4. Add brown.
Add twice as much brown as you did green.
5. Sprinkle with well rotted farm animal manure and garden soil.
6. Continue building in layers.
7. As you build, poke holes for aeration.
8. Keep top slightly concave for catching rain.
9. Always cover exposed food matter with a layer of dried leaves or grass clippings in order to reduce odor and discourage pests.
10. As your compost cooks and reduces, you will want to turn the pile with a compost fork. Do this every few days, and keep adding more layers.
11. Your pile should stay moist. However, you do not want it to be too moist. It should only be about as moist as a wrung out sponge. Because you do not want the pile to have too much or too little water, during times of heavy rain, cover the pile with a tarp, and water it with a hose instead.
12. Do not compost meats, fish, animal products, oils, bones, fatty foods like peanut butter, or pet manure. These take longer to decompose, and they attract pests, and smell bad.
13. If you compost during the winter, you will need to make an extra effort to maintain the carbon (brown) and nitrogen (green) balance.

The following are examples of the greens and the browns:

Greens- Nitrogen
 Fruits and vegetable scraps with no salad dressing or oil on them.
 Grass clippings that do not have weed killer and pesticides.
 Houseplant trimmings.
 Soft pruning
 Eggshells
 Tea leaves and bags
 Hair
 Flowers
 Farm animal manure
 Coffee grounds and filters

Browns- Carbon
 Fallen leaves and mulch, such as what is in your rain gutters
 Finely shredded newsprint
 Pine needles
 Dryer lint
 Cornstalks
 Sawdust
 Twigs
 Branches
 Paper egg cartons
 Straw
 Wood ashes
 Wood chips and shavings

Now that you know how to build a compost heap, you should. Composting is a very valuable soil amendment; it helps soils to hold water, allows for airflow, snags airborne nitrogen, lures soil enriching earthworms, ferries minerals from the subsoil, controls erosion, and protects plants against disease. So, in other words, if you compost, your soil will be much better, and you will be making use of garbage you are throwing out each day anyway.

If you are going to build a compost heap, be sure to feed it every day, as many valuable nutrients, etc. are lost if you let your shavings, grinds, and leftover scraps sit in the kitchen for a few days. So, every time you prepare a meal, visit the compost heap afterwards. Doing this will not only help your compost heap, but it will also keep your kitchen cleaner, and smelling much nicer.

Start your compost heap today!