===== Making compost =====

Like a lot of topics in gardening different gardeners have very different ways of composting organic material.

I recommend Steve Solomon's book //**Organic Gardener's Composting**// (see [[:garden:resources:ebooks|Steve's composting book]]) for proven techniques for making good compost. I need to get the best compost in the shortest time.

==== Two classes of compost ====

{{ :garden:cultivate:compost:img_1021.jpg?260|}}I keep two classes of compost bin/piles:

  * Quality: selected green (fresh) and brown (dry) matter that decomposes in less than one year
  * Slow: (whatever takes longer than a year to decompose) 

The quality compost I cure in bins. The slow I keep in piles covered with tarps. This year I have enough of each so that when I apply the quality compost to my garden I take some year-old slow compost and mix it with fresh greens and browns from the garden.

I used to call this junk compost but my experience composting corn stalks, leaves and husks has shown that if I turn the pile and keep a good mixture of browns and greens, the within a year the "slow" compost can be completely decomposed.

==== A short course ====

Briefly, my procedure for good compost is to:
  - Chop everything into small pieces
  - Combine green and brown material in layers
  - Ensure just enough (and not too much) moisture
  - Regularly turn the compost
  - Check and adjust moisture content regularly
  - Turn the compost (yes, again)

<note>A master gardener would say chop everything into 1 inch pieces or smaller. I believe this is so that the smaller pieces will decompose more quickly.</note>

<note tip>I doubt I manage to dice things really finely, but a very good reason to chop compostable material into small pieces is that this makes it possible to turn the compost from time to time. If I toss vines into the pile without dicing they make for a stringy mass that cannot be turned easily with a fork. So, chop, chop!</note>

Good compost requires attention and care, just as growing vegetables does. The process is slower but important for having rich, cured humus for the next season.

{{ :garden:cultivate:compost:img_1057wiki.jpg?260|}}The devil is in the details and good compost takes as much time as a stand of healthy veggies. In my situations it has taken years to develop the techniques of making good compost (but I was looking for a quick and easy way). Thankfully, at least once or twice I have succeeded. Here's what (pretty) good compost looks like, with apologies to the worms whom I disturbed in relocating the compost.

==== Compost booster ====

I use this [[https://www.hunker.com/12433295/compost-accelerator-recipe|compost accelerator recipe]] to accelerate decomposition of a compost pile when there are too many slow-decomposing plants in it.

==== Composting rules ====

Things I **don't do** based on experience and the fact that I want good, cured compost, that doesn't pass on weeds to the next patch, and I want it within 12 months:
  - No wood products (twigs, etc.) except leaves, and these only sparingly (I have only maple leaves and they take 18 months to decompose)
  - No perennial weeds, such as perslane or sheep sorrel
  - No rhizomatious weeds (some shoots and rhizomes appear to survive composting)
  - No weeds with mature seed heads
  - No tomato or potato clippings (these can perpetuate bad fungi)
  - No forgetting it's cooking! I maintain a balance of moisture for the duration.