Hi there - link below is to1 of the great FAQ's here that covers most all your questions and there are several other FAQ's you might want to browse through to.

But the short answer is approximately 3 parts browns to 1 part of greens, turned whenever you want to (no set rules but 1x a week is a good average), and water enough to be moist like a wrung out sponge.

Soil is not needed. Doesn't hurt - might help kind of thing.

Basically pile it up, water it now and then if it doesn't rain, and turn it now and then and you'll get compost. If it smells bad it is too wet or too green so add some browns and let it dry out a bit.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Composting FAQ

As an example, here is what I put into a batch in a tumbler that holds about a cubic yard.

Two, large, stuffed bags of shredded leaves. These are pretty dense and heavy. To this I will add about two half full bags of freshly cut grass clippings (I look for bags of short clippings). The reason I use half full is because if these bags were filled, I couldn't lift them. So it turns out to be about two to one ratio. Some more material (mixed leaves and grass clippings) is added after a few days due to settling. If I use whole leaves, I use a three or four to one ratio but end up adding a lot more of the mix after several days due to increased settling.

Now these leaves are incredibly dry so adding moisture is usually necessary. I add the water after I have mixed, this seems to alleviate the clumping of the grass clippings a lot. How much water depends on the dryness of the leaves and moisture content of the grass. In any event, I don't measure the water, I just use a garden hose on mist setting and go by gut feeling. Sometimes it takes a few days of adding small amounts of water to get an even distribution throughout.

Turning. In the tumbler it is easy so I usually give numerous rotations once a day once the temperature is above 150ish. If it's a pile, definately not so often, maybe once a week if I am energetic so it usually goes longer.

Soil. I don't intentionally add soil to any of my composting methods.

If I am using a continuous add method in a tumbler, I tumble a few times, add the greens, add equal volume of shredded leaves, tumble a few more times then add another equal volume of shredded leaves on top. This mixes nicely and the thin layer of leaves on top helps to prevent any odors. If the greens are relatively dry, I add a small shot of water when I add the greens. By the next day the leaves on top are usually moist, they seem to absorb the moisture given off and any condensation drips down onto them as well.

I don't use kitchen scraps in a pile due to possible rodent issues but I'd probably use much the same ratio except add additional water due to evaporation from the pile.

Once a person has done it a few times they quickly get the hang of it. It is tough to make a major mistake as there is always ways to correct as you go along.

Having said all that, we could probably get ten compost enthusiasts together and we could have ten different methods that are successful.

Lloyd

I usually don't keep track of greens and browns ratio.

I am composting a continuous pile, as a recycle center for my organic waste. I throw in the pile whatever is ready to be thrown at any given time. I don't wait until I have a the appropriate volume of browns to balance out the kitchen scraps when they are ready.

I do make sure I have plenty of browns to cover the greens.

And if I think the pile is getting too heavy on the greens, I may drum up some extra browns or vice versa.

It depends on how strong a brown or green you are talking about. Fresh grass clippings are strong greens. Saw dust is a strong carbon. To get the exact ratio you want you have to know the C:N ratio of the specific greens and browns you are using. There is a formula for figuring that stuff out but I for one donÂt use it preferring just to wing it and build the pile using the ratio of 2.5 to 1 brown leaves - to - green grass or garbage or manure.
I turn my piles twice in six months. Others turn more often
My piles donÂt require much extra water besides rain. Moist as a wrung out sponge is the usual indicator of enough moisture. I build one and a half cubic yard piles and add 10 gal. Water when building.
No additional soil is needed. All the needed microbes are in the environment. One shovel of garden soil will have a few trillion microbes. Use that if you wish. Compost will happen with or without it.

Bill Hill

All of the advice that people are giving about the ratios of greens to browns is excellent, but I also want to add that you shouldn't worry about it too much.

There is an ideal ratio to strive for, but at the end of the day, everything will rot. I live in the city, so I have a limited amount of material to add, and I add it whenever I have it. I still get compost.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't strive for the ideal, or to make the very best and/or fastest compost that you can...but you also shouldn't let yourself get overwhelmed with it all to the point that you find it too daunting to get started.

I add stuff as it's available. If it stinks I add more browns and/or mix it. If it's not heating up, I add more greens and/or water and/or mix it.

I don't have a problem with my compost getting too wet, so I don't know the solution for that. Probably adding more browns and/or mixing.

Even if you don't have the optimal mix, it'll become compost. It might take longer but IALBTC (It All Leads Back To Compost).

If you go back to the way Sir Albert Howard described the way the people he learned composting from you will find that thye piled up 6 inches of vegetative waste, 2 inches of manure, and 1/8 inch good, rich garden soil, or about 3 parts vegetative waste (browns) to 1 part manure (greens). Some people still get the C:N (Carbon to Nitrogen) ratio confused with the mix of greens and browns although they are not quite the same thing. However, that 3 parts vegetative waste to 1 part manure, or 3 parts browns to 1 part greens, will get you close to the optimal 30:1 C:N ratio.

I have read and also heard compost practitioners advocate adding some garden soil to the pile as a good garden soil will have a negative electrical charge and help to adsorb ammonia that is generated and keep it in the pile as opposed to losing it to the atmosphere. Any thoughts from the panel?

I haven't heard those reasons for adding soil. A long time ago, I read that you should add soil to make sure there are composting microbes in the compost pile, but those microbes are everywhere so it's not needed for that. I have no idea what it would do to the electrical charge or the ammonia absorption. I think that if you have the right C:N ratio, there's no need for anything else to absorb the ammonia.

Way back in Sir Alberts day they did not have the technology we have today and did not know that the bacteria that will digest out foods are already present on out food, so they felt the need to add some soil to compsot piles to introduce those bacteria into the compsot. Today we know that those bacteria are already present and so adding soil is not necessary. This is called science, knowledge, the result of research, learnig, something every one should do every day.

You might find it interesting to play with a compost calculator. It show that for a given N (say grass clippings) that the amount of C you need for a perfect mix will vary with the C:N ratio of the ingredient.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: compost calculator