Let me be real with you: after 20 years of building my edible & herbal food forest, I still have never been able to master what most people think of as "proper composting."

Spoiler alert: My old compost spinner is now just a nostalgic deer-blocker in the corner of my garden...see it below.

You know what I'm talking about, the perfectly balanced carbon-to-nitrogen ratios, measured water levels, regular turning, smell-free… the kind of compost that looks like it belongs in a garden magazine...well, that wasn’t me.

What did I get? Half-wet, half-moldy bins I wasn’t even sure I should use. Some days I turned it, some days I didn’t. It started to feel like another stressful chore—so I quit doing it the “right” way and let Nature take the lead.

That decision changed everything for the better.

• Do I compost?—YES! 
• Do I recycle all my kitchen scraps?—YES!
• Do I reuse all my outdoor food forest materials?—YES!
• Does my food forest supply most of everything I need to sustain its composting requirements now?—YES!

QUICK EXPLANATION OF COMPOSTING

Composting is the act of decomposing organic materials, usually from leaves, grass, dried/dead decaying matter, some form of manure, and garden/kitchen scraps, and recycling it into RICH, NUTRITIOUS FOOD for your plants!

The organic materials are broken down naturally by earthworms, bacteria, and other organisms that live in your soil! With the addition of WATER & OXYGEN, your compost pile will gradually decompose, and turn into something AMAZING!

PICTURE THIS...

The leaves falling naturally directly below the tree they grew from, the grass is mowed and left in place, the fallen fruits are naturally gathering in the canopy below, the wildlife deposits manure gifts EVERYWHERE, all the dead/dry leaves, twigs, branches, and all the woody debris will fall & become compost eventually, and all the live, green organic matter can be chopped and dropped in place. SIMPLE!

If you allow Mother Nature to assist you, you can LITERALLY stack, layer, and build your composting ingredients in place exactly where you need & want them!

DECOMPOSITION IS ALWAYS HAPPENING in a food forest type setting! You should take full advantage of it! I CERTAINLY DO!

All spring, summer, fall, and winter long, your food forest will be actively creating the most magical, biodiverse, nutritional, COMPOSTED soil with very little help from you!

HERE’S A FEW COMPOSTING TIPS THAT I PERSONALLY USE:

• BURY your kitchen scraps – tuck them under a corner of your wood chipped mulch (not in clumps), and then forget about them! It will never smell if you bury kitchen scraps in small amounts and spread them out!
• Be practical, but allow the wildlife to remain in balance, while assisting you with their most special contribution of manure and digested waste. Rabbits, groundhogs, opossum, birds, & all kinds of creatures will leave presents! Pay attention to exactly what type of wildlife you are working with! Also watch for any disease or build up of bugs over winter! You can avoid all kinds of problems if you pay attention!
• If you are in a climate like PA, the cold, snowy, wet winters and springs will naturally bump up your food forest’s ability to decompose properly and naturally. BONUS!!!
• When your leaves naturally fall, try to keep them evenly distributed. Make sure you don’t have any sections that are piled too high! Mine usually drop & spread evenly without my assistance! BUT, every once in a while there is a violent storm that creates a little build-up!
• Do NOT use anything that does not belong in a composting pile like meat scraps, dairy, anything toxic, or anything oily! Always double check and research if you are unsure of a particular ingredient!
• BE CAREFUL AROUND TREES – don’t build up too much mulch at the base of your trees! A LITTLE is fine and necessary, but never too much! Pull it away from the base of the tree!
• Pulled weeds can be tossed out on your lawn to dry from the sun, then chopped up with your lawn mower, then evenly distributed back around your food forest floor!
• I place logs of all sizes around my food forest floor, including logs inoculated with mushrooms, to bump up my biodiversity!

YOU CAN MAKE COMPOSTING AS HARD OR AS EASY AS YOU WOULD LIKE IT TO BE...EVEN IN SMALL SPACES!

Don't overthink this...

As I keep repeating throughout my entire BLOG, let Mother Nature do most of the work for you!

If you need more specific help on composting or anything else related to creating your own edible & herbal food forest, go check out my EDIBLE & HERBAL FOOD FOREST GUIDE, designed to help you gradually, step-by-step, make the right decisions. 

Always remember:

The Future Is Worth The Patience Of The Present

-Michele

The Homemade Gardener