Any gardener worth their green thumb knows that composting is key to having a healthy garden. But what many millennials don’t realize is that there’s more to composting than just throwing your scraps in a pile as an effort to recycle at home and letting nature do its thing. There are four main areas that must be “controlled” during the composting process: temperature, aeration, moisture, and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio. Keep reading to learn more about each of these factors and how you can control them to create the perfect compost for your garden.
Feedstock and Nutrient Balance
We all know that the main ingredients of compost are organic material and soil, but there’s more to it than that. The ratio between carbon-heavy materials (like leaves, wood chips, and paper) and nitrogen-rich ingredients (green grass clippings and kitchen scraps) is important for creating the right balance of nutrients in your compost. Too much carbon will make the process move too slowly, while too much nitrogen will cause it to smell bad. You can check the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio in your compost by testing its pH level – an ideal compost should have a pH of around 7.
Particle Size
The size of the particles in your compost also affects its quality. Smaller particles will decompose faster but too small, and the material won’t have enough air to aerate properly. The ideal size for your compost should be about the size of a walnut shell – this ensures that it’s not too big or …