Right now, many of us are getting our garden beds ready for the gardening season or if you’re in a warmer climate, your beds may need a refresh before moving on to your next round of planting. In either case, you know I’m going to recommend the use of compost. Not only is compost great at adding nutrients and increasing the soil organic matter, but it’s also a great way to feed the microbiota in the soil that make those nutrients available to your plants and it can act as a fabulous mulch for keeping weeds out. I’ve had a compost pile ever since I started my first garden 18-plus years ago. I haven’t always been super successful with getting the piles to actually compost because, at first, I was just tossing stuff into the pile and letting it sit and do its thing without giving it any thought or effort. Yes, eventually that stuff would break down into something useable but once I paid just a little bit of attention to what I was doing with it, a little effort went a long way toward making the process more efficient and much more beneficial to my garden. On today’s episode I’m going to walk you through the bare minimum of what you need to make a successful compost pile and then the little extra things that can catapult your efforts into compost stardom. We’ll talk the ingredients, ratios, air, moisture, and dos and don’ts of composting. Let’s dig in!

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Resources:

University of Florida Extension: Composting Guide

Composting Dairy Products

Turning Compost by Temperature

Composting to Kill Weed Seeds

EPA: Composting at Home