Introduction

Compost is the best. It’s free, it saves you money, and it’s good for the environment. But if your compost pile doesn’t have the right ingredients, it might be sad—and that’s not okay! So here are my favorite ingredients for making a happy compost pile:

Leaves

Leaves are a great source of carbon, which is what compost needs to break down. They can be raked up from your lawn or garden and the leaves will eventually decompose into organic material that can be used as fertilizer for your soil. This is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint while also keeping your yard looking beautiful!

If you don’t have any leaves on hand, try finding some in your neighborhood and ask if you could borrow them for a couple days. It’s helpful to have friends who are willing to help out with projects like this – maybe they’ll be able to bring over an extra pile for you?

Paper

Paper is a great source of carbon. Carbon not only helps the compost pile hold water, but it also helps to balance out the nitrogen that you add. When paper breaks down in your compost pile, it’s breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. So not only is there more surface area for microbes to colonize—there’s also less volume! This means you can use more paper than other sources without having to worry about over-composting your pile.

Paper is also a good source of nitrogen; nitrates from the paper break down into nitrites and those eventually become ammonia (an odorless gas). But don’t worry—ammonia won’t hurt your plants or soil if it gets into them through leaching (it breaks down quickly once exposed to air) or watering (the rain washes away excess nutrients anyway).

Paper contains lots of water too! Paper pulp has about 45% moisture by weight when first harvested from trees—that’s almost twice as much water as hay bales typically have at harvest time! So if you’ve got some old newspapers lying around with no place else to put them…put them in your compost pile instead!

Tea bags

Tea bags are a great way to add nitrogen to your compost pile. They are also a good source of moisture and carbon, which is what you need for the process of turning your kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich soil. Don’t think that simply pouring boiling water over the tea bag will work; instead, tear open the tea bag and drop it in whole. We’re not sure why this works better than drinking the tea itself (or using it as fertilizer), but we’re willing to try anything once when it comes to making our compost happy!

Eggshells

Eggshells are, like many animal products, a great source of phosphorous and calcium. They’re also a good source of magnesium and zinc.

Eggshells can be added to your compost pile at almost any stage of its life cycle—if you are starting a new bin start with the eggshells first; if you already have an established bin, add them on top as they become available.

Grass clippings

Grass clipping are a great addition to compost piles. They contain nitrogen, carbon and potassium, as well as phosphorous.

Grass clippings are an excellent source of nitrogen. Nitrogen is important for growing plants because it helps in photosynthesis, which means that the plant can make food from sunlight and carbon dioxide (CO2). When you add grass clippings to your compost pile, they will provide your plants with this vital nutrient!

Coffee grounds

Coffee grounds are an excellent addition to your compost pile, especially if you have them sitting around. Coffee is a great source of nitrogen, which means that it can help speed up the process and make it more efficient. Plus, if you’re like me and prefer to drink your coffee cold with lots of ice and milk in it, then you know that extra grounds are going to be left on the filter and in your mug every morning when you make yourself one before work.

You can use old coffee filters as well—once they’ve been used once or twice (or three times), just take them out of their sleeves and throw them into the bin with other paper products that break down easily.

Manure

The next thing you should know about is manure. Manure is waste matter that comes from animals, like cows and sheep. It’s rich in nitrogen, which helps plants grow big and strong! But if you add too much to your compost pile at once it might get a bit funky—so make sure to only put in small amounts at a time.

Manure can be hard to find sometimes, but if you live on a farm or have access to the right people (and access isn’t an issue), then good for you! If not, there are ways around it: horse stables often have free piles of fresh stuff available for pickup by anyone who asks nicely enough; some farmers will sell bags full of cow (or other animal) poop for cheap money; friends with farms might give some away out of kindness or charity; and even pet owners may be able to let go of their pet’s excrement if they’re feeling generous (though pets don’t produce as much as livestock). In short: talk about it with friends who have farms/animals/gardens first before contacting strangers who may not want anything more than company on Saturday nights anyway (it happens).

If your compost pile doesn’t have the right ingredients, it will be sad.

A compost pile is a happy, healthy compost pile when it has the right ingredients.

• A compost pile needs a balance of brown, green and carbon materials. Brown materials are things like leaves and straw. Green materials are things like grass clippings or vegetable scraps or coffee grounds (avoid using meat products). Carbon materials come from woody items like twigs and branches, as well as eggshells.
• A compost pile needs to be kept moist but not soggy! If you turn your compost every few days, it will stay both wet enough to decompose quickly but not so damp that it’s no longer hot enough inside the pile to kill pathogens. You can test this by taking a handful of finished material out of the center of your bin; if it feels damp but not dripping wet when squeezed between your fingers, then you know that everything is working correctly!

Conclusion

Don’t be sad. Composting is a great way to reduce waste and make your garden thrive. Just remember that you need the right ingredients for it to work! If you don’t have enough leaves in your pile or if the paper isn’t rinsed properly, then it will take longer than normal to break down into usable compost soil and this can be frustrating. But by following these guidelines, you’ll have no problem getting a happy pile on your hands in no time!