Recent Posts
-
Admin
Mar
11
Composting
March 11, 2007 | 10 Comments
“Man’s work with Nature that furthers Nature’s aims is the work that rewards him the best.”
- I-Ching
Spring’s here.
It’s time to attend to our compost bin. Compost is a natural soil amendment created from organic household and yard waste. Nitrogen, carbon, water and air combine to transform waste into rich top soil, that we use to nourish our organic vegetable garden. We do not use any pesticides or chemical fertilisers while growing vegetables each season.
Last year’s lettuce and spinach crop enhanced with compost.
We started composting two years ago. We live in a place that freezes in winter, so our composting endeavours extend from spring to fall. Some avid composters in places like Alaska continue adding to the pile in winter, but we don’t venture into our backyard at all during that time of year. We usually end up with two batches of compost – one in spring, and another in fall. We keep feeding the pile, meanwhile. This year we hope to be more efficient in our composting endeavours.
Composting is a science.
Compost is not just decayed organic matter. Composting is applied microbiology at its most complex, involving the interactions of thousands upon thousands of different species of microorganisms (2 million individuals per gram) in a highly complex ecosystem. The composting process kills weed seeds and suppresses human and plant pathogens; that doesn’t happen when leaves and other detritus rot down on their own.
Once applied, compost “balances” the soil flora: that is, for each of the scores or more of disease organisms that can affect each species of plant, at least 12 to 15 different species of bio-control microorganisms need to be present, with the food and conditions they require, if the plant is to be healthy. Composting accomplishes that, among other things …
It’s estimated that a human with a compost fork and a watering-can, carefully piling up organic matter with the correct C/N ratio, water content and aeration so that it cooks away at high temperatures and emits jets of steam, can make as much topsoil in a year as nature can make in a century, and nature definitely approves.
Compost materials are assembled in the correct proportion of “Greens” (nitrogen-rich) or wet ingredients, and “Browns” (carbon-rich) or dry ingredients to achieve an overall carbon/nitrogen ratio of 25-30:1. Put simply, fresh green matter such as grass clippings, vegetable wastes, fresh leaves, etc, contain a lot of nitrogen. So does manure, bloodmeal, kitchen scraps, alfalfa meal, and hay. Fallen leaves, straw, sawdust, shredded newspaper and cardboard, wood chips — browns — contain high proportions of carbon. See mroe on carbon-nitrogen ratios here.
A proper balance of “dry” and “wet” matter (usually a proportion of 3:1) ensures an odour-free properly balanced pile that yields rich, organic matter that serves as a natural fertiliser for our vegetable garden. We haven’t mastered the details yet, but we have had decent results so far.
We are what you’d call “casual composters”. We don’t follow any set regimen for composting. We just toss things in our compost pile as and when we generate waste paper or kitchen scraps. We aim a hose at it once in a while and turn it around every few weeks. While it takes us three to four months (less in summer) to convert the pile into rich organic matter, it doesn’t bother us with any odour, or pests, and reduces the waste we have to put out on trash day.
Here’s how we do it.
Two years ago, we went to Home Depot and got a large plastic bin (a black one is preferable ), drilled a few holes on the sides and bottom, and placed it directly on the soil in a corner of our backyard. The holes allow for air circulaton and enhanced bacterial action.
We pulled out the weed barrier from under the compost bin, because direct contact with the soil invites more micro organisms.
We have a paper shredder that converts all our junk mail into tiny bits of potential compost. This, along with the dry leaves during fall, forms the bulk of our “dry matter” that produces carbon. J’s woodworking endeavours yield some sawdust, and this is one of the richest sources of carbon in our pile.
We also try and remember to keep a “garbage bowl” next to us while working in the kitchen, to collect all the food scraps and peels while cooking. The contents of this bowl go into our compost pile. This is the “wet” component that produces nitrogen.
We DO NOT add
- dairy or animal products (egg shells are an exception).
- grass clippings that have been treated with chemicals like weed killers.
- weeds we have pulled out of the yard, in case the seeds find their way into the compost pile and generate new weeds the next season.
- laminated paper or credit cards that have been shredded, as they do not decompose well.
An open compost pile decomposes faster owing to better air circulation and exposure to the sun. We, however, keep ours closed because it gets very windy where we live, and we do not want birds scattering the contents of the bin everywhere.
You do not need a yard to compost. You can do it in a bucket on your patio.
Every few days, we add some water to the bin until it is barely wet. Then we turn the contents over with a pitchfork, and add new matter. We add a couple of handful of soils from time to time, to introduce more microorganisms into the pile.
Our compost bin is odour free, and so is the compost we generate. One can stand next to the bin and not smell a thing. That has to do with the amount of dry stuff like shredded paper we add to the pile. All the junk mail is put to good use.
The optimum ratio for dry to wet matter in the pile is 3:1, and we try to maintain it.
The carbon/nitrogen ratio: A mixture of dry leaves, sawdust, or other sources of carbon combined with manure, green plants, or fertilizer for nitrogen (approximately 4:1 by volume).
**The presence of microorganisms: A few shovels full of rich garden soil or compost will supply these.
**The moisture level: The pile should have the moisture of a well-squeezed sponge. Add water as needed.
**The oxygen level: A compost pile should be turned periodically to promote decay of its contents. Turning the pile adds oxygen, so the more you turn it, the faster it breaks down. (Turning heavy, rotting leaves and grass is vigorous exercise!)
**The particle size: The finer the particle size, the more surface there is for microorganisms to work. Shredding leaves and larger materials generates compost faster.
Filed Under: compost, composting, GARDENING, HOW TO, lifestyle, MUSINGS
|
10 Comments
Thats nice Bee that you do the composting your self. last year we added organic manure to our veggie patch while preparing the soil and no other fertilizer after that, and if I get time to plant this year will do the same
But I wish we could do it ourselves like you guys but theres hardly any time
do post about your veggie garden, sandeepa. i’d love to see what you grow. – bee
These are some great tips….I do use eggshells in my roses and they turn out really nice. Sometimes, I use expired IV Solutions from the hospital(dextrose,saline & the like) to give my ailing flowers a boost…they work wonders in small quantities.
Bee, u have a very unique page here loaded with info on a variety of stuff..jugalbandi is becoming one of my favourite pages. U re lucky to have ur own veggie garden. I miss all that staying in a matchbox apartment!
Shn
shn, we used to grow some stuff in our balcony when we lived in a matchbox apartment. try it. – bee
wow! Crocus in bloom already. I am waiting for them to bloom over here in CT. Is the lettuce from this year? I didn’t have any luck with lettuce last year. Care to share your tricks.
We haven’t tried our hand at composting it. My parents are old hands at it, and when they visit us this summer, I am going to take lessons.
Bee, you rock! I wish I had your patience and time to get stuff like this done.
gini, we’ll be posting a series on gardening beginning next week – both indoor and outdoor. the lettuce and spinach are from last year.
cynthia, jai’s the gardener in the family. he deserves all the credit. – bee
“gardener” is a stretch…i was going to mow down the raspberry plant when a friend of mine said that it would come back the following year. i didnt believe him…but am excited to see some baby leaves already
never really grew much from seed – although I am going to try this year. stay tuned ! — Jai
I’m looking forward to these series here. While I don’t really compost, I do put all my kitchen waste in a planter to the side of her house. It seems to be bottomless, and hasn’t filled yet! I do get the mail to turn it on occasion but have never retrieved any compost. At least I am contributing less to the city dump and the nutrients are somehow finding their way back to the soil – somewhere!!
Though my hankerchief garden is constrained on sunlight, I do manage a few herbs and lots of space for butterflies (and the caterpillars naturally!)
you can directly dump the kitchen waste on the soil or in your pots. it’s amazing how many things one can grow indoors, esp. in india. – bee
Bee, cme to know thru dining hall that u re starting a gradening special series, I am looking forward to that. Yes, Bee I do have a pretty good collection of indoor plants and some flowers in our apartment, but I want moooooooooooree…i like the idea of haging around in our backyard, pampering my veggies
Hey , why no post today, I came to read some good stuff 
Shn
Bee, thanks so much for this info. I considered composting a little while ago, but gave up the idea, due to space restraints..and from what I read at that time, seemed like it would smell unless I put it far away from our house. But your post has inspired me to revisit the idea..I’ll try it on a small scale first.
btw, do you publish rss feeds for your blog? can you give me the link?
You can subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking on the orange icon
at the bottom of every articlein the right sidebar on the home page. Let us know if this does not work — Jai[...] is. You can see how big the raspberry has grown in a year if you compare to the second picture in this post. We have planted spinach where you can see lettuce. Red and green lettuce, brussel sprouts, [...]
[...] 1. Make them part of a bouquet. 2. Distribute radish mice among kids in your neighbourhood. 3. Donate them. 4. Enrich your soil. [...]