Composting for dummies

Introduction -- About this book -- Conventions used in this book -- What you're not to read -- Foolish assumptions -- How this book is organized -- Part 1: Composting basics -- Part 2: Selecting a home and method for your compost -- Part 3: Compost happens -- Part 4: Expanding your compost horizons -- Part 5: Part of tens -- Icons used in this book -- Where to go form here -- Part 1: Composting Basics -- Chapter 1: Digging into compost -- Welcome to the world of compost -- What compost is -- What tools and equipment you need -- How composting works -- You can do it! Home composting made easy -- Some like it hot! -- Cool customers -- Reaping the rewards of composting -- Healthier, more prolific garden -- Healthier community and planet -- Chapter 2: Tools Of The Trade -- Protecting yourself from the elements: safety gear -- Getting a good pair of gloves -- Shielding your eyes -- Donning a dust mask -- Blocking harmful rays with a hat and sunscreen -- Choosing the right tools and equipment for the job -- Mixing things up with a pitchfork or compost fork -- Digging in with a soil fork -- Getting the lowdown on shovels and spades -- Investing in a good-quality hose -- Moving compost in buckets or tarps -- Hauling compost with wheelbarrows or garden carts -- Additional gadgets and tools for the enthusiastic composter -- Testing your compost's temperature -- Aerating your compost -- Considering chopping tools -- Tool-buying tips -- How does it feel? -- How's it made? -- Showing you tools some TLC -- Giving everything a quick cleaning -- Maintaining wooden handles -- Chapter 3: Decomposition Process -- Decomp 101: How rotting works -- Going to pieces: the physical breakup -- Freeing the nutrients: the chemical breakdown -- Maintaining balance through the food web -- Who's doing the hard work? -- Counting on chemical decomposers -- Profiting from physical decomposers -- Creating a productive work environment -- Rationing the carbons and nitrogen's -- Sizing down particles -- Managing moisture and air -- Tuning the temperature -- Part 2: Selecting A Home And Method For Your Compost -- Chapter 4: Composting aboveground or underground: no bin required -- Composting without a container -- Issue of air: aerobic versus anaerobic composting -- Aerobic composting: keeping everything aboveground -- Anaerobic decomposition: working without air underground -- Creating a pile aboveground -- Where to site the pile -- Aboveground composting in a few simple steps -- When your compost will be ready to use -- Digging a hole (pit or trench composting) -- Where to site the hole -- Pit composting in a few simple steps -- When your compost will be ready to use -- Keeping your binless compost critter-free -- Chapter 5: Working With Compost Containers -- Composting in a container (or two or three) -- When using containers is best -- Sorting out your composting style -- Checking out your options -- Taking a turn with tumblers -- Bins of all types -- Kitchen composters -- Keeping wildlife out of your container -- Eliminating enticing ingredients -- Using bin characteristics to exclude creatures -- Bugs, ants, and flies, oh my! -- Shopping for a composter: a buyer's guide -- Chapter 6: Erecting Your Own Compost Containers -- Transforming recycled items into inexpensive containers -- Wood shipping pallets -- Recycled garbage can -- Building bins with wire, bales, or wood -- Hardware cloth circular wire bin -- Poultry wire circular bin -- Straw-bale bin -- Wood and wire three-bin composter -- Part 3: Compost Happens -- Chapter 7: Selecting Your Ingredients -- Getting down with browns: carbon-rich ingredients -- Dry leaves -- Woody plant trimmings -- Paper products -- Straw -- Pine needles -- Sawdust -- Greening it up: nitrogen-rich ingredients -- Kitchen scraps -- Grass clippings -- Leafy plant trimmings, spent flower, herbs, and vegetables -- Weeds-foliage only! -- Livestock manure -- Pet bedding -- Feathers -- Hair and fur -- Hay -- Using the right ratio of carbon to nitrogen ingredients -- Knowing which materials to avoid -- Getting your hands on compostable materials -- Stockpiling your own organic matter -- Rounding up free organic matter -- Chapter 8: Mixing Up A Batch: A Step-By-Step Guide -- Deciding on location -- Choosing a convenient site -- Climate considerations -- Creating your pile -- Finding the pile size that's just right -- To chop or not to chop: adding small or large chunks -- Aerating made easy -- Piling on the layers-and watering as your work -- Tending to the compost pile -- Turning your compost pile -- Adding water -- When is it finished-and why does it matter? -- Surveying different approaches to making compost -- Basic compost for laid-back gardeners -- Speedier compost -- Compost for type-A personalities -- Fine three-bin compost -- Compost smoothie, anyone? -- Chapter 9: Using Your Finished Compost -- Enriching vegetable and flower beds -- Knowing how often to add compost to garden beds -- Figuring out how much compost is enough on beds -- Using compost to mulch landscape plants and trees -- Top-dressing lawns -- Screening compost for containers -- Making a compost screen -- Screening small and large amounts of compost -- Using screened compost in container plantings -- Finding other uses for finished compost -- Brewing (and using) compost tea -- Growing plants directly on the pile -- Combining homemade with store-bought compost -- Purchasing bags of compost -- Buying in bulk -- Part 4: Expanding Your Compost Horizons -- Chapter 10: Working With Worms -- Vermicomposting in a nutshell -- Meet the squirmy stars of the show -- Compositing worm species -- Obtaining composting worms -- Hooking up the housing and bedding -- How much room do your worms need? -- Building your own worm abode -- Opting for a manufactured worm bin -- Making the bed -- Introducing worms to their new home -- Chow time! Feeding your worms -- What's on the menu -- To chop or not to chop (again) -- Maintaining your worms' comfort zone -- Light -- Temperature -- Moisture -- Breathing room -- pH levels -- Tackling problems with your worm bin -- Odor -- Mites -- Dying worms -- What worms contribute to your compost: the casting call -- Harvesting vermicompost -- Using vermicompost -- Chapter 11: Adding Cover Crops And Green Manures -- Recognizing the value of cover crops and green manures -- Preventing erosion -- Adding organic matter -- Reducing soil compaction -- Improving tilth -- Creating and adding nitrogen -- Feeding beneficial insects -- Inhibiting weed growth -- Surveying your cover crop choices -- Legumes -- Grasses -- Other cover crops -- Planting and turning over cover crops -- Sowing seasons -- Mixing your mature cover crop into the soil -- To till or not to till -- Chapter 12: Composting In Sheets -- Sheet composting: read all about it -- Pros and cons -- Where and when to lay sheets of compost -- Getting down to ingredients -- Sheet composting and gardening in one step -- Building garden soil -- Planting in sheet compost beds -- Planting next year's garden -- Part 5: Part O Tens -- Chapter 13: Ten Answers To Common Questions About Compost -- What is compost, really? -- What are browns and greens? -- Can I compost all my kitchen scraps? What about pet waste? -- Do I have to purchase a container to compost? -- Do I have to turn compost regularly? -- How long before organic matter becomes compost? -- How do I know when my compost is ready to use? -- Can't I just send my yard and household waste to a landfill to decompose? -- Can I compost in winter? -- Can I use compost instead of fertilizer? -- Chapter 14: Ten Tips For Troubleshooting Compost -- Slow decomposition -- Hovering swarms of teeny flies -- Fat, white grubs -- Dead vermicomposting worms -- Lots of bugs crawling about -- Ammonia odor -- Rotten egg odor -- Slurry-like compost -- Eek! A mouse in the compost -- Animals scattering compost -- Index.