Step 1: Locate the spot. Mine is on the far side of the garden in the back corner.
Step 2: Dig up sod, turn it over and then wet the area slightly. (*Compost Starter Tonic)
Step 3: Build a wire perimeter out of chicken wire or hardware cloth to keep pile shape. I have used old skids for this in the beginning because I didn’t have money for anything else.
Step 4: Raise pile up off of the ground on a screen for better circulation. Again, I used a skid in an open end/open top container.
Step 5: Build the bottom layer of the pile out of sod or grass clippings. Make about 10”
Step 6: On sod;/grass clippings place a layer of old newspapers and wet them down thoroughly.
Step 7: Add a 2-foot-thick layer of well-rotted manure or other organic waste on papers.
Step 8: Add 4” or more grass clippings or any plant waste. (*Compost Starter Tonic)
Step 9: Add more wet newspapers
Step 10: Sprinkle layer of topsoil. Keep the pile around 4 feet high so that it is easier to manage.
*Compost Starter Tonic
To be added after grass clippings layer:
- ¼ cup beer
- ¼ cup Ammonia
- 1 gallon of water
The following items can be added to compost:
- Leaves
- Grass clippings
- Young weeds (these are weeds that have not gone to seed yet)
- Plant clippings
- Vegetable peeling
- Egg shells
- Coffee grounds
- Used tea leaves, soil
- Manure (from cows, horses, sheep, pigs or chickens)
- Rock powders (rock phosphate and granite dust, bone meal)
- Seaweed
- Fish scraps
- Hay
Do NOT Compost:
- Oils
- Fats
- Meat
- Pet manures
- Diseased or insect infested plants
- Weeds that have gone to seed
- Poison ivy
- Caster bean
- Any poisonous plants