I recently arrived back from a delightful visit to my family that lives in Aiken, SC. I will post about this visit later. On the was back from the trip I was reading up on composting and plant fertilization in a book called Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades which I highly recommend to, well, anyone who is trying to grow vegetables west of the Cascades.

I have never tried to compost anything because I have heard bad stories about compost and bug problems and mold and other such problems. I do utilize the yard waste bin for some compostable materials like coffee grounds, but had only toyed with idea of actually having my own little heap decomposing in my back yard. The other day I had a friend over for lunch and she saved all the biodegradable waste from the fruit and asked if I composted. “Um….” I felt sheepish “I don’t know how.” She proceeded to tell me that all you need to do is to dig a hole throw the waste in it and cover it up with dirt. This felt easy. I started a little compost heap.

Unfortunately, like everything else that could possibly be edible in my yard the little heap of vegetable trimmings and fruit peals has been eaten (or so I assume as it is no longer there at all). But, while reading about composting I found some useful tips which I will now share with you:

1) The ideal carbon/nitrogen ratio in a heap should be 12:1 or less. I didn’t even know there needed to be a ratio.

2) compost heaps should be watered and turned. Um water my decomposing pile of waste? Yes.

3) It is beneficial to purchase certain ingredients to place in your pile for ideal compost for use in gardens. These are things like coffee grounds and used seed (like cottonseed after the oil has been removed)