How to Make a Compost Pile

There's no better way to nourish your garden plants than to feed them with homemade compost. Combine those cracked eggshells and coffee grounds with grass clippings and fallen leaves to make nutrient rich compost for the garden.

Things You'll Need

• Cut or broken branches
• Grass clippings, leaves, plant clippings
• Kitchen waste
• Soil
• Black plastic heavy garbage bags or sheeting

Instructions

1. Choose a spot that's a bit out of the way. Compost piles don't tend to be the focal part of the well-groomed yard.

2. Jazz it up if you like. If you want to enclose your pile cheaply and easily, use a length of chicken wire or any pliable fencing to make a circle or go around two trees. Looks add nothing to function, so don't fuss unless you feel like it. If the compost pile is visible from the neighbor's house, add an attractive lattice.

3. Gather your ingredients. Collect vegetable peelings and kitchen scraps for several days. Gather any spent plants pulled from the garden. Collect grass clippings and leaves. You are looking for a mixture of vegetative material.

4. Arrange some branches in a layer on the bottom of the pile to provide a little circulation, which helps the composting process along. Throw the grass clippings, plant and vegetable matter on top. Use healthy, biodegradeable ingredients. Do not add meat or animal waste. Add a thin layer of garden soil to the top. Lightly water the pile to moisten the materials. Cover the pile with the black plastic to speed up the process, but given time, compost does fine on its own.

5. Water the pile and throw a thin layer of soil on it every month or so. Turn it with a pitchfork or a rake occasionally, but try not to disturb the branches underneath. When finished, compost is dark brown and easily crumbled.

6. Spread the mulch around plants and bushes. Turn it into the soil and watch your plants flourish.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't use animal products or waste on your pile. It attracts animals and nasty insects and won't help your plants a bit.

References

• University of Missouri Extension: How to Build a Compost BIn
• Better Homes and Gardens: 6 Easy Steps to a Homemade Compost BIn
• Organic Gardening: Compost Ingredients