How to Compost Kitchen Scraps and Yard Waste

Composting is a great way to limit the amount of garbage you throw away in the landfill as well as provide fertile soil to use in gardening and landscape projects. When most people think of composting, they think of smelly garbage sitting in their back yard. But that couldn't be further from the truth. When the proper rules for composting are followed, it can be a pleasant and rewarding project.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Kitchen scraps
• Yard trimmings
• Shovel

1. Choose a composting container or select an area of the yard where you will dump composting materials. Pick a shady part of the yard that has good drainage.

2. Begin placing table scraps and yard trimmings into the pile. Think of the compost waste in two forms: brown and green. You should place three parts of brown material into the compost pile for every one part of green material. This ratio keeps the smell down. Brown material includes leaves, mulch, twigs, and pine straw. Green material includes grass clippings and everything from the kitchen including egg shells.

3. Place new material into the compost pile by digging a hole in the center of the pile and placing the new material in. Using a shovel mix it into the old material.

4. Using a shovel, mix the compost thoroughly once a week even if you have not added any additional material to it.

Tips & Warnings

• If the compost pile starts to smell bad, add more leaves, pine straw or twigs and stop putting in table scraps until the smell recedes.