Composting

Turn Yard Waste and Food Scraps into Garden Gold

Composting is nature’s way of recycling. By turning food scraps, leaves and yard trimming into nutrient-rich compost, you can improve your soil, reduce waste and create a healthier garden. It’s an easy way to support your landscape while helping protect local waterways.

Why Compost?

Compost improves soil health naturally while reducing the amount of food scraps and yard waste sent to landfills. It can help your plants thrive, reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides, and keep scraps out of kitchen drains where they can contribute to clogs.

Benefits of composting:

Improves soil structure and fertility
Helps soil retain moisture and nutrients
Reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides
Recycles food scraps, leaves and yard waste
Keeps food scraps out of drains and garbage disposals
Reduces landfill waste
Helps prevent runoff, erosion and pollution from reaching local waterways

Finished compost can be added to flower beds, vegetable gardens, container plants, tree beds, potting soil or used as mulch.

What Can You Compost?

Many common yard and kitchen materials can be composted at home. Below are some great additions to include in the compost pile, and some to avoid.

Keeping the right balance of materials helps create healthy compost and prevents odors or pests.

*Backyard composting piles do not generally reach high enough temperatures to fully decompose certified compostable food service ware and bags. These items are designed to be composted at commercial composting facilities.

Include these items:

Nitrogen-Rich Material (“Greens”)
Food and vegetable scraps
Most grass clippings and yard trim
Coffee grounds and paper filters
Paper tea bags (no staples)
Eggshells (crushed)
Carbon-Rich Materials (“Browns”)
Dry leaves
Plant stalks and twigs
Shredded paper (non-glossy, not colored) and shredded brown bags
Shredded cardboard (no wax coating, tape, or glue)
Untreated wood chips

Avoid adding:

Meat, fish and bones
Cheese and dairy products
Pet waste and cat litter
Produce stickers
Fats, oils and grease
Glossy paper
Treated or painted wood
Aggressive weeds/weeds with seeds
Diseased and pest-infested plants
Compostable food service ware and compostable bags*
Cooked food (small amounts are fine)
Herbicide treated plants
Dryer lint

Composting Made Simple

Successful composting requires four basic ingredients: carbon-rich materials (“browns”), nitrogen-rich material (“greens”), water and air.

For best results:

Mix leaves, twigs and other browns with grass clippings and food scraps
Keep the pile moist, but not soggy
Turn the pile regularly to add oxygen
Choose a convenient location with good drainage
Use a compost bin, tumbler or backyard pile

With a little time and attention, your compost can become a valuable resource for your lawn and garden.

Ready to Start Composting?

For greens, collect and store your fruit and vegetable scraps in a closed container on your kitchen counter, under your sink, or in your fridge or freezer. For browns, set aside an area outside to store your steady supply of leaves, twigs, or other carbon-rich material; these will be mixed with your food scraps.
Choose a space in your yard for your compost pile that is easily accessible year-round and has good drainage. Avoid placing it right up against a fence and ensure there is a water source nearby. Your compost pile will break down in sun OR shade. Next, choose a type of bin for your pile. Bins can be constructed from materials such as wire, wood, and cinder blocks. They can also be enclosed in barrels and tumblers.
Try to chop and break your greens and browns up into smaller pieces (e.g., corn cobs, broccoli stalks, and other tough food scraps). Doing so will help the materials in the pile break down faster.
Start your pile with a four- to six-inch layer of bulky browns such as twigs and wood chips. This layer will absorb extra liquids, elevate your pile and allow air to circulate at the base of the pile. Then layer your greens and browns like lasagna. If needed, add a little water to dampen the pile.

Having the right proportions of ingredients in your compost pile will provide the composting microorganisms the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and moisture they need to break down the material into finished compost. When adding browns and greens to your pile, add at least two to three times the volume of browns (such as dry leaves) to the volume of greens (such as food scraps). Always ensure your food scraps are covered by four to eight inches of dry leaves or other browns.

Air and water are the other key ingredients in your pile. To ensure air circulation, add enough browns and turn your compost occasionally. To maintain moisture in your pile, ensure your combined materials have the consistency of a wrung-out sponge.
As the materials in your compost pile begin to decompose, the temperature of the pile will initially begin to rise, especially in the center. A backyard pile, if well maintained, can reach temperatures of 130° to 160° F. High temperatures help reduce the presence of pathogens and weed seeds.

Turning and mixing your pile from time to time will help speed up the decomposition process and aerate the pile. Use a garden fork to turn the outside of the pile inward.

Monitor your pile for moisture, odor, and temperature and make adjustments as needed.
- If the pile is too dry, activity in the pile will slow or cease. Moisten the pile and turn it.
- If the pile has a bad odor, it may be too wet or need more air circulation. Add more browns/dry material to the pile and turn the pile.
- If the pile is not heating up, mix in greens and turn the pile.
When your compost pile is no longer heating up after mixing, and when there are no visible food scraps, allow your pile to cure, or finish, for at least four weeks. You can relocate the oldest compost at the bottom of the pile to a separate area to cure or stop adding materials to your pile. After curing, your pile will have shrunk to about one-third of its original size.

Compost in a well-maintained pile will be finished and ready for use in about three to five months. Left untended, a pile may take a year to decompose. The compost will look dark, loose, and crumbly and smell like fresh soil. Most, if not all, of the materials that went into the compost pile should be decomposed.

Screen or sift your finished compost to filter out materials that didn’t break down—twigs, fruit pits, eggshells, and items like produce stickers and plastic. (You can make a homemade screener out of ¼ inch hardware cloth.) Pits, eggshells, etc. that you sifted out can be added back into the active pile or to a new pile.