Flat out for great compost
There is one pro-composting tip that sets the serious composters apart from the pack. It is so simple you might not believe what a difference it can make, but if I could share only one composting tip with someone, I think this would be it….As you add to your compost pile, keep the top of your compost flat. It is that simple!
It doesn’t matter if it’s a Gedye-style lidded bin, a compost bay made out of old pallets or a finely crafted timber extravaganza, just keep the additions to your pile flat.
Last year Mikaela Beckley, YIMBY composter extraordinaire, wrote a fantastic article Layer it Like Lasagne likening making compost to cooking a lasagne, and encouraged us to build our pile in nice thin, flat layers with a good mix of different materials. Golden advice!
I want to focus on that one word “flat”. When we mound up the top of our compost, we lose control of the layers. Food scraps can heap in the middle, or big bits can roll off to the sides.
In a mounded compost, layers of dryer carbon-rich ingredients - like straw or wood chips - tend to fall to the sides, leaving the wet centre uncovered and exposed to flies or rodents.
All this this leads to inconsistencies in our compost, with dryer patches off to the sides and wetter or even anaerobic - not enough oxygen, so starting to smell bad - centres. Mounded composts are also harder to cover with a good carbon capping layer.
So, I encourage you to take the time to level off the top of your pile, you might do this with a fork, the end of a garden machete or with rubber gloved hands. If it has been a while since your compost has had some attention, perhaps a quick aeration mix with a compost screw or fork is in order first. Now is also a good time to check the moisture content, does it need a little more wetting up?
Once the top of your pile is flat, then add and spread out your new compost offerings thinly on the top of the pile. If it is a big load, you might want to layer it in two batches with a balancing layer in between, Carbon-rich if it is food scraps, nitrogen - rich if it is woody garden prunings.
Always finish with a good capping of carbon-rich cover like straw. Then, next time you come back to your pile you’ll find it flat and ready for the next offering. With a flat compost, you are in control of where things in the pile go.
If you are still mounding your compost it is time to try flat, I don’t think you’ll go back.
AUTHOR: JOEL MEADOWS
Joel Meadows works with Yes In My Back Yard, (YIMBY), a community-scale composting initiative in Castlemaine and surrounds. Send questions or comments to hello@yimbycompost.com
This was first published in the Midland Express on the 6 March 2024