One of my chores growing up was taking the compost out to the compost pile. My brother and I would each fight over who did it last, because neither of us wanted to do it. It truly did smell! Come to find out, as an adult, that our family had added stuff to the pile that should NEVER have been added. For one, if you are going to add grass clippings, make sure that any animal feces are cleaned up and put in the garbage. Second, and very important, NEVER PUT ANY ANIMAL PRODUCTS IN THE COMPOST, even if it was the shells of squash and the squash came in contact with butter. Animal products do smell when decomposing.
There are many different types of compost containers (which I recommend getting to keep your pets, kids, and any neighborhood animals from getting into the piles) out there. I have three. Yes three! The first one was made by my husband out of old pallet wood. It is a great container but was very difficult to get apart to assemble the box. We put a screen over the top and have a black yard trash bag. The bag is to keep moisture in. It was not long ago that I found out a little secret that our city waste management companies are keeping from us. For $5 a container, you can get a compost container from the city. They are recycling our old trash cans by cutting off the bottom and drilling holes in the side. They have a lid. One of these costs less than a one pound bag of potting soil.
The reason I have three is so I can fill one and let the decomposition start while I start to fill the second. Once the second pile is full, the first one should be almost complete and ready to use and I start filling the third. This way, if all goes as planned, the first is ready to fill when the second is ready to be emptied and the third is decomposing.
There are two very important things to do while composting in our desert. The first is to make sure that it stays moist. Without the moisture the bacteria that breaks the material down can not survive. The other is to "stir" the pile. It is not a pleasant job but by keeping animal products out of the pile, the smell is almost nonexistence. I have found a couple ways of keeping the moisture in, good old watering it when I water my garden and shredding newspaper into strips and putting it in the pile. This is actually needed to add carbon to the compost. For compost piles need four things to be successful: carbon, nitrogen, water, and oxygen (Desert Gardening For Beginners pg 34). Adding water to the pile, but not saturating it, and stirring it adds oxygen. You can know you are adding carbon by adding "brown" materials like newspaper, sawdust, dry hay and grass. Nitrogen adders are fresh grass clippings and yard waste, fresh hay and kitchen scraps. Now some of you are very lucky and have live stock of some sort. If the animal is a herbivore their waste can be added. Do not add dog, cat, or pet bird waste as it can contain parasites that are harmful to humans. I also like to add coffee grounds, filter and all. You can also get grounds from Starbucks.
To get the compost started, you may want to try asking your local grocery store what they do with their rotten produce. If they just toss it, you may ask if you can take it to compost. Some will let you others will not but it is worth asking.
The compost will also help get our lovely clay soil broken up and easier to plant and manage. It is recycling, reusing, and reducing! It is also great for teaching children how things decompose, the organisms that help break the material down and allows them a place to dig and get dirty!
