Ingredients of Compost

In my previous posts, I have been discussing about compost—its importance and how it is made. There are actually 2 kinds of materials or ingredients that we can make as compost. Generally, they are grouped as browns and greens:

Browns

Browns are eaten by the microbes and they give them energy. They are dry and mostly from dead parts of plants. They need to be moistened first or mixed with moist ingredients.

1. Autumn leaves
2. Hay straw
3. Dry leaves
4. Dead plants
5. Saw dust
6. Wood chips
7. Brown weeds

Greens

Greens are moist ingredients and they usually come in the color green but not all. They are mostly from kitchen wastes. If you leave in a community, don’t use meat scraps and bones because they tend to attract pests. Alternatively, use compost pile.

1. Green plants
2. Green leaves
3. Fresh leaves
4. Vegetable peels and scraps
5. Fruit peels and scraps
6. Tea bags
7. Scrap of Ground coffee

Your compost should have a good mix of browns and greens. The mix will bring air and moisture which the microbes need in order to digest the browns and the greens.

Tagged as: browns, compost, greens, ingredients