As spring starts to bring more sun and rain to the Brazos Valley, gardeners and recyclers alike are preparing to use winter’s dead leaves to create compost for spring’s fresh flowers and beautiful gardens — and you can, too.
Composting is a great recycling method because it benefits the recycler just as much as it benefits the environment, says AgriLife Extension Agent for Horticulture in Brazos County Robert “Skip” Richter.
“[Composting] can help create something that will improve your soil so that your gardens and landscapes are enhanced,” Richter says. “It’s also a way to recycle a part of our waste stream so that we are not paying additionally to have trash hauled away to landfills.”
No matter what kind of soil a person has, composting has benefits to offer homeowners, including healthier and more beautiful landscapes.
“The number one use from a home standpoint is to help improve your soil,” Richter says. “If your soil is sandy, it will help it hold water and nutrients, and if your soil is very clay-like, it helps it form a structure that helps the soil drain well.”
One of the best things about composting is that few resources and preparation are needed to make a well-functioning compost bin. The easiness of composting is also aided by the two different types of composting available: traditional compost, compost mixed in a bin and left to decompose; and vermicompost, composting using worms.
“There’s different ways that we compost: one is the traditional compost bin, but we can also, if you have a garden, mix leaves into the
garden and let them decompose naturally,” Richter says.
In order to do traditional composting, Richter suggests a bin about three to four feet in diameter in order to maintain the right levels of moisture and amount of compost taken care of, though bins can also be plastic, wire, or homemade. Next, gather the waste materials which will go in the compost; Richter recommends things that are higher in nitrogen like grass clippings, banana peels, and potato skins, combined with carbon-based materials like dry leaves or old hay. When both materials mix, the compost gets the right blend so composting happens fast and thoroughly, Richter says.
“There’s nothing magical about it,” Richter says. “The little microbes that do the work don’t care what they’re living in.”
For vermicomposting, the initial set-up and materials needed are a Rubbermaid-type bin about two to three feet long and newspaper. Where vermicomposting diverges from traditional compost is with the addition of moistened, shredded newspaper and red wriggler worms.
“You take newspaper and tear it into strips and then wet it with water and tumble it [loosely] in your hands until it is moist, but not sopping wet,” says Richter. He continues by saying if you add red wriggler worms, and then you bury food scraps in your newspaper, the worms will eat it and create worm castings, which are very rich and are good for your houseplants.
Vermicomposting is a viable alternative for those who don’t have large gardens or landscapes. The materials needed for vermicomposting are more readily available to those in apartments and dorms rather than the large amount of grass clippings and leaves needed for traditional composting. Almost any type of paper product or organic food waste can be used in vermicomposting.
“We did a trial once where we used junk mail like magazines and took scissors and cut them up and we even cut up some old computer CDs and just threw it all in there,” Richter says. “The plastic doesn’t get decomposed but none of it hurt the worms.”
For more information on what materials can be used for composting, how to put together a compost bin, and what to do with the compost after it has been decomposed properly, visit www.aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu.
