Compost Ratio? What does 2 to 1 mean?

The key to a good compost is what you put into it.  The result is quality compost.  You may have heard the terms brown and green. Brown materials are things like leaves.  If you don’t have any leaves, substitute corrugated cardboard, shredded paper, or paper towels for the leaves as your brown. Green materials are vegetative materials like lettuce and apples.  The ratio is the amount of brown to amount of green material in the compost pile.  The rule of thumb is 2 parts brown for 1 part green. People often get confused over the brown to green ratio and often end up with too much green and not enough brown.   In conclusion, the ratio is a simple way to make sure that the organic matter going in to the compost pile is balance.