tips of grass will fall down and compost by the roots adding fertility to your lawn.

Great composting recipe! Has anyone else got any to add to this. There must be some more composting secrets out there!

Thanks for your input members.

Hi there,
As we live on 21acres were not limited to space so there for we've built a bank of compost bays built out of besser bricks(recycled of course) that are u shaped i guess, 1 for greens that dont get fed to our animals, 1 animal manure, another for their used bedding (straw,sawdust etc) another for bark, sticks etc that either fall of the trees or are left from cutting up fire wood, another for sawdust which is covered with a tarpaulin to keep dry which gets sprinkled over vegie garden beds too keep snail and slugs away (and is good mulch too)and the last one for mixing the greens, manure,straw etc and then left to rot and turn into compost.
Another composting technique that is fairly new to us is compost tea (heard about it before just not done it till recently).
Were lucky enough to of been given a couple of plastic barrelas with screw on lids which weve put up on milk crates. They already had taps on the bottom which was a bonus.
I then put big handfuls of comfrey, yarrow, tansy, peppermint, kelp extract (seasol), a few home grown garlic cloves and a small amount of manure all in the barrels then filled the rest up with water.
Leave it for a few weeks or till it smells rather badly, half fill a watering can or bucket with the mix, top up with water and pour onto your seedlings,vegies, herbs etc.
Wonderful liquid fertilizer you can make yourself.
Please note: DO NOT get it on yourself or your clothes as it stinks very badly and it takes a good scrubin to get the smell off!

Excellent information for composting. Does anyone know what NOT to put in te compost heap? I am not speaking of things like glass or plastic but I have heard there are certain organic matters that should not be put into a compost heap. If anyone has any information on this it would be much appreciated by myself and other members.

Hi webpilot,

We generally put anything that we know the chooks won't eat into the compost, however some professionals recommend omitting some things that might attract vermin and the like.. such as meat. We generally put this kind of thing in anyway, however we do dig a hole in the heap first, put it in, and then make sure it is well covered / stomped down.

Gardening Australia has a good explanation of how to build a productive compost heap, and what type of ingredients you should use, on their website:

"Presenter: Jane Edmanson, 16/12/2006

Jane promotes the benefits of composting

Compost is such a good thing. It's the end product of anything organic breaking down. Use it in the soil, for flowers, vegetables, even mix it with potting mix. For anyone with clay soil, it is fantastic, because it breaks up the clay. In sandy soils it helps promote good drainage. There are endless uses for compost and it's virtually free.

People love making compost, but sometimes they don't get the ingredients quite right. The keys are aeration, so whether you've got a compost heap or a tumbler, it must have air getting into it. And it’s important to get the right things like carbon and nitrogen. Use stuff from the garden. For example put in prunings and lawn mowing clippings. Things like shredded newspaper are also important. And of course add kitchen scraps, for the nitrogenous side of things. But what is equally important, if not more, is the carbon. Add sugarcane. It’s a great mulch for the garden and also has plenty of carbon. Mix these things together for a really good compost.

Composters also like to use a couple of Comfrey leaves. Comfrey is a perennial plant. It’s like a herb and so grow it near your compost and put it in a pot. It produces rather hairy strong-growing leaves. Add a couple of these leaves to the compost, and shred them a little. Yarrow is another compost activator. Add a few leaves to the compost every so often to get things going quickly.

Composting tumblers accelerate the process because these help add air. Every time you pass the tumbler just give it a twist at least three or four times a day. The air helps make that compost break down quickly.

Add anything that was once living and is thus organic to the compost because it will rod down. Tea leaves, coffee grindings, crushed up eggshells. But avoid adding meat scraps and cheese, which will attract vermin, and weed seeds because it's hard to get enough heat to kill them and diseased plants are also not a good idea.

If the compost is too wet, add more dry material high in carbon, such as newspaper, pizza bases, egg cartons, even pea straw. If it is too dry, then add more green material, and that's quite important.

The end product should be rich, friable and browny black. It should be moist but not damp, certainly not dripping water when squeezed and it will certainly have those wonderful creatures, worms …. It really is like black magic in the garden."

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1800318.htm