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Backyard Composting

You are probably already recycling your bottles, cans and newspapers, helping to divert 15-20% of your discards from going to landfills. Recycling your leaves, grass and vegetative food scraps into compost can divert another 25-30% more! With little effort, you can cut in half the amount of waste you produce and make yourself eligible for Glendale's lower, volume-based refuse rates.

Composters are recyclers and millions of recyclers are now adding composting to their recycling activities. Composting is Nature's way of recycling and decomposing organic matter into a dark, rich soil amendment that provides nutrients to plants and reduces their water requirements. If you have a garden, lawn, trees, shrubs, or even planter boxes, you have use for compost.

Define Your Goals
Composting and the New Four R's
Do I Need a Container?
Types of Bins
Greens, Browns, Water & Air
Pitchforks

Precautions
More Precautions
Chipping & Shredding
Compost Happens
2010 Compost Workshop Dates
Questions & Answers

Define Your Goals
It is a good idea to define your personal goals in composting. Are you a Composting Recycler whose purpose in composting is to reduce your personal volume of discards going to landfills, with the added benefit of generating a bit of good compost? Or are you a Composting Connoisseur, whose major objective is to produce loads of rich, finished compost for all of your gardening needs? The Composting Connoisseur will often peruse a low-maintenance, timesaving approach.

Composting and the New Four R's
Composting reduces your generation of trash and allows you to reuse the compost in your yard. The compost recycles nutrients back into the soil and plant life. Increased plant growth helps to restore the health and beauty of our neighborhoods.

Do I Need a Container?
Since compost happens naturally, it can be made in open piles. However, bins keep piles neat and they are better able to retain the necessary heat and moisture to produce compost in months instead of years.

While all bins rely on the availability of air to sustain the compost process, there are wide variations in the amount of air introduced. In sunny Southern California, the more your compost is exposed to air, the more likely the compost is to dry out. Therefore, attention to moisture levels is particularly important in more exposed bins.

In order to make composting as convenient as possible, the City of Glendale Integrated Waste Management Section provides free compost bins and pitchforks to all Glendale households or building owners responsible for yard maintenance who attend a compost workshop.

Refer to the workshop dates BELOW or call (818) 548-3916 for that information.

Two types of bins are available. Each of the two black plastic bins offered (made from recycled materials) have distinctive features, which may make them suitable to your situation.

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Home Composter: This widely used bin is designed for adding material in the top and removing finished compost from two doors at the bottom. Using the pitchfork to mix materials speeds the decomposition process. Air slots allow for the flow of oxygen through the sides. Diameter 30"-33" x 30" high.

Biostack: For those interested in faster composting (and more exercise), the stacking, three tier design of this open-air bin allows for the complete turning and mixing of the compost pile. The entire pile can be turned by forking material from the top tier onto the ground and placing the top tier over the new pile. The same process is used to fork the material from the bottom tiers onto the new pile and placing the tiers, one at a time, over the new pile. While this speeds the decomposing process, raw material should not be added to the pile until the "batch" is complete. Measures 28" sq. x 34" high.

Greens, Browns, Water & Air
The four basic ingredients for making compost are: a balance of green and brown materials, water and air. The recipes below rate materials based on their green (nitrogen) and brown (carbon) levels. High nitrogen materials such as manure, grass and vegetable wastes, are particularly helpful in generating heat. One-quarter to one-half green materials and one-half to three-quarters brown materials will heat up and rapidly decompose.

The microbes in your compost pile work best when materials are kept as moist as a wrung-out sponge and are provided with many air passages. Mixing or aerating is particularly needed for grass clippings that tend to clump together.

Recipe #1
3 parts dry leaves	Browns
1 part fresh garden weeds	Greens
1 part fresh grass clippings	Greens
1 part food scraps	Greens
Recipe #2
3 parts dry leaves	Browns
2 parts fresh grass clippings	Greens

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Pitchforks
In order to help you mix materials in your bin and add necessary oxygen, the City provides a pitchfork with an easy-to-grip handle for all those who need one.

Precautions
Fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and tea bags are ideal for your compost pile. However, small fruit flies are often attracted to them if they are left on top of the pile. This "dump and run" method is discouraged with food scraps. Instead, bury the scraps 6"-12" below the surface and/or cover with leaves, composting materials or garden soil. Leave out meat, dairy products, oily foods, fat or bones to avoid the potential of attracting unwanted animals.

Animal manure from grass eating animals like horses or cows can boost the nitrogen content of your compost. However, avoid adding feces from meat-eating animals, including dogs and cats, due to potential disease pathogens.

More Precautions
Diseased plants, weeds that have gone to seed, and invasive weeds, such as Bermuda grass, and oxalis are best not added to the compost pile. In addition, certain other plants such as eucalyptus, California bay laurel, juniper, acacia, cypress and pine, contain acids which are toxic to compost pile life. Having a few of these leaves in your pile will not harm the quality of your compost, but a significant percentage may be detrimental. Lime can be added to neutralize acid conditions caused by large amounts of such materials as pine needles, oak leaves, citrus and coffee grounds.

Chipping and Shredding
Materials will compost much faster if they are chopped into finer pieces, such as mowed grass. Materials like brush and tree branches with a diameter greater than 1/4 inch will break down very slowly. A way to accelerate the decay process is to use a mower or chipper with larger pieces of yard trimmings. Pruning shears or a hatchet can be used to cut and make nicks in thick, woody materials to increase their surface areas.

Compost Happens
Compost happens naturally, whether it is on the forest floor or in your backyard. The more we understand this dynamic process, the better off our planet and gardens will be. There is no way to fail with composting - it just may take a little longer because, ultimately, compost happens.

2010 Compost Workshop Dates

Backyard Composting Workshops	Worm Composting Workshops
Friday, March 26, 11:30 a.m.	Friday, March 26, 12:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 27, 9:00 a.m.	Saturday, March 27, 10:00 a.m.
Friday, June 18, 11:30 a.m.	Friday, June 18, 12:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 19, 9:00 a.m.	Saturday, June 19, 10:00 a.m.
Friday, September 24, 11:30 a.m.	Friday, September 24, 12:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 25, 9:00 a.m.	Saturday, September 25, 10:00 a.m.

All compost workshops are held at the Integrated Waste Management Section Yard at 548 W. Chevy Chase Drive in Glendale (just west of San Fernando Road).

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Questions & Answers about Composting

What role does the ratio of browns and greens play in composting?
By having a balance of green materials (grass clippings, manure, fresh weeds & food scraps) and brown materials (dry leaves, straw, shredded paper & woody materials), compost piles generate high temperatures, which cause decomposition and create compost.

What if my pile does not heat up?
There could be a shortage of wet green or dry brown materials or lack of moisture. Rebuild the pile with a balance of green/brown and course/firm materials. More heat will also be generated when the pile is close to being full.

What if I have too much yard waste for one bin?
While excess yard trimmings can be placed outside your trash bin for future composting, the Integrated Waste Management Section will sell households a second bin at the city's wholesale cost. This is $39 for a Home Composter and $53 for a Biostack.

What role does moisture content play in composting?
Keeping your pile moist but not soaked will provide a friendly and safe environment for microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) which assist in the process of decomposition.

How long will it take to make compost?
Compost can be ready in one month, or it can take as long as 12-18 months. Factors that speed the process include: frequent turning, blending green and brown materials, adequate moisture and cutting or bruising large matter. When harvesting your compost in a one-bin system, remove the finished product from the bottom of the pile. You may wish to use a two -bin system where new materials are added to a second bin while the entire contents of the first bin are finishing composting.

Do I have to turn my compost?
Turning your pile helps to speed the process, but it is not required.

What does ready-to-use compost look like?
Compost is dark brown or black, crumbly, rich topsoil with a sweet aroma of good earth.

How do I use compost?
You can either leave the compost on the soil surface as a mulch, or work it into the soil. Compost improves soil texture, stimulates healthy plant growth and increases soil's water-holding capacity.

Last modified: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 8:19:10 AM