By Kris Wetherbee | March 2008

• Introduction
• Ingredients to success
• Building a pile
• Turning garbage to gold
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Ingredients to success

Like any good recipe, the right ingredients and cooking method are essential to creating a great-tasting meal—whether that meal is for humans or microbes. In the case of compost, the ingredients consist of nitrogen- and carbon-rich organic wastes, soil, water, and air.
Organic wastes comprise a combination of “green” (nitrogen sources) and “brown” (carbon sources) materials. Good green sources include grass clippings, green leaves and plant material, animal or human hair, animal manure and kitchen waste, such as fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds and tea bags. Brown sources can be found in woody materials, such as garden trimmings, dry leaves, pine needles, straw, wood chips and sawdust, shredded paper products and used potting soil.

Do not add animal fat, meat, bones, dyed human hair, colored or glossy paper products, chemically treated wood products, pet or human wastes, noxious weeds or diseased plant parts.

A small amount of garden soil helps introduce the microorganisms needed to break down the organic matter. Adequate moisture and air—introduced via woody material and/or by turning the pile—are essential so the microbes can live and multiply, which makes for better and faster composting.