craftgrrl | How to Craft a Compost Pile

Recent yardwork projects have left us with an abundance of grass clippings and wood chips. I decided this was an excellent time to build a compost pile. The method I chose involves some crafting, as it creates a whole pile at once rather than a space into which you can throw yard trash over time. I was pleased to find that my skill at building compost piles has not diminished much, although it's been quite a few years since the last time I did it.

Materials

A compost pile requires two main types of materials: "brown" matter (high in carbon) and "green" matter (high in nitrogen). Water, topsoil, and earthworms are also beneficial to add; they all speed the decomposition process. Opinions vary as to what type of worms to add. I've had good results with both redworms and nightcrawlers. I happened to use redworms this time.

BROWN: fallen leaves, wood chips, small twigs, shredded bark, soiled hay/straw, aged manure, corn stalks/cobs, sawdust, paper/cardboard

GREEN: grass clippings, fruit/vegetable scraps, fresh manure (use sparingly), freshly pulled weeds or thinned vegetable plants

Instructions

This is a crafty way to do it. (You can simply throw things down as you accumulate them, but it doesn't decompose as fast.) Building an effective compost pile takes a little skill and knowledge, but it's well worth doing.

1) Trample down the grass in a large circle.

2) Lay down a layer of very small (tinder-sized) twigs. This helps provide a little ventilation at the bottom.

3) Lay down a layer of grass clippings or other "green" matter several inches thick, slightly smaller in circumference than you want the final pile. It will spread slightly.

4) Trample the entire surface of the layer. This makes for a firm, compact pile that will stick together well and hold its heat. Don't worry, there will still be air in it because you'll be using different shapes and kinds of material. If you have children who can follow directions, they make excellent tampers; this is how I learned to build a compost pile.

5) Lay down a layer of wood chips or other "brown" matter about an inch thick.

6) Trample the entire surface of the layer.

7) Lay down a layer of green matter. Make sure it covers all the brown layer below it.

8) Continue alternating layers of green and brown materials, trampling each one. During this stage, the pile will stack straight up. With the green matter covering the brown to the edges, the compost pile will start to resemble a small haystack with only a bit of brown peeking through.

9) When the pile reaches about knee height, add a layer of topsoil about an inch thick. This adds beneficial microbes and probably some worms.

10) Add a layer of green matter and trample it.

11) Stand on the ground and turn your back to the pile. Bend one leg so that the sole of your foot faces the side of the pile. Carefully kick backwards, working your way around the pile, tamping the side firmly. If you've done it right, this will not knock much loose but will solidify the side of the pile so that it will be stable.

12) Use a garden hose to water the pile. Direct the water carefully over the top layer. A healthy compost pile should be about as moist as a damp sponge.

13) Resume layering brown and green materials. During this phase, the pile will begin to narrow slightly. Each successive layer will be slightly smaller than the previous layer. Keep the layers flat.

14) When the compost pile reaches about hip height, it will narrow more rapidly and start taking on a rounded mound shape. Be careful climbing on and off it during this phase. You may want to tamp the last few layers with your hands. Tamp the sides again with your feet or hands.

15) The compost pile will typically cap out between hip and waist height. You'll know it's capping out because stuff will want to slide off the sides. At this point, lay down a layer of green matter and water it again. Now it really looks like a haystack.

16) Lay down a final layer of brown matter -- preferably something that won't blow away, like wood chips. Make it about twice as thick as the interior layers of brown, with a rounded top. This dark, crumbly, porous layer will protect the top of the stack and will absorb both rainwater and the sun's heat.

17) Carefully place about half a bucket of moist topsoil atop the pile, in the center, continuing the mound shape. Add a carton of worms. Sprinkle another half bucket of moist topsoil over the worms and pat gently into place.

Photos

Here is a closeup of the finished compost pile.

Here is a picture of me standing next to the compost pile, for size comparison. You can see that the main body of the pile is about hip-high and the very top is about waist-high.

Links

Here are a few other resources for building your compost heap.

Compost Guide

About Compost Making

Greens and Browns

Our compost pile turned out very well, solid and even. Mostly I did the shaping and tamping, while other people brought the materials. For reference, we used a combination of grass clippings, wood chips, fallen leaves, and topsoil. Before we took our first break, the pile was knee-high, and the order of layers went: twigs, grass, leaves, grass, chips, grass, leaves, grass, chips, grass, dirt, grass, water, leaves, grass, chips.

A well-built compost pile looks reasonably tidy and smells faintly of wet earth. It will decompose into humus in less than a year if you leave it alone. If you put some effort into forking it over once or twice, a compost heap built in spring will usually be finished breaking down by fall. If your craft skills run to construction, you can build a bin to put your compost pile in, or even just a fence to screen it from view. I've seen some amusing things painted on compost containers, like "Worms at Work" complete with little hardhat-wearing worms.