Composting at Home - The Green and Brown Material

Making your own compost is probably the simplest way to ensure high quality compost and save some money. It's really not as complicated as you may think. Once you are ready with your own Composting Tumbler, as explained in my earlier video post, now you can put Green (Nitrigen) and Brown (Carbon) material, which are generated in your own house and garden, in the Compost Tumbler.

Brown Material (Carbon)

Kitchen Scraps

Fruit & Vegetable Scraps

Grass Clippings

Garden Green Plants/Weeds

Flower Cuttings

See Weeds 

Coffee grounds

Tea leaves etc..

Green Material (Nitrogen)

Dry leaves

Eggshells (Nitrogen/carbon)

Straw or hay

Wood Ash / Saw Dust /Pellets (High Carbon level. Be careful not to compost any sawdust or wood that has been “pressure treated” or otherwise treated with a chemical preservative)

Shredded Paper/News Papers (blank colour printed) and not glossy papers

Cardboard without plastic laminated

Corn cobs/stalks (It is slow to decompost)

Green Comfrey leaves (Excellent compost "Activator") etc.

POINTS TO REMEMBER

• Preferably make/get two compost tumblers. After one tumbler is filled with brown/green material, use second one so that first one get cooked as first batch.
• Try to put all the referred items shredded, in small pieces and crushed to decompose fast.
• Sprinkle water occasionally so as to keep the required moist keep the required moist in the compost and not soaked and sodden.Optimum moisture content for compost is 40-60%, damp enough so that a handful feels moist to the touch, but dry enough that a hard squeeze

  

  One month old Batch

  produces no more than a drop or two of liquid
• Always keep the compost tumbler lid closed to retain moisture and heat, which are essentials for composting.
• Rotating/turning the compost tumbler is important so that the required oxygen is added to the compost. Please see the video in my earlier post "Compost Tumbler Making". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TX-jHJ-VhI.
• Keep the compost tumbler in warm place and not

  

  Four days old Batch

  directly under sun light.

CARBON/NITROGEN RATIO

Basically, all organic matter can be divided into carbon-rich (brown stuff) and nitrogen-rich (green stuff) materials. Using the right mixture of brown to green stuff when building a compost pile encourages the pile to heat up and decompose efficiently. Although nearly any combination of organic materials eventually decomposes, for the fastest and most efficient compost pile, strike the correct balance (C/N ratio) between the two types of material — usually 25 to 1 (that is, 25 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen).