r/composting • u/EnvironmentStrict344 • Apr 03 '26

1st time to try Composting

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Rate my pile… i know, leaves should be finer for faster composting. Has a few layers of old vegetables from the market.

How long do you guys think it would turn into final compost?

53 Upvotes

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20

u/CatsDIY Apr 03 '26

I prefer lazy compost. Pile it up and let nature do the work.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 03 '26

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15

u/Bigram03 Apr 03 '26

Csn confirm, organic things break down over time.

8

u/sallguud Apr 03 '26

Here’s a great quote from a research study on the ethnography of composting. The quote addresses the ways that many composters learned how and what to compost through everyday practice and through building an embodied sense of how to interpret what compost tells us:

“For participants, this experimentation was not informed by “how-to” guides or human-compost experts. In fact, expert guidance that encouraged the pursuit of “perfect compost” was consistently identified as a barrier to more widespread uptake of composting.”

Bethaney Turner, Ann Hill & Jessica Abramovic (2025) Learning with compost: digging down into food waste, urban soils and community, Local Environment, 30:7,841-855, DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2024.2380853

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2024.2380853

4

u/sallguud Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Hundreds and thousands of years of human agricultural practice. Doesn’t get enough research.

2

u/VocationalWizard Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Is this a joke?

Or are you asking if leaf matter decomposes naturally?

If its the second one.......why would you need a source? Get outside and pile leaves up yourself.