Albuquerque Composting Basics 101 for 2021 – Part One

All homes in Albuquerque produce a decent level of organic material for composting through every day living. This material comes from fruit peelings, vegetables that have gone bad, lawn grass material generated from mowing and raking and fall leaves, just to name a few. It makes good sense to make use of the organic material produced by you in your Albuquerque home as compost instead of throwing it away where it ends up at the local landfill.

It is a proven fact that the organic material you and everyone else normally throws into their kitchen trash is a fantastic fertilizer for your Albuquerque home’s vegetable garden, flower garden and landscaping soil. Organic material for composting must physically be placed in a setting so it changes chemically where the material can then be added to your landscaping and gardens and the plants planted in those areas are able to take in the nutrients in the material. The waste material from your home that is plant-based makes excellent food if it is properly converted to functional nutrient rich compost.

Composted has a mistaken reputation for stinking badly and that the stink is generated by fruit that has gone bad, nasty old lettuce that never got eaten and had to be thrown out and other vegetable odds and ends that go into the trash when being chopped up for salads and casseroles. The reputation for smelling bad is not correct. Compost piles done the right way do not small bad and they make phenomenal material full of healthy chemically positive matter that is great for gardens of all types including flower gardens and vegetable gardens. Be sure to not add meat or dairy to your compost bin. It will attract vermin like rats and mice as well as nasty maggots and other similar creatures. Be sure to give your Albuquerque compost pile room to breathe. Compost needs air for the material it to decompose properly. Do not add dry material such as hay or straw. It does not decompose.

Many folks see compost as pile of nasty old fruit, wilted lettuce and broccoli stems that stinks to no end. The opposite is the case, where compost, when managed correctly, creates fantastic nutrient rich organic material that does not stink at all. When managing and building up compost material leave out meat, dairy of any type because it will produce a nasty smell along with accompanying maggots, mice & rats. Additional errors that can turn your compost material into unusable state is not giving it enough air and adding or allow

Keep in mind a critical component of developing quality compost is keeping a proportionate balance of two types of composting content, nitrogen and carbon. Carbon material is composed of content like wood ash, coffee filters, wood shavings, dead leaves, twigs and small sticks. This material assists in developing a portion of the compost that allows free air flow throughout the compost file which will assist the different organic matter to breathe as it is decomposing. To infuse nitrogen into your compost pile, add healthy rich greens like manure, lawn grass mow clippings and food material (but not meat or dairy). Increase the amount of carbon material to create a robust compost pile. Use a two to one ratio of two parts carbon to one part nitrogen. Too much material that is nitrogen will slow down the process or creating an nutrient compost pile because it impedes air and the compost will become to heavy, thick and potentially become stinky. Be sure to stick with the ratio described here for successful compost pile. Chop up all additions made to your compost pile before adding them. Smaller additions decompose faster and create a compost pile that is ready for the garden sooner rather than later.