Organic Gardening And Making Compost
February 8, 2010 Organic Gardening
Making compost for your organic garden is a lot like being a chef at a fine restaurant. Its about the right mix and amounts of ingredients to satisfy the needs of your hungry customers, er..uh..plants. Its all about greens and browns.
“Greens” and “Browns” are what gardeners call the organic materials used in creating compost. The big differences between these two elements are not so much on the color of the organic matter but more so what they’re composed of. Greens are organic materials high in nitrogen or protein and Browns are those materials that have high carbon or carbohydrate contents.
Greens allow the microscopic organism in compost to thrive and multiply. The green components also generate heat in compost piles. While the brown elements contain the energy that most soil organisms need. Because of their high carbon contents, the browns function as a big air filter, absorbing the bad odors that emanates from the pile. The carbons also help keep the nitrogen from escaping and aid in the faster formation of humus from the compost.
Some examples of Greens include animal wastes, grass clippings, and fruit or vegetable skins left over from your kitchen.  If you don’t use harmful chemicals like inorganic fertilizers and pesticides on your grass, then you can use the grass clippings. Meanwhile, newspapers, wood chippings, sawdust, bark mulches and other wood products will fall under the Browns classification.
Ideally, you want a composting ratio of 3:1 which would ensure a successful compost. This means, you will have three parts or the pile made of components high in carbon (Browns) and one part of it made up of nitrogen-rich ingredients (Greens).
The process can take as little as six to eight weeks, or, more usually, it can take a year or more. In general, the more effort you put in, the quicker you will get compost. Make sure to keep it moist but not too wet and every day or so shake it up a bit to aerate it. Keep piling on and you should end up with a dark brown kind of earthy smelling material then you’ve got something that will give you rave reviews from all the restaurant patrons ( plants) in your garden.
