Composting - Debt Free Spending

Welcome to our Backyard Homesteading Series!

Composting is one of the quickest ways to get started on your backyard homestead. First, you will have to decide on a location for your compost pile. Also, you will have to decide if you want it enclosed or free standing. Most people want their compost pile contained in some sort of enclosure. As you can see we simply used posts and chicken wire. This is probably the most inexpensive way to begin your composting, and our neighbors used the same materials as well. In our own backyard, my husband used wood pallets for ours, so it’s a little different than this style. It was also important that ours had a door to keep our our three dogs!

Once you’ve established how you will contain your compost pile, the first step is to layer it with twigs and/or hay to aerate the bottom and help with drainage.
Begin adding grass clippings, leaves, and table scraps.
Turn the pile every 2-3 weeks. We just use a shovel and/or pitch fork to turn our compost. Composting requires oxygen, and aerating the pile by turning allows the contents to be exposed to oxygen.
Water your compost pile. If you do not get enough rain, you will need to add water to make it just damp enough to feel like a wet sponge.
Heat also helps to keep the process moving, and if you live in a cooler area, or start your compost pile in colder weather, you will need to add items higher in nitrogen.
Manure. Adding manure is another option. However, all feces contains bacteria, and we just really didn’t want to deal with this in our pile, so we limit ours to brown, green, and table by products. Also, do NOT include pet waste!

This is just a guide to get you started, so check out these resources below to help get you started as well!