12 Composting Tips You Should Know

Want to make better and healthier soil for your plants and garden but don’t know how? Lots of people spend large sums of money to buy top-notch soil and state-of-the-art gardening equipment, but that’s not necessary at all! Here are 12 easy composting tips that everyone should know about!

Cardboard

Not only is cardboard a great ingredient for your compost, but it’s also easy to get your hands on! However, avoid using over processed cardboard like cereal boxes. Egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, and other simply cardboard are the best.

Leaves

Now there’s no more need to rake up all those leaves and put them at the curb or drive them to the dump! With a little storage, you can use your fall leaves for most of the year to enrich your compost pile.

 Eggshells

The best thing about composting is how leftover food products can be recycled for a good use, and eggs are no exception! Put eggshells in your compost to give it more nutrients, but make sure to crush them up first to speed the decomposing process along.

Wood ash

Although wood ash can be a great source of nutrients for your compost pile, make sure to use it sparingly. An abundance of wood ash can do more harm than good. Also, make sure the ash is clean and natural; don’t use ash with an excess of foreign or over processed debris in it.

Black Plastic Bin

This may be an obvious one, but black plastic bins are one of the best ways to create an awesome environment for composting. Avoid just dumping your compost material in your garden; black bins help insulate the compost, so make sure to put it in direct sunlight to maximize its effectiveness

 Grass Clippings

This is a great way to get nitrogen into the compost, but make sure to mix it with brown material as well. Also, avoid adding grass clippings that have been treated with herbicides or pesticides, as it can damage the compost.

 Old T-shirts

Here’s some of that brown material we were talking about! Do your best to use 100% cotton, white and non-dyed shirts! They’re the best at keeping your compost clean and natural.

 Moist and Aerated!

Throwing all these things together just isn’t enough. Make sure not to let the compost get too dry by rotating it frequently so oxygen can get everywhere. This speeds up the decomposing process so you can get the best compost as fast as possible.

Do NOT compost fats, pet droppings, or animal products

These may seem like good materials because they’re so natural but, in fact, they do more harm than good. They often attract pests to the garden area and easily spread disease. Play it safe and avoid putting these into your compost.

Newspaper

If you get all your news online, there’s still a use for the piles of newspapers we all seem to mysteriously collect. Shred them up into little strips and add them to your compost pile to get more carbon in it.

 Coffee Grounds

It turns out that humans aren’t the only things that love coffee! Place used coffee grounds in your compost to give it a boost of nitrogen that’ll make your compost dark and rich!

 Seaweed!

If sushi isn’t your thing, seaweed can still be useful to you! Putting it in your compost is a great addition, just make sure to rinse off any salt that may be stuck to it.