Sunday, March 29, 2009
COMPOST! What is Compost? Compost is nature’s age-old, evolutionarily perfected method of recycling, of turning animal wastes and dead matter into soil. The process that gardeners and farmers use is basically aerobic (aerobic means with oxygen) decomposition adapted for the best possible efficiency. There are as many ways of making compost as there are farms and gardens; your process will depend on climate, space, what kind of inputs you’ve got, shade, and other variables. Compost has two basic ingredients: brown or carbon-rich matter, and green or nitrogen-rich matter. Green matter consists of fresh yard waste and food scraps, and manure if you can get it. Brown matter includes dry yard waste, small sticks (big ones don’t decompose that fast), straw, etc. Why Compost? Compost is a good thing to do because it takes care of two problems at once: the problem of organic wastes going to the landfill, and the problem of fertilizer. Approximately a third of all trash in landfills is compostable, but does not decay in landfills because it is compacted and fossilized. In our current food system, we take the soil nutrients that plants have converted into something useful and delicious out of the farm, but do not return them by way of decomposing matter, as happens in natural systems. Without fertile soil, the land will cease to produce, as happened in the Midwest in the 1930’s during the Dust Bowl. We can’t ask the plants to give us food without any nutrients to make food out of. We need to return the nutrients to the soil in order to continue producing food—we need to feed the soil. In conventional farming, we do this with fertilizers made from petroleum, but this doesn’t do a very complete job. In addition, if you look at a handful of good compost, there will be lots of little bits of leaf and stick and bugs holding the handful together. That’s called organic matter, and without it, soil is just dust and can be blown or washed away, as is happening in many places. Lucky for us, we’ve got compost, which nature intended to do the job of feeding the soil very well; and it does. Compost, and healthy soil, is alive. How To Compost: A Couple Different Models, and Some Resources Here’s how we do compost at PICA*, which is a medium-scale project. We have 152 people living in the Village; about half of them probably use the compost for its full value. We have a small garden, about half and acre, and are lucky to get manure from a nearby farm to supplement our inputs. (Ideally, we’d keep our own chickens and a goat or mule, and they’d provide manure. But the University won’t let us have animals, to our dismay.) The Garden provides a lot of weeds and plant products. Our system has six 4’ by 4’ bins, which can be opened at the front and sides to enable turning. Each week, we turn the compost into the bin to the right. We build a new pile in the farthest left bin, and sift the finished compost at the far right for use in the Garden. This turning aerates the pile, giving the microorganisms that do the dirty work oxygen. Without oxygen, the process becomes anaerobic, or rots, which exudes methane gas, smells bad and attracts maggots and other unpleasant things. Now for the process of building. Building is the most fun, and here’s how we do it. One layer of brown, ideally with some sticks so that air can get in underneath, a bit One layer of green weeds (not food) One layer of manure Another layer of brown Another layer of green Another layer of manure (Here begins the pattern that you want to repeat until the pile is finished.) Another layer of brown Now a layer of food scraps A layer of brown A layer of manure Brown Food scraps…repeat. You can mix green yard waste in with the brown stuff, if you like. Basically what matters is that you want to alternate brown and green layers, so that the carbon and nitrogen mix. Finish with several layers of brown and green yard waste, which are uninteresting to rodents and other pests; you don’t want them smelling food in your pile and hanging round. This method can work with as few as two bins. With two, have a “resting” pile, and one that you are adding to. A pile is resting when it gets full and the previously resting pile looks like black, rich soil. Worm Bins Worm bins are the best kind of compost for small households. They can be kept inside, do not require much in the way of inputs besides food scraps and don’t stink much if you treat them right. Worm bins are fairly simple to construct: Get a plastic or wood tub, with a lid, and poke holes in the sides. Put some soil, a little sand (worms use sand to grind up food in their gizzards) some food scraps and some newspaper in there. Mix it all up. It should be not too wet, not too dry—like a wrung-out sponge. The worms will do the rest for you! All you need to do is keep adding food scraps, take out the compost, separate out the worms and start over. You do this by, when it looks like there’s a lot of finished compost in there, scooting the finished looking compost to one side and the newer food scraps to the other side of your bin. Let it sit like that for about an hour. The worms will head to the food scraps and you are free to take out your compost and sift through it for any excess worms, which you’ll put back in your bin. There are some guidelines to follow, though. Too wet and your worms will drown and it will go anaerobic and smell bad, that’s a good way to tell; too dry and your worms will dry out. Usually, food scraps provide plenty of moisture, but you want to check every couple of days. Keep the lid on; worms like it dark. Worms are not partial to citrus or onions, but they love coffee grounds, apple cores and much more. You can buy worms at most garden stores. They come in a little ice cream container, a pound of Red Wigglers. They are not native earthworms, but won’t survive long in the soil outside. Still, you don’t want to release too many of them, and you want a steady supply of worms, so when you take the compost out, make sure to put the worms back in your bin. Some Resources —Comprehensive and engaging compost website: http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/index.php?p=1945 —Even the NY Times is into worms: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/garden/19worms.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2 *Program In Community and Agroecology, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, for lots of interesting gardening information and ideas: http://ucscpica.org/

COMPOST! What is Compost? Compost is nature’s age-old, evolutionarily perfected method of recycling, of turning animal wastes and dead matter into soil. The process that gardeners and farmers use is basically aerobic (aerobic means with oxygen) decomposition adapted for the best possible efficiency. There are as many ways of making compost as there are farms and gardens; your process will depend on climate, space, what kind of inputs you’ve got, shade, and other variables. Compost has two basic ingredients: brown or carbon-rich matter, and green or nitrogen-rich matter. Green matter consists of fresh yard waste and food scraps, and manure if you can get it. Brown matter includes dry yard waste, small sticks (big ones don’t decompose that fast), straw, etc. Why Compost? Compost is a good thing to do because it takes care of two problems at once: the problem of organic wastes going to the landfill, and the problem of fertilizer. Approximately a third of all trash in landfills is compostable, but does not decay in landfills because it is compacted and fossilized. In our current food system, we take the soil nutrients that plants have converted into something useful and delicious out of the farm, but do not return them by way of decomposing matter, as happens in natural systems. Without fertile soil, the land will cease to produce, as happened in the Midwest in the 1930’s during the Dust Bowl. We can’t ask the plants to give us food without any nutrients to make food out of. We need to return the nutrients to the soil in order to continue producing food—we need to feed the soil. In conventional farming, we do this with fertilizers made from petroleum, but this doesn’t do a very complete job. In addition, if you look at a handful of good compost, there will be lots of little bits of leaf and stick and bugs holding the handful together. That’s called organic matter, and without it, soil is just dust and can be blown or washed away, as is happening in many places. Lucky for us, we’ve got compost, which nature intended to do the job of feeding the soil very well; and it does. Compost, and healthy soil, is alive. How To Compost: A Couple Different Models, and Some Resources Here’s how we do compost at PICA*, which is a medium-scale project. We have 152 people living in the Village; about half of them probably use the compost for its full value. We have a small garden, about half and acre, and are lucky to get manure from a nearby farm to supplement our inputs. (Ideally, we’d keep our own chickens and a goat or mule, and they’d provide manure. But the University won’t let us have animals, to our dismay.) The Garden provides a lot of weeds and plant products. Our system has six 4’ by 4’ bins, which can be opened at the front and sides to enable turning. Each week, we turn the compost into the bin to the right. We build a new pile in the farthest left bin, and sift the finished compost at the far right for use in the Garden. This turning aerates the pile, giving the microorganisms that do the dirty work oxygen. Without oxygen, the process becomes anaerobic, or rots, which exudes methane gas, smells bad and attracts maggots and other unpleasant things. Now for the process of building. Building is the most fun, and here’s how we do it. One layer of brown, ideally with some sticks so that air can get in underneath, a bit One layer of green weeds (not food) One layer of manure Another layer of brown Another layer of green Another layer of manure (Here begins the pattern that you want to repeat until the pile is finished.) Another layer of brown Now a layer of food scraps A layer of brown A layer of manure Brown Food scraps…repeat. You can mix green yard waste in with the brown stuff, if you like. Basically what matters is that you want to alternate brown and green layers, so that the carbon and nitrogen mix. Finish with several layers of brown and green yard waste, which are uninteresting to rodents and other pests; you don’t want them smelling food in your pile and hanging round. This method can work with as few as two bins. With two, have a “resting” pile, and one that you are adding to. A pile is resting when it gets full and the previously resting pile looks like black, rich soil. Worm Bins Worm bins are the best kind of compost for small households. They can be kept inside, do not require much in the way of inputs besides food scraps and don’t stink much if you treat them right. Worm bins are fairly simple to construct: Get a plastic or wood tub, with a lid, and poke holes in the sides. Put some soil, a little sand (worms use sand to grind up food in their gizzards) some food scraps and some newspaper in there. Mix it all up. It should be not too wet, not too dry—like a wrung-out sponge. The worms will do the rest for you! All you need to do is keep adding food scraps, take out the compost, separate out the worms and start over. You do this by, when it looks like there’s a lot of finished compost in there, scooting the finished looking compost to one side and the newer food scraps to the other side of your bin. Let it sit like that for about an hour. The worms will head to the food scraps and you are free to take out your compost and sift through it for any excess worms, which you’ll put back in your bin. There are some guidelines to follow, though. Too wet and your worms will drown and it will go anaerobic and smell bad, that’s a good way to tell; too dry and your worms will dry out. Usually, food scraps provide plenty of moisture, but you want to check every couple of days. Keep the lid on; worms like it dark. Worms are not partial to citrus or onions, but they love coffee grounds, apple cores and much more. You can buy worms at most garden stores. They come in a little ice cream container, a pound of Red Wigglers. They are not native earthworms, but won’t survive long in the soil outside. Still, you don’t want to release too many of them, and you want a steady supply of worms, so when you take the compost out, make sure to put the worms back in your bin. Some Resources —Comprehensive and engaging compost website: http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/index.php?p=1945 —Even the NY Times is into worms: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/garden/19worms.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2 *Program In Community and Agroecology, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, for lots of interesting gardening information and ideas: http://ucscpica.org/

Posted at 12:33pm