Vegetable Gardening (100 page)
Here are a few additional ways to ensure success in your compost pile:
Moisten each layer of your compost pile lightly with a watering can as you build it.
However, don't let the pile get soggy.
Cover each layer with a few inches of garden soil.
The soil covers any material in the nitrogen layer that may attract flies, such as household garbage.
Add a dusting of ground limestone or wood ashes on the carbon layer.
This dusting keeps the compost's pH around the 6 to 7 mark that your plants like.
Avoiding materials that don't belong in a compost pile
A well-made pile heats up enough to kill off many insects and disease organisms, but the heating isn't uniform enough to be relied on to kill everything that you want it to. So don't add the following materials to your pile:
Diseased or infected plant material:
Disease organisms may survive the composting process and stick around to reinfect your plants when you apply the finished compost.
Weeds that have gone to seed:
The heat may not be high enough to kill the weed seeds. And then those weeds will show up in your garden.
Pieces of aggressive weeds like quack grass or Bermuda grass:
Even a small piece of a root can produce a new plant.
Grass clippings from lawns treated with herbicides:
Some herbicides may not break down during the composting process.
Meat scraps and fats:
They break down slowly and may attract animals to the pile.
Dog or cat feces:
They may carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans.
Moistening and turning your compost pile
After you build your compost pile, the decay process begins, causing the center of the pile to heat up. Proper moisture helps decay organisms to work properly. Following are some ways to keep your compost pile moist:
Water the pile as needed. To determine whether you need to water, dig about 1 foot into the pile and see if it's moist.
Be careful not to overwater your pile. It's easy to do. The water seeps in and tends not to evaporate readily, so people think the pile is dry when it's not.