Best Items to Compost?
Any plant material or kitchen waste can be composted. However, you do not want to want to put any type of meat/fish scraps in your compost pile these items will draw unwanted rodents and produce unpleasant odors. To get your compost pile started you want to first put down branches or some other type of material that will allow air to circulate under the pile. As you add items to your compost pile try to do it in layers ie.: carbon materials like hay, straw, leaves, etc. and then high nitrogen materials like grass clippings, animal manures (not cat, dog, nor human). Also a layer of soil/dirt also helps to introduce the bacteria needed to break the materials down. It will turn to compost faster if you turn the pile every couple of weeks, you can just let it sit and do nothing but it will take much longer to break down. Some people prefer to do what is called sheet composting. In the fall after your garden is finished for the year or if you have an area you are not using, you can dig a trench and put leaves, grass clippings, any other plant material you have, and kitchen scraps in the trench and cover it with dirt. By spring it should have broken down and be ready for your plants and/or seeds.
