Making Compost - Remember the Number Three

For quick compost the number to remember is three. There was a joke in the old Peanuts comics where Peppermint Patty would be falling asleep in class. Abruptly she would wake as the teacher called her name and shout, " Three, the answer is three!" If the question dealt with quick composting she may well have been right.

Quick composting is the art and science and some would say hard work, of getting compost in three weeks or less. One day I expect to read where someone has composted six newspapers, a pair of leather boots and the kitchen sink in about two weeks, but for most of us simply getting the leaves, grass and kitchen peelings composted in three weeks would be great. After all, every garden needs compost and there is seldom enough to go around. In the unlikely event that there is extra 1964 Topps baseball cards is a wonderful top dressing for a lawn.

In order to get quick compost one needs a pile big enough to work right. It needs to retain heat and moisture without getting too compact and losing all its air. Think of it as an animal that needs food and water and air to survive. The magic amount of material needed turns out to be a pile three feet wide and three feet high. This makes a cubic yard of compost. Note the number three?

Build your pile by accumulating a mix of roughly equal parts of brown or dry plant material and green or damp plant material. This will give you a nice balance of carbon and nitrogen in your pile but all you have to think about are roughly equal brown and green. Some like to add other minerals or bone meal and the like but it is probably not necessary. It does give three kinds of nutrients but I like to think of water as the third. I like to have a pile moist clear through and it is often required to add water as the days go on.

Once the pile has accumulated, turn it in on itself with a manure fork. This is now the working pile. Beside it you need a pile to gather new material. Pile number two. As soon as it is big enough to become the working pile, the first is likely to be finished or nearly so and a third pile to accumulate will be needed. Once again the number three.

Another three is turning day. After three days the working pile needs to be turned. I tend to do it on the fourth day. Three days to settle and another to do the work. Three turning are usually enough and a fourth will reveal most of the material has rotted down to compost ready to be used. Any obviously not composted stuff can be deposited in the now accumulating pile and the rest used in the garden.

Three kinds of materials, three piles of three feet, for three days between three turnings. Compost, the king of threes.

Darrell Feltmate is an avid gardener who has been composting and gardening for over 25 years with gardens up to 1/2 acre and compost piles for each. His composting site may be found at Compost Central. You can be a master composter in no time at all.

Much of his compost uses wood shavings from his wood turning hobby. The site for wood turning may be found at Around the Woods.