- Author: Anne E Schellman
If you've ever felt confused by the process of composting, you are not alone! Most gardeners experience confusion at some point over the following topics:
What can I compost?
- Kitchen: fruit and vegetable scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds, and eggshells.
- Yard waste: grass clippings (except Bermudagrass), leaves, pine needles, and shredded wood chips.
- Rotted manures from non-meat-eating animals are allowed, but not necessary.
What shouldn't I compost?
- Avoid animal products (meat, bones, fish, grease, dairy).
- Ashes from the fireplace or BBQ (can cause pH imbalance in soil).
- Sawdust from treated wood.
- Dirt: this ends up making it heavy and too hard to turn.
- Avoid diseased plants.
- Most weeds.
What are “greens” and “browns” and why does it matter?
Greens are rich with nitrogen, and browns contain carbon. Don't get bogged down by reading about the ratios of how much of each to use. Bottom line? You need to add equal amounts of greens and browns. The easiest way to do this is by using two 5-gallon buckets.
Greens examples
Vegetable & fruit scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds, and rotted manures.
Browns examples
Dry leaves, straw, sawdust, wood chips, corn stalks, cardboard, and paper.
Composting Tips
Make sure all items added to the pile are chopped or shredded to at least 1 ½” in size. Otherwise they won't break down equally. The best size for a pile is 3x3 to 3x5.
For more information including what compost system to choose, which compost method to use, how often to turn your pile, pests, troubleshooting, and a general demystification of the composting process, watch our Composting Basics presentation! You can download the handout on our Classes and Workshops page. https://ucanr.edu/sites/stancountymg/Classes/
- Author: Marime Burton
Lasagna gardening? ‘Sounds crazy even when you know what that means. Crazier still, it’s a gardening technique that really works.
A little like diets that promise you’ll lose 20 pounds a month and never feel hungry, lasagna gardening sounds improbable, exaggerated and a waste of time. Better to stick with tried and true methods that reward hard work, sacrifice and the results of long-term commitment.
So I thought, but much like those diets I can’t resist, it sounded so simple I was willing give it a try.
First of all the old garden bed does not require tilling. Just cover weeds and all with a layer of cardboard or 3-5 layers of newspaper. Be sure to cover everything well to eliminate little peeks of sun nourishing future weeds. Soak the layers to keep them in place.
Voilà! Decomposition begins in the dark under those layers, earthworms begin to happily tunnel through the dark moist area and the soil begins to loosen up. The grass or weeds break down fairly quickly because they are in the dark under the paper.
Top off the lasagna with alternating layers of “browns” such as fall leaves, shredded newspaper, peat, and pine needles with layers of “greens” such as vegetable scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings, just as in a compost pile. Sprinkle it now and then.
Fall is the perfect time to start the process. Just leave it alone until spring, then start planting!