4. FIND AN APARTMENT YOURSELF USING THESE TECHNIQUES

Now that you've got a place to put your gunk, you're ready to start tossing it in. Here's where it's time to recall that decision you made in step 1: what's your goal again?

Here's the science of it: the compost gods demand a 30-to-1 ratio of "browns" to "greens" for maximum performance. Greens are mostly fresh plant matter or animal by-products that supply nitrogen, protein, and some moisture to get things going. Browns are carbon-rich dry or dead plant materials that add bulk and fluff to the pile so the composting microbes can breathe. As a general rule, just add more dry bulky stuff than fresh or green dense stuff. Most of what you'll put in is plant matter: if it's fresh, it's a green; if it's dead and brown, it's a brown. Here are some examples:

  • Greens: Grass and other plant clippings (the fresher the better), coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable parts, eggshells, tea bags, milk, wool, human hair, fresh manure.

  • Browns: Wood, sticks, sawdust, dead leaves, dry straw, shredded newspaper, dead plants, rice, pine needles.

Some biodegradable things seem like they'd make good compost but should not go into your pile, especially if you're going to use your compost in your garden:

  • Do not add diseased plants and pernicious weeds, or they could spread through your garden.

  • Charcoal, coal ashes, and treated lumber break down slowly (if at all) and will leach chemicals into your compost.

  • Meat, bones, and cheese might seem like a good idea, but they're extremely slow to decompose and tend to attract critters with their stink.

  • Do not poop or pee on your pile. Yes, yes, we know it's natural, but spare your neighbors the vision. Even feces from cats and dogs are bad, as they can carry diseases and cause all kinds of weirdness to the food you might grow from the compost. So no litter-box dumping.

  • Do not through your boyfriend or girlfriend into the pile as a joking display of love. In some countries, that is grounds enough for him/her to kill you.

The best way to get the proper mix of types of ingredients is to stockpile your garbage separately until you can mix then together in larger portions. For example, when you're mowing the lawn a lot in the summertime, keep a pile of dead leaves, sticks, pine cones, shredded newspaper, or straw handy so you can mix them with the grass clippings as you add it to your pile. Or if you don't think you have enough browns, create some by allowing a couple week's worth of grass clippings to dry out in a pile (turning them into browns) before adding the new fresh clippings to the pile. In autumn, try to save your kitchen wastes in a closed container for a few days, and then add them all at once when you're piling in the leaves.

It's also a good idea to chop or shred as much as you can before piling it in. Run over the leaf pile with a lawn mower. Break sticks into smaller pieces. Chop plant stems and vegetable rinds into one-inch segments so they'll mix better and rot faster.