Your Easy Composting Guide
Autumn is the perfect time to set up your compost pile. If you love to garden, or merely tinker with it, a compost pile will go a long way in providing nutritious compost for your soil mixes and plants. And, although the leaves and other detritus, including food scraps, are important to maintaining a healthy compost pile, the king of the composting kingdom is the worm. Worms churn through and eat the various components of your compost pile and produce “castings,” the world’s best, natural fertilizer.
Where to Start
A compost pile doesn’t have to be elaborate or difficult. You can find a place in your yard and construct a box or use concrete blocks to create an enclosure for your pile. No floor or bottom is needed. Make sure you leave enough room to get a shovel into the box to periodically turn-over your mix. This is very important, particularly in the warm, gardening months. Turning over the pile creates aeration and reduces mold, the curse of a good compost pile and a death sentence for worms. For those not of the do-it-yourself variety, many hardware stores sell compost bins/barrels.
What to Include (and Skip)
What should go in the compost pile? First and foremost, let’s remember the engine of our pile, the worm. When you see worms wiggling around, pick a few up and toss them on your pile. They’ll get to work immediately breaking things down. Next, worms are vegetarians. And, they like coffee grounds and egg shells. So, I have a small, lidded container I keep under the kitchen sink only for egg shells and coffee grounds. When the container is full, it gets dumped on the compost pile. Leftover vegetables and their skin peelings, tomato ends, you name it, if it’s a vegetable, send it to the compost pile and not the garbage pile! The worms will love it and you’ll have a nutrient-rich mix of compost ready in no time.
Other items that are great for your compost pile are leaves, lawn and plant clippings. I learned not to integrate more “woody” plant limbs, etc., as they don’t break-down well. So, instead of filling yard waste bags, most of your garden and lawn waste can go in the compost pile.
What shouldn’t I put in my compost pile? Meat and fruit/citrus are not worm friendly and as a result, should not go in the compost pile.
Worms, composting and gardening go hand-in-hand. Before you know it, you’ll be on your way to green, sustainable gardening in your own back yard.
Compost Pile Tips
✅ Do:
Add vegetable scraps like peels, ends, and leftovers
Include coffee grounds and eggshells—worms love them!
Mix in leaves, grass, and plant clippings for balance
Toss in a few worms to speed up decomposition
Turn your pile occasionally to keep it aerated and healthy
🚫 Don’t:
Add meat, dairy, or oily foods—they attract pests
Compost citrus or acidic fruits (worms aren’t fans)
Include woody branches or sticks that don’t break down easily
Let your pile get too wet or compacted—keep it moist, not soggy
🍂 Autumn:
When raking leaves, rake and fill the compost pile first and save a bag of leaves to supplement the broken-down pile in Springtime.
🌻 Warmer months/summer:
Turn-over your compost pile weekly to aerate and evaluate the health of your pile.
In the heat of summer and particularly during drought periods, sprinkle some water over the compost pile and mix it in. The pile should be moist, but not wet. Your worms will thank you for it.
🦝 Regarding Critters:
To keep the critters out of your pile, consider re-purposing old window screens to cover your pile. The screens provide necessary air flow and let moisture in while keeping the varmints out.