Almost anything dead can be put in a compost. Things like shrub prunnings and stalks should be chopped first. The greater your amount of plant debris you use, the wider variety of trace elements are involved. There will be more trace elements in the compost pile than any chemical fertilizer you can buy.

Kitchen wastes such as cereal, grains, banana peels and triminings from all fruits can be used in your pile. Don't use meat, fat, bones, fish, cat litter, dog poop, poultry or dairy products in your pile. These things will attract flies, rats and other animals. and will make your compost stink.

In a compost pile you can also use faded flowers, old beaten up house plants, small pieces of paper and cardborad, vacuum dust, ashes from a fireplace, and even sawdust.

Yard and garden wastes, including leaves, grass clippings, pruunings, thinnings, old plants and weeds can be included in the pile. If you have some old unrotted compost around, put it in. DO NOt use any bug-infested plants or plants that had chemicals on it.

C stands for carbon, N stands for nitrogen. The ratio is the comparison of the amounts of carbon to nitrogen. All living things need carbon and nitrogen to live. They use thirty parts of carbon to every one part of nitrogen. Making the carbon to nitrogen ratio thirty to one or just thirty.

Dry materials such like saw dust, paper, dried grass, and dried leaves are rich in carbon. Moist and green materials like grass clippings, green weeds, and vegetable wastes are rich in nitrogen.

You don't need to be accurate in making your compost pile. First, know what a C/N ratio is and about what the C/N of the materials you have gathered. Try to put in about 30 times more carbon material than nitrogen material.

The correct balance between C/N must be maintained in the pile. Many plants, have a lot of carbon in them. Microganisms need nitrogen to break it down. You can help the process by adding an activator layer which is a small layer of garden soil to the pile.

Put a therameter in the center of the pile. it should have a temperature between 90 - 150 degrees farenhiet. This heat kills seed weeds and the compost will be sterilize.

Compost pile should be moist. Wet all dry materials which you add to the pile. Protect the pile from rain. Rain will get rid of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphates which are needed in a compost pile.

During the first two weeks the compost pile should be turned several times. This movement allows all material to sit at the center and also adds air. Turning the pile will make the materials rot properly.