What To Put In It
As your compost begins to mature, continue to add more green and brown items. Fruit and vegetable scraps should be placed underneath 10 inches of compost material.
The compost is ready for your garden and flowers when the bottom turns a rich, dark color. Depending on what you put in your compost this can take anywhere from 2 months to 2 years.
One great item to add to your compost is animal manure (horse, cow or chicken). You can even add your cardboard rolls, dryer lint, clean paper, shredded newspaper and fireplace ashes.
From the yard, add your grass clippings, hay, straw, leaves, sawdust, wood chips and other trimmings. The compost is even a great place for those unwanted houseplants plus you can put your hair and your pet’s hair in there.
Not everything though should go into a compost bin, though. Here's a list of items you will want to AVOID. Black walnut leaves and branches release substance that could be harmful to your plants. Coal and charcoal ash also contain substances that are harmful to your plants.
Leave these items out if you don't want to attract rodents and flies and have your backyard smelling like a garbage dump: cooked vegetables, dairy products, meat and fish scraps, bones, bread, grease, lard, oils and fats.
Avoid insect or diseased plants. You don't want to recycle these back into your garden or plants. Don't add your dog or cat feces and kitty litter which can contain parasites, bacteria and viruses harmful to humans.
Another item to leave out is your yard waste that is treated with chemical pesticides. This can affect and kill the beneficial composting organisms in your bin.
You now have a valuable resource in your yard that you can add to your garden, flowers, roses and plants to help them grow better and healthier. By simply composting, you can reduce the amount of yard waste by 50 to 75 percent that is going to the landfill.
