How to Turn Your Fallen Leaves into Compost
One of the many options for managing your fall leaves without sending them to the landfill is to compost them. Compost is a rich, dark, earthy-smelling soil that's turned into the ground to improve soil health. It's nature’s way of recycling organic material into beneficial soil amendments. When composting, we're just accelerating the natural decomposition of organic materials.
There are many simple, effective ways to create compost, but they follow similar principles. The first rule of thumb is to create a 3’ x 3’ space, which provides the perfect environment to allow the organic material to heat up and decompose into great organic matter for your garden bed.
There are four basic ingredients in a compost pile: nitrogen, carbon, water, and air, each of which is needed in the right quantities.
Nitrogen sources (known as “greens”) include grass clippings, fresh leaves or twigs, vegetable and fruit trimmings, even coffee grounds. These all have a higher moisture content. Add them to your pile first, on top of an existing layer of brown organic matter.
Carbon sources are “brown" materials that have released their nitrogen and are usually dry and brittle. Dry leaves (like the ones covering your yard!) and grasses, wood chips, shredded newspaper, napkins, and cardboard are all good carbon-rich examples. Add these on top of your greens. A general guideline is to use 2-3 parts browns to 1 part greens.
A little moisture is ideal. If you give your compost a squeeze, a few drops of water should appear between your knuckles like a wrung-out sponge. This means the density of your compost pile is allowing air to move around your materials and enabling the composting microbes to more easily access to what they need to thrive.
A carefully built pile will start to heat up within a week. Keep it cooking by watering and stirring it occasionally. Creating compost can be a lot of work, but with a few minutes a day and the right ingredients, you can have finished compost in a few weeks, depending on weather conditions. Then, come spring, you’ll have a treat ready for your new plants!