The Holistic Gardening Series: There's (Black) Gold In Them Thar Piles! (Part 3)

Composting Is Fairly Easy, But There Are A Few Do's And Don'ts:

Don't use animal scraps such as meat, fat, or bone. Don't add last night's french fries, either! If a food, even a vegetable, was cooked in fat or had butter or margarine on it, don't add it to the compost pile unless you don't mind rats, mice, skunks, raccoons, or the neighborhood dogs and cats grubbing around your compost and yard. It will also smell supremely nasty as it decomposes, attracting flies and other noxious insect pests as well.

Don't compost pet, carnivore, or human manure, which can harbor dangerous parasites or micro-organisms that do not get destroyed in the composting process, even by hot composting.

Don't overload your compost pile with an abundance of garden dirt. Only a bare minimum of nutrient- and organism-rich soil is necessary on the layers. Too much will slow down the process.

Keep it turned, if it is a hot compost pile. Turning the pile a week to every ten days should be adequate.

Don't allow your compost mound to dry out. Also, don't allow it to become a soggy mess!

Chop coarse materials to make them more fine in texture. This will increase the surface area where beneficial microbes can do their work.

Don't compost diseased plants or canes, particularly if cold composting.

Don't compost any plant that is invasive or has gone to seed, particularly weeds and most particularly if you are using the cold composting method.

Don't compost synthetic material or paper that has an inorganic based ink.

Don't compost barbecue charcoal remains or ashes.

Thwarting The Composter's Blues: Troubleshooting:

If your compost smells like last year's Easter Eggs or a bottle of household ammonia, in other words, very offensive smelling, it may be too wet or may have too much green material in it. Allow it to dry out, turn it to loosen, and add more brown material and mix.

If your compost is just sitting there, not working: Turn it, add more green material to it, and add more activator. Also be sure that it is moist enough.

If you are cold composting and find a bunch of fine white threads, take heart. These are the normal filaments of soil fungi, doing their job. They are harmless.

As your hot compost mound starts to cool in the winter, you can continue the process by adding more compost accelerator and covering the pile lightly with a tarp. Just be aware that when the weather truly turns cold, the process will slow or stop altogether. Towards the end of winter into early spring, add some accelerator to get the process going again.

Is It Ready Yet???

Your hot compost bin or pile is ready when it is no longer working or heating up and the material is basically earthy-smelling, brown and soil-like with very few distinguishable organic materials in it other than a few twigs or eggshells. You can apply this in its rough state to your garden beds and incorporate it into the soil or you can run it through a sieve to get the coarser materials out, if you plan to use it in a potting mix. Just return those coarse materials back to the new compost pile you will be starting.

Cold composting piles generally are finished from the ground up; check the base of the pile, and if it is dark, earthy smelling and appearing, it is ready to use. The same principles as for hot composting apply.

Alternative Methods Of Composting I feel sorry for those who have moved into a housing development or town that will not allow open bin or open pile composting! Take heart, there are alternative methods for composting, and here are a few, briefly detailed:

Compost Tumblers: These are containers which are turned daily or every few days after the materials are added. The turning aerates the materials, and finished compost happens fairly quickly. They are closed composting systems, and as such, can offer good results for gardeners who are faced with restrictions on open methods of composting. They will not yield huge volumes of compost, but they do get the job done.

Direct Burial: Perhaps the least labor-intensive method of all. Bury your scraps in your garden near a plant or side dress your vegetable patch with the same materials you would use in a general compost pile. If you are using a lot of brown material, be sure it is finely chopped, and add a little organic fertilizer or manure to get the process going and to prevent the brown material from "robbing" nearby plants of much-needed nitrogen. It is recommended to dig this in about 6 inches into the ground.

Sheet Composting: This is a way to improve soil right at the site: Start by layering 10 to 12 sheets of newspaper on the ground, add about three or four inches of manure, layer clippings, leaves, scraps, etc., over the top, add layers of manure and peat, and repeat the process in layers. Sprinkle each layer as you go, and add manure to the top layer. Cover with a tarp, and in about 6 to 9 months, remove the tarp and plant directly in the resulting planting bed.

Vermiculture, or Worm Composting: The idea here is to use red wrigglers, or red worms, for composting. The containers have holes for ventilation and drainage, but with screen over the bottom holes and the top to prevent the escape of the worms. They are filled with bedding, which can be shredded, moistened and not soggy newspaper. Add scraps, about a half cup or so of dirt for grit for the worms, add the worms, and let them do their thing. About 1000 worms per two gallon container would work quite well. As the material is reduced, add more bedding and scraps. You can separate the worms very easily by adding fresh scraps to one end of the container, covering it loosely with finished compost. The worms will migrate within a couple of hours to the fresh scraps, and you can remove the finished compost. The worms will stay active above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Be sure if this method is used indoors to have the container elevated and within another container that will catch the runoff of moisture, which can be used on houseplants.

That's about it! Now, with all the wealth of material that any household generates, it simply makes good sense to recycle and reuse whatever we can. You and I can have wonderful soil in a few short years if we begin to renew or improve it with rich compost. It truly is "Black Gold"!