Why You Should Add Old Herbs And Spices To Your Backyard Compost Pile

Making your own compost is not only a good way to cut down on solid waste in your trash, it's also a great way to create a sustainable garden system. Composting done well eventually provides a useful soil amendment that provides good nutrients for plants while improving texture and drainage. Knowing the best ingredients to add to your compost can make a difference in the process and the finished product. In addition to dried leaves, yard waste, lawn clippings, eggshells, and vegetable scraps, your expired herbs and spices can be included in the mix. 

A good compost mixture has a balance of green (lawn clippings, weeds) and brown (dried leaves, pine cones, dried pine needles, cardboard) materials. Food waste like fruit cores, vegetable peelings, and eggshells provide added nutrients. Rotting food waste can sometimes cause a bad odor in your compost bin, or attract pests like rodents, so some food scraps should be avoided. Meat, fish, bones, and oils should not be composted, because they tend to attract unwanted visitors like flies and rodents. 

In addition to avoiding certain materials, you can also add things to repel pests. Putting your expired herbs and spices to your compost mix can help to deter a variety of pests who dislike their strong smells. If you're an avid cook like me, you keep many herbs and spices on hand, but sometimes you don't have a chance to use them all up before they lose potency or go past their best-by date. Composting your herbs and spices lends a pleasing scent to the compost area, and some herbs and spices will repel certain insects and furry creatures.

Though it's fine to add any of your herbs and spices to your compost pile, there are specific ones that may prove to be better deterrents to insect and animal pests than others. Growing certain fragrant flowering herbs in your garden helps repel pests, including ants and mosquitoes, and the dried versions of these herbs retain enough scent to continue to be effective. The fragrant dried herbs that will help deter insect pests include rosemary, basil, sage, thyme, and oregano. 

Mice and other rodents have a strong sense of smell and are particularly sensitive to strongly-scented herbs and spices. They particularly hate mint, and peppermint oil is a great mouse deterrent in the basement or garage (I've used it in my old camper to keep them from nesting in winter). They also dislike the smell of many of the spices you may use in your cooking. If you have expired jars of dried mint leaves, cinnamon, cloves, red pepper flakes, or star anise, these are great additions to your compost pile to deter mice and other rodents.

So, if you've gone through your herbs and spices and cleared out the expired ones, don't just dump them in your compost all at once. You can add one or two at a time, or mix them all together to sprinkle on top of your pile throughout the season. Also, be sure to wait until you've added a new layer of plant waste before adding more herbs or spices, so their strong fragrance stays near the surface.