Four Ways to Compost At BFC Garden

Pit or Trench

• Dig a hole or trench l2"-l4" deep in your garden plot. Throw in your weeds and chopped up plant debris. Sprinkle with manure/bedding. Cover it with loose soil.

  Garbage Bag

• Take a 32-gallon trash bag. Put leaves, grass clippings, garden refuse, weeds, etc. into the bag. Toss in some garden soil and manure to activate it. Open the bag each day to let in some air and shake the bag daily. Add water if it is too dry. Add some dry material if it is too wet. It should feel like a squeezed-out sponge. After the bag is full, dump it in the garden and spread it around to air out for a day. Mix it in your garden soil and start over again.

  Bins or Boxes

• Construct a simple box or wire bin without a bottom. You can even line it with a plastic bag to contain the heat created and to control the amount of moisture. Layer materials starting with something dry and coarse like straw. Next, layer garden waste, manure, leaves, and soil. Continue this process. Keep it moist and aerate it every week or so by lifting up the bin, moving it to another area and refilling it with what you dumped out.

  5-Bin System

• Place all "greens" (weeds & vegetable debris from garden only, coffee grounds, grass clippings) in the holding area marked "greens". Do not put any diseased vegetation in this pile. It should be thrown in the dumpster or burned. Any large pieces of vegetation should be chopped up with a shovel. Place any "browns" (straw, dry leaves, newspaper, peat moss, sawdust, pine needles, ashes-not charcoal) in the holding area marked "browns". The "greens" and "browns" and activators will be layered and turned every few days until it becomes finished compost. This product will be used to improve the soil of the garden at the time it is tilled in the fall.