Composting

First poppy to bloom in my garden - a Shirley poppy:

I finally put together a long-overdue compost heap for kitchen scraps, dry brush and the like. Here is how a biointensive compost pile works:

First, you loosen the soil below it a foot deep. This allows for proper drainage. Then, cover the soil with a 3"-thick layer of very fibrous carbonaceous materials, like small branches, corn and sunflower stalks, to ensure airflow below the pile. Then start building up your pile in layers, repeated as follows:

1. 1-2" layer of dry vegetation
   
2. 1-2" layer of green vegetation
3. ¼-½" layer of soil

Each layer is thoroughly watered after it is added to the pile. After about three weeks, the pile is turned to make the mixture more homogeneous for a complete breakdown. By following this procedure, the final product should have a carbon-nitrogen ratio of about 30 to 1, which is the ideal ratio.

I learned a bit about composting last year and heard about the 30 to 1 ratio, but misunderstood that the "carbon" in that ratio was equivalent to "dry vegetation", and "nitrogen" was equivalent to "green vegetation" - meaning I should be making a pile with 30 times more dry vegetation than green vegetation. This is not so, and I'm glad HtGMV makes it all very clear.

My next-door neighbour kindly donated his black "earth machine" composter to my garden, so I'm using it to keep things tidy. HtGMV, however, says it's not necessary to contain the compost at all, and a free-standing pile is perfectly fine.