Green Homes Composting

Editor’s Note: This is the seventh in a continuing series of articles provided by the Green Omaha Coalition’s Green Neighborhood Council. The Green Omaha Coalition (www.greenomahacoalition.org) is dedicated to promoting a healthy, sustainable community through partnerships, policy and smart solutions. This month’s column was written by Andy Szatko.

Composting. I did this throughout most of my childhood and early teenage years without ever realizing it. To me, I was throwing away scraps and piling our yard waste into one area so we didn’t have to bag and haul it to the curb to be picked up. We put what came out the bottom of the pile into our garden and flowerbeds and didn’t have to spend lots of time and money on fertilizers. This was just how we did things - it wasn’t to make the garbage man’s job easier, to make the landfills less crowded or to be as ‘green’ as possible. It just made sense, because with as little effort as we put into it, we received huge returns.

Simply stated, composting is the decomposition of organic matter. It’s a pretty straightforward process and a project you can undertake to reduce your environmental impact. When starting a composting program of your own, follow some basic steps to help organize yourself and make the most of your resources.

Where you live makes a pretty big impact on the type of composting you choose. There are two types: ‘normal’ composting and vermicomposting.

• ‘Normal’ composting is what most people are familiar with, and includes grass clippings, leaves, food scraps, etc. It’s perfect for those with larger yards and who have yard waste and food scraps to compost.
  
  
• Vermicomposting uses a bin and ‘red worms’ to speed up the decomposition of food scraps. These ‘red worms’ and bins don’t take up a lot of room, so they can be placed almost anywhere and are perfect for those with small homes or apartments.
  

After you decide what type of composting you’re going to use, now it’s time to look at the appropriate structure.

• Heaps are, as the name implies, a large heap of yard waste and scraps. It’s important to realize that this can attract animals and insects if food scraps are not mixed in and covered when placed in the heap. This will help keep pests away and speed up the process.
  

• Hoops are more structured than a heap. You can use fencing or chicken wire or buy a pre-made plastic enclosure. This helps keep your compost pile contained and can be fitted with a door toward the bottom to make the compost easy to harvest. This setup can be easily moved around the yard as needed and can provide a certain level of protection from animals, even though most hoops typically are not animal-proof.
  

• Rollers or tumblers are manufactured containers that help aid in mixing and speeding up the decomposition. These systems are typically more expensive than other composting bins, but they are fairly compact in size, so they would be great in a small yard.
  

• Worm bins are used for vermicomposting. Using a plastic storage bin is great for a worm bin as it will last for a long time and keeps rodents out. With the lid on, it keeps things dark for the worms.
  

Now that you’ve made it this far, what should you put in your new compost pile? There are four major components.

• Green material – This includes new grass clippings, pruned plants and kitchen scraps. These materials are high in nitrogen, so when they start the decomposition process, they release heat, which, in turn, helps keep the process going. Before putting this material in the pile, make sure you get it as chopped up as possible. This will help speed up the process.
  
  
• Brown material – This includes the leaves you rake up in the fall, dried out shrub prunings and weeds. Just as with the green material, chop up the browns as much as possible to help speed things along.
  
• Air – We’ve talked about mixing up our compost piles here, and this is the reason why. The process needs good air flow for oxygen to work its magic on the materials, and the microorganisms that feed on it need air as well.
  
  
• Water – The compost bid shouldn’t be soaking wet, but a damp rag consistency is ideal for the bin.
  

The Green Neighborhood Council will sponsor a workshop on composting Saturday, Oct. 25, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Fontenelle Forest Nature Center in Bellevue. Local composters will share their experiences. Those who attend will be eligible to win a Worm-Factory™ vermicomposting system. The workshop is free and open to the public. To register, R.S.V.P. to Andy Szatko at grlandscaping@hotmail.com.