The Compost Conversation
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The Compost Conversation – with Joel Meadows
Getting the carbon/nitrogen balance right Most of us know we need a blend of carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich ingredients to make a good compost mix. The perfect compost ratio recommended by most compost sources is approx 30-parts carbon to one-part nitrogen. But what is a carbon nitrogen ratio? All living things have both carbon and nitrogen…
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The Compost Conversation – with Mikaela Beckley
Moisture monitoring: Give your compost a squeeze This week we’ll look at how to tell if your compost is wet enough, but first, let’s just remind ourselves why the correct moisture content is so important in our compost. The beneficial microbes that do the hard work in our piles need a thin layer of moisture…
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The Compost Conversation – with Joel Meadows
Pre-soaking for happy summer compost Now that the weather is getting warmer, our compost piles can start to suffer from drying out too much. Letting our compost piles dry out will force our compost microbes to go into a dormant mode, protecting themselves from the dry with an impervious layer and taking a break from…
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The Compost Conversation – with Mikaela Beckley
Layer your compost like a lasagne! Regardless of whether you are cold composting, hot composting, or somewhere in between, paying attention to your layering technique will help your compost microbes stay alive, and thrive! Picture a delicious piece of lasagne. Each layer spread evenly across the surface, thin enough for just a hint of the…
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The Compost Conversation – with Joel Meadows
A tree stole my compost! Does your compost pile never seem to fill up, always seems dry and powdery and no matter how many kitchen scraps and garden prunings you put in it, never seems to be rich or crumbly? It could be that a tree is stealing your compost. Now, don’t write me off…
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The Compost Conversation – with Joel Meadows
Is your cool compost… cool?Most backyard compost piles are cool, which means they don’t achieve consistent temperatures over 55 degrees Celsius for three days or more. They can still make good compost if we follow a few simple rules. The lower temperatures of cool compost mean we can’t trust the heat of our pile to…
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The Compost Conversation – with Joel Meadows
The great turning There is both fear and mystique surrounding the turning of compost piles. Many people never turn their compost, but there are benefits to turning that are worth the effort. Turning our compost gives three distinct benefits; aerating the whole pile, blending the different layers of ingredients and seeing what is happening right…
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The Compost Conversation – with Joel Meadows
Carbon cap and store There is a little trick you can do every time you add ingredients to your compost pile that can really improve how well it works. Cap your compost with carbon. Now, this might sound like something from the Kyoto Protocol that governments couldn’t get international agreement on, but it is much…
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The Compost Conversation – with Joel meadows
The good, the bad and the beautiful In my work as a compost educator and volunteer on the YIMBY* team, I have stuck my nose into quite a few compost piles, and I can tell you that not all compost piles smell the same. So why is it that some compost piles stink to high…