Fall A Perfect Time To Start A Compost Heap

Every gardener should have a compost heap. It provides a wonderful organic soil conditioner for your garden and costs nothing once you’ve built the bin to contain it.

Compost can be used as a nutrient-rich top dressing or as a soil amendment, turned right into cultivated beds. Depending on its source, compost is mildly to extremely fertile, and it even helps protect plants against disease.

Composting is a way of giving back to the earth what we’ve taken from it. It’s also an excellent form of recycling. More than half the trash produced in many households could be put to use in the compost heap.

If you don’t already have a compost pile, now is the perfect time to begin one. At the end of the summer and in autumn most yards yield enough leaves, cut grass, garden trimmings and spent plants to get a good start on a healthy compost heap.

Here are some guidelines for composting:

What to compost

To make compost, you need carbon-rich - or “brown” - materials and nitrogen-rich - or “green” - materials. An equal mix of the two gives the best results.

Both brown and green materials are generated daily in most households. (Large kitchen scraps or gardening debris should be cut into small pieces before being added to the heap.)

Don’t add a disproportionate amount of any one compost ingredient, particularly the woody ones, such as sawdust and wood chips. These will slow down decomposition.

Here’s a list of brown and green materials, as well as compost poisons - things that should never make it into the heap.

Clip this and post it as a quick reference guide for everyone in the house.

Brown materials: Fallen leaves, pine needles, sawdust, shredded newspaper, straw, small twigs and branches, wood chips and shavings.

Green materials: grass clippings (free of pesticides), fruit and vegetable scraps, house-plant trimmings, soft prunings from the garden, eggshells, farm-animal manure, spent flowers and plants, coffee grounds

Compost poisons: animal products (meat, bones, fats and dairy products), anything that has been treated with pesticides or herbicides, stones, metal, cardboard, glass, diseased plants, pieces of eucalyptus, red cedar or black walnut trees; large branches or large wood chips.

Building a bin

First, choose a good location. Look for a partially shady spot on level ground near a water source. A compost heap needs to be at least 3 feet in all dimensions; anything smaller won’t be able to maintain the necessary heat.

Compost bins are available in different designs, sizes and prices at garden centers, but it’s not hard to make your own. Here’s one easy way to make a 4-by-4-foot bin:

Sink four 5-foot-tall posts into the ground to form a 4-foot square. Wrap 4-foot-wide heavy-gauge wire fencing around three of the sides (you’ll need a piece 12 feet long), and attach it to the posts with a hammer and U-nails. One side will remain open.

How to compost

Begin with a 6- to 12-inch layer of brown material, then add a comparable layer of green material. Keep layering until the pile is at least 3 feet high and 3 feet wide.

Add water to dampen the mixture; compost should be kept as moist as a wrung-out sponge.

Turn the pile with a garden fork, mixing the greens and the browns together. This aerates the mixture, which helps the materials decompose.

Continually add green and brown materials in equal parts and turn the compost with each new addition. As the materials decompose, the temperature inside the compost heap will rise dramatically - to 120 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. You may see steam rising.

In most areas, rainfall will provide as much water as you need, but you should add more if the compost becomes too dry. And if it’s too wet, add dry materials, such as leaves or shredded newspaper.

If the compost develops an unpleasant odor, which can happen if there’s too much green material, sprinkle granular lime (available at garden centers) over the top and turn thoroughly.

To protect the compost from animals, cover it with burlap or a few shovelfuls of soil or brown leaves. Avoid leaving kitchen scraps on top.

Continue adding to the heap even during winter’s coldest months. In three to 12 months, you’ll have finished, fully decomposed compost; it will be nutrient-rich and deep, dark brown.

To use the compost, you’ll need to sift out large, undecomposed debris. This can be done with a hay fork.

Take compost from the bottom of the pile as you need it, or next fall, spread the entire heap over the garden (to enrich the soil over the winter) and start the process once again.

MEMO: Questions should be addressed to Martha Stewart, care of The New York Times Syndication Sales Corp., 122 E. 42nd St., New York, NY 10168. Questions may also be sent to Stewart by electronic mail. Her address is: mstewart@msl.timeinc.com.

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