How to Compost Using Sawdust
Plants need energy from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air and nutrients from water and soil to make them grow. When plants die they decay or rot by means of bacteria, insects, fungi and worms. This organic matter becomes humus or compost and the nutrients go back into the soil. Growth and decay is the earth's natural way of composting. A gardener can recycle wastes such as leaves, grass, cuttings, some food leftovers and wood products like sawdust to make compost, then use the beneficial organisms it contains to restore the nutritive balance of overused, and undernourished, soil. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Plastic bucket
- Food scraps
- Gloves
- Rake
- Wheelbarrow
- Grass cuttings
- Leaves
- Hedge clippings
- Pruning shears
- Newspaper
- Cardboard
- Shredded mail
- Sawdust
- Chicken manure
- Hay
- Shovel
- Pitchfork
- Water hose
Instructions
-
Start Composting
-
1
Place a plastic bucket under you kitchen sink to catch the daily food scraps, coffee grounds, filters and tea bags.
-
2
Select a 3-foot by 5-foot shaded area for your compost heap.
-
-
3
Put on your gloves and rake together grass cuttings and leaves. Pick them up and put them in the wheelbarrow.
-
4
Trim your hedges and use the pruning shears to cut the woody stems into small pieces. Add these to your wheelbarrow.
-
5
Bring out newspaper and cardboard and tear them into strips, and add mail you've passed through a shredder.
-
6
Gather sawdust, chicken manure and hay. Begin adding ingredients to the compost heap with a shovel or pitchfork. Use sawdust in thin layers throughout.
-
7
Attach the water hose to a spigot and soak the compost pile until you see water start to seep from the bottom. Let it cook for a week or two.
The cooking process
-
8
Add new layers of sawdust, grass cuttings and kitchen scraps.
-
9
Using the pitchfork, shovel and rake, turn the pile so the outside is now on the inside.
-
10
Dampen any dry areas. Let the pile heat up again.
-
11
Check for signs of soil after three months. The compost is ready to use in your garden a month or two after you noticed an earthy material.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Place your compost pile near your garden and a water spigot.
A 'hot' pile decomposes quickly and will not produce a bad odor.
Start a new pile while the first heap is working.
Add straw and fine sticks to oxygenate the heap.
Compost oak, laurel, holly, rose, rhododendron, and pine separately. These take much longer to break down.
Cover the compost pile with heavy black plastic if it rains heavily, and during the winter months.
Do not add meat, dairy, cooked products, bones, or fat.
Do not compost human, dog, or cat waste.
Avoid plants infected with Club Root or White Rot.
Wood treated with chemicals should not be composted.
Discard grease with your garbage.
Make sure water doesn't collect and stand.
Avoid Walnut leaves as these contain compounds that inhibit the growth of some plants.
