Composting 101

Getting Started:

Some tips to consider:

-Avoid composting your "MOM or DAD" - Meat products (including bones), Oil, Milk products, Diseased plants, Animal dropping, Dangerous toxins (e.g., treated wood). 

-You don't HAVE to water your compost, it will just decompose quicker if you do. If you decide to water it, just add enough water so that it's the wetness of a damp sponge. 

-Keeping leaves in a pile in the backyard (uncovered and unbagged) will automatically compost. Then you can just add leaves from this pile into your compost bin as you add food scraps to the bin. 

-Try to keep your compost at approx 3 parts brown (dry plant material like leaves, newsprint, or wood) to 2 parts green (kitchen scraps, green plant material). If you have more green than brown or vice versa, it doesn't really matter, just try to stay close to 3:2 or 1:1 (especially as you're just getting started or if you start over the winter, you may find that you have more kitchen waste than dried leaves). The 3:2 ratio is just for "best results".

-If your compost ever gets too stinky, it's likely because you have too much "green", it's too wet, or you added one of the "MOM or DAD" materials. Try adding more leaves to decrease the smell or, if that doesn't work, try adding some soil. 

-Over the winter, you can just throw food scraps in a compost bin, and when your food scraps have thawed a bit in Spring, just add about an equal amount of leaves to the bin and stir it around with a shovel. Then go about composting like usual (dump your kitchen scraps in the bin and then cover them with about an equal amount of leaves).

If you ever have any other questions about composting, you can just contact the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council at (306) 931-3242 or visit their website: www.saskwastereduction.ca . They're really helpful and will likely have a Master Composter in the office who can answer your question. If no one knows the answer at the time that you call, they're really good at finding someone who can answer it!