Barbara, I've been composting since I was 14 and they call me "Compost King"at the community garden
It is one of my life's passions. (While other 14-year-olds were discovering surfing and girls, I was composting.)
First, it isn't rocket science. All organic material will decompose given time. All you are doing is containing the process so you'll have usable compost to garden with. There is no one way to do it.
The only trick is to balance nitrogen-rich "green" stuff (kitchen scraps, weeds, lawn clippings) with carbon-rich "brown" stuff, (dried leaves, mulched tree trimmings, sawdust, shedded newspaper.) An all-green pile will turn stinky. An all-brown pile will take too long to decompose.
You absolutely don't need to buy enzymes or "starter" solutions. You don't even need to buy a bin, though they are very handy in small spaces.
I prefer a bin that is stackable. My current one is made from 2-by-6 redwood from an old deck. I have a dozen or so squares that stack up to form one or two boxes without a top or bottom. I fill it over time with garden and kitchen refuse, watering from time to time. I have a small gas-powered mulcher to grind up leaves and small branches, making them compostable. When the bin is full, I turn it--re-stacking the bin pieces right next to it as I fork the compost into it, wetting as I go. This reverses the pile so the oldest layers are now on top. By now that part is usually dark brown and crumbly and ready for the garden.
Meanwhile, I start a new pile in the old location, stacking the pieces of the bin back as I use the old stuff and the new pile gets higher.
I hope that makes sense--it's much easier to do than to explain.
The best way to avoid critters is to turn it often, and to keep it strictly vegetarian. At home I do add cooked food and greasy paper towels and rancid stock. (EW) But it's way at the back of the yard so I don't notice the critters. Mice keep my cat happy. A hanging fly trap is a good idea. There are always a few roaches hanging around the edges, but when I fail to turn it for many months they move in and take up residence. YIKES! So turn it every few months at least.
If you compost in larger quantity, forming your pile all at once, the heat generated by everything decomposing at once will prevent critters and speed the process.
At the community garden, we form big piles like haystacks. They're huge, and they steam like volcanos! (See picture). We already have tree trimmers drop off their loads of wood chips for use as mulch. We take some of that mulch and layer it with weeds and garden trimmings until the pile gets too high to manage. Then we have a "turning party" with lots of pitchforks. Each pile gets turned four times over a few months, and there is a constant progression of new piles. By the end it is dark brown and crumbly, and 1/3 its original size. We have volunteers to water the piles in between turnings. I made colored stakes to mark them--a green stake means "Add green stuff" Red stakes mean "Don't touch this pile." A blue stake is for the finished compost. It took a while to get this system organized but now we have enough compost for everybody.
I don't think humidity is an issue--it just won't dry out as fast. Also, I never add soil. Enough of it gets in with the weeds. Too much soil slows down the decomposition and makes the mixture heavy to work with.
One more note: Returning organic material to the soil actually sequesters carbon from the atmosphere into the earth, so composting and organic farming lower our carbon footprint. In contrast, sending garden refuse and tree trimmings to a landfill produces methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Not to mention, composting is FREE! Tree trimmers and gardeners in your neighborhood will be happy to give you all the organic material you can handle--it saves them time and money carting it to the dump.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JwsgbXiiPPI/SXPTw_RCDtI/AAAAAAAABmk/tJpSidkAWG0/s400/2008-12-6+022.jpg
It is one of my life's passions. (While other 14-year-olds were discovering surfing and girls, I was composting.)
First, it isn't rocket science. All organic material will decompose given time. All you are doing is containing the process so you'll have usable compost to garden with. There is no one way to do it.
The only trick is to balance nitrogen-rich "green" stuff (kitchen scraps, weeds, lawn clippings) with carbon-rich "brown" stuff, (dried leaves, mulched tree trimmings, sawdust, shedded newspaper.) An all-green pile will turn stinky. An all-brown pile will take too long to decompose.
You absolutely don't need to buy enzymes or "starter" solutions. You don't even need to buy a bin, though they are very handy in small spaces.
I prefer a bin that is stackable. My current one is made from 2-by-6 redwood from an old deck. I have a dozen or so squares that stack up to form one or two boxes without a top or bottom. I fill it over time with garden and kitchen refuse, watering from time to time. I have a small gas-powered mulcher to grind up leaves and small branches, making them compostable. When the bin is full, I turn it--re-stacking the bin pieces right next to it as I fork the compost into it, wetting as I go. This reverses the pile so the oldest layers are now on top. By now that part is usually dark brown and crumbly and ready for the garden.
Meanwhile, I start a new pile in the old location, stacking the pieces of the bin back as I use the old stuff and the new pile gets higher.
I hope that makes sense--it's much easier to do than to explain.
The best way to avoid critters is to turn it often, and to keep it strictly vegetarian. At home I do add cooked food and greasy paper towels and rancid stock. (EW) But it's way at the back of the yard so I don't notice the critters. Mice keep my cat happy. A hanging fly trap is a good idea. There are always a few roaches hanging around the edges, but when I fail to turn it for many months they move in and take up residence. YIKES! So turn it every few months at least.
If you compost in larger quantity, forming your pile all at once, the heat generated by everything decomposing at once will prevent critters and speed the process.
At the community garden, we form big piles like haystacks. They're huge, and they steam like volcanos! (See picture). We already have tree trimmers drop off their loads of wood chips for use as mulch. We take some of that mulch and layer it with weeds and garden trimmings until the pile gets too high to manage. Then we have a "turning party" with lots of pitchforks. Each pile gets turned four times over a few months, and there is a constant progression of new piles. By the end it is dark brown and crumbly, and 1/3 its original size. We have volunteers to water the piles in between turnings. I made colored stakes to mark them--a green stake means "Add green stuff" Red stakes mean "Don't touch this pile." A blue stake is for the finished compost. It took a while to get this system organized but now we have enough compost for everybody.
I don't think humidity is an issue--it just won't dry out as fast. Also, I never add soil. Enough of it gets in with the weeds. Too much soil slows down the decomposition and makes the mixture heavy to work with.
One more note: Returning organic material to the soil actually sequesters carbon from the atmosphere into the earth, so composting and organic farming lower our carbon footprint. In contrast, sending garden refuse and tree trimmings to a landfill produces methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Not to mention, composting is FREE! Tree trimmers and gardeners in your neighborhood will be happy to give you all the organic material you can handle--it saves them time and money carting it to the dump.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JwsgbXiiPPI/SXPTw_RCDtI/AAAAAAAABmk/tJpSidkAWG0/s400/2008-12-6+022.jpg