How to Make Compost in a Black Garbage Bag
Are you a hobby gardener with a small space wishing you had some nutritious compost to add to your garden beds or containers? Or maybe you recognize the advantages of composting, but who wants to go outside and turn a pile of rotting greens and browns? Black Bag Composting might be the perfect option for you!
Compost is a crucial component to growing fruits and vegetables on our hom estead. All of our gardens including the orchard benefit from compost. I enjoy making compost because I feel its my way of quickly giving back to the soil after its worked so hard to produce food for my family.
Our gardens work hard, compost continues to feed the plants and add nutrients to the soil web.
Today I want to share with you a fun and easy way to create your own bag of compost at home without having to spend money at the garden centres. This is the method I like doing to stock pile on compost for feeding my beds between growing seasons using both the lasagne garden method and the back to eden garden methods
Black bag composting makes this process easy. It’s also perfect if you have a smaller garden area or if you don’t have a space for a large compost pile.
You will use black garbage bags and the natural anaerobic process of composting to create this gardeners’ black gold on your own.
What You Need to Compost in a Black Bag
- Black garbage bags
- Brown materials
- Green materials
- Water
- A bit of compost
Green materials are wet. This will include fresh plants, fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, etc.
Typically you want a mix of 50/50 between the green and brown items for your compost.
You will also want some water to wet everything down.
If you have a little bit of existing compost or soil to add to the bag, it will help get the process started quicker.
Aerobic composting is generally faster, but you will have to turn the bag.
The following steps are for the anaerobic version.
Then, begin adding layers of green materials and brown materials.
You can add additional layers of compost in between each layer of brown/green as well – just to get those microbes off to a good start.
You can open the bag in 8-12 weeks to check the progress.
If it isn’t finished yet, seal it all back up and leave it be.
Anaerobic black bag composting may take 6 months to a year.
The new compost should be crumbly in your hands.
Advantages of Composting With This Method
Using black bags for your DIY compost pile has a few distinct advantages.
- It doesn’t require a lot of space
- Very low startup cost
- Low maintenance (no turning!)
On the other hand, there are some cons as well.
This means you might need to store green materials in an airtight bucket or other container while you are waiting to make a bag of composting. The bin below is a great option for storing green materials indoors.
Your neighbors will not mind passing on their grass clippings – just make sure they are not treated with pesticides.
- Bones
- Dairy Products
- Fats and oils
- Plastics
- Treated Woods
- Dead animals
- Poisonous Plants
Add in your shredded leaves and then top it off with a shovelful of soil and a quart or two of water. Seal tightly.
Composting puts nutrients back into your soil, which will reduce the need for pesticides or other drastic weed reduction methods.
It also keeps the soil ecosystem healthy which is so essential for our garden microbes and creatures.
If you have a small space or are just unsure about the process, give black bag composting a try.
Soon, you will have rich, fertile compost to keep your plants happy.
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Will oak tree leaves work? I know it is hard to get grass to grow near oak trees. You have to use lots of lime because the leaves cause the soil to be really acid.
Don’t grass clippings in bags out in the sun become hot due to nitrogen? I’ve felt the heat through our bags of grass & was told it’s a fire hazard…?