Posted on 05/19/2009 5:11:40 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
I imagine I first heard the word "compost" about 40 years ago. Around the same time, I first encountered the word "organic." Since then, the concepts represented by those words have become hopelessly complex and even ambiguous. As "organic" gardening steadily grew in popularity, the word inevitably was adopted by corporate advertisers, and it's meaning was diluted. Government regulation soon followed to complete the destruction of what once was a simple idea and a common, useful word.
"Compost" still has a definition on which most of us can agree, but it's anything but simple. Over the years, I've seen scores of articles providing basic instruction, personal experiences, abstract theories and advanced, scholarly, annotated tutorials on making organic compost. Apparently, people ponder and worry endlessly about the exact temperature, moisture content and chemical composition of their rotting piles. Just as with nutrition, the literature on the topic has accumulated until the indecisive are doomed to remain so. Every imaginable theory and formula, and an endless parade of dubious and even preposterous assertions about the decomposition of matter are available for the curious and the gullible to consider. Just to get on with the business of growing the garden and eating well, therefore, I've resolved to rely on instinct over scholarship, and my first instinct is to keep it simple.
What could be simpler than compost? I want it to turn my garden soil into a better growing medium by providing texture and nutrition. I cultivate a variety of plants for food and decoration, big and small, annual and perennial, deciduous and evergreen, cooked and raw, roots and fruits, leaves and stems, flowers and seeds. Perennials come and go occasionally, annuals more frequently. If I were obsessively scientific, I could custom make a little compost for the specific needs of each plant, but in my varied but simple garden, one size must fit all.
I keep livestock and chickens, so an ample supply of manure and used bedding is always available and forms the bulk of my compost. I eschew science in its application, although I'm vaguely aware of the nitrogen content in various types of manure. I apply fresh manure to the compost whenever the impulse strikes me and whenever I clean the chicken house. A compost pile is a lot like a stomach; whatever you put in at the top looks remarkably similar when it comes out at the bottom. You just can't go wrong with manure.
With the exception of a few things which have been conceived in laboratories, everything decomposes, but some things take a little longer. Metals and plastics, for example, are of no use because, unless they are ground as fine as flour, they provide neither texture nor nutrition, and they are unlikely to decompose in my lifetime. Of course, I studiously avoid anything I suspect is poisonous, and my domestic critters get first right of refusal on anything I suspect is nutritious. I can compost it after it passes through the animal. Beyond those simple rules, almost anything goes.
The advice against composting meat and dairy products is rampant to the point of religious fervor, especially among vegetarians. The only simple and reasonable explanation for this advice is that some unwelcome wild animals—black bears, coyotes, raccoons and rodents, for example—may be attracted. I'm not especially concerned because my pile is inside the fence and because I suspect these omnivores are just as likely to be curious about a vegetarian pile. I don't create concentrated masses of rotting meat, but I'm not concerned if some leftover flesh finds its way into the pile from time to time.
Paper products are virtually void of nutrition, but I don't take any particular care to separate them. At worst, they are neutral, they may provide desirable texture and most of them decompose quickly with even a small amount of moisture. Other fibrous material, such as stems and stalks, decompose slowly and are difficult to move with a shovel or a pitchfork unless they are chipped, so I keep a separate, long-term pile for things like pruned vines and fruit tree branches, large garden plants like corn and sunflowers, etc. I cut them down to lengths of about three feet, and whenever I sweep up the sawdust in my wood shop or empty the ashes from the wood stove, I dump them into that pile to hold moisture and, thus, speed up decomposition. Yes, I hear the advice against sawdust and ashes—something about acidity and pH balance—but after a couple of years, when the bottom layers of my long-term pile start looking like dirt ready to be added to the garden beds, it doesn't seem to matter.
On those rare occasions when I use a chipper, and I don't want to leave the product where it lays, I can use it to mulch walkways rather than put it directly in the compost or the garden beds.
Moisture
Sure. Gotta have it, but you don't have to measure it. If your pile dries out sometimes or never gets enough water, the organisms which cause the pile to decompose won't thrive, and you'll have to wait longer for a pile of garbage and manure to become a pile of fertile dirt. If you are impatient and a bit compulsive, you'll want to carefully measure and control the moisture in your pile, but if you have better things to worry about, you still can have a fertile garden, sooner or later.
My compost piles are near my garden beds and adjacent to a small patch of lawn. They get moisture during the dry season whenever I put the sprinkler on the grass. When I'm watering potted plants, I turn the hose on the compost piles if they look dry.
Covering
I never do it, not because I don't believe in it; I'm just too lazy to remove a cover and put it back every time I feed the pile. If you're up to it, a dark plastic cover will hold the moisture and raise the temperature, resulting in faster decomposition. A cover also is essential if you're intent on controlling the moisture content and preventing the rain and snow from washing the nutrients into the soil beneath the pile. For me, the nutrients which leach off are just the cost of doing business. I still get high quality compost for my garden beds. If you have the space to rotate the location of your piles, you'll find a superior place for a new garden bed where your compost used to be. The same is true for your poultry run.
Turning
All the known literature about composting insists on the necessity of turning the pile. Disturbing the pile once in a while distributes the heat and moisture more evenly, and aerates the pile, generally mixing the various materials more thoroughly, resulting in a consistent blend. When you move a well-turned pile to the garden, every shovel full looks the same. Turning, like covering and other steps in controlling moisture content, also promotes faster decomposition. In fact, a more tedious, scientific approach to compost usually is at least as much about impatience as it is about nutrients.
Esthetic considerations also lead to the scientific compost pile. My uncovered, unturned pile of random ingredients isn't pretty, and around the edges, it doesn't decompose as quickly as the steamy core. When I move it to the garden beds, I still can identify some egg shells, citrus peels and avocado pits, but my garden doesn't mind. The corn grows just as tall, the tomatoes just as firm and sweet, and I cover it with mulch anyway.
Material that is not fully decomposed is likely to contain active, unwanted seeds leading to the dreaded task of weeding the garden. A properly moistened, well-heated, well-turned, evenly decomposed compost pile will sterilize all the seeds it contains, but no matter how pristine our compost and no matter how thoroughly we mulch, weeds still grow and we still pull them out. Or not. I've harvested a lot of food from plants that have volunteered, but whether I pull them out or let them grow, I just can't distinguish the volunteers out of the compost from the airborne and bird borne varieties.
Testing
Serious composters like to test their finished product to help them decide what goes into future piles. Some even use store-bought nutrients to achieve the desired balance. I might do the same if I were in the business of packaging and selling compost, but all I'm doing is growing vegetables. If any or all of the vegetables I plant fail to thrive, I will test my soil and, if necessary, add the store-bought stuff directly to the garden. I wouldn't think of testing the raw manure, so I don't test the compost either. If I'm going to worry about the precise balance of nutrients, the garden beds are where I'll focus my attention. As long as my garden is producing what I'm expecting for my table, I have no need to know what it will produce in a test tube.
Containers
Just an improvement on a plastic cover, a tumbler is appealing because it makes the turning so much easier, and it panders to our impatience by turning things like manure, grass, straw and well chopped table scraps into rich loam in as little as a couple of weeks. But it takes many tumblers to equal the quantity which can be produced in piles on the ground. You can buy or build larger containers with convenient doors and lids. Some even have bells and whistles like thermostats, automatic waterers and mechanical cultivators, but if your goal is just to grow some vegetables, the cost is out of proportion to the results. I make three-sided enclosures from salvaged pallets fastened together with zip ties. They last at least three years.
Odor
I've never been moved to put anything in my piles for odor control, but if the neighbors a quarter-mile away are offended, and the bears are converging from miles around, your pile must be fermenting without decomposing, and you need to be a little more scientific. On the other hand, it is garbage and manure. If your olfactory sensibilities can't tolerate a modest acquaintance with these fragrances, organic gardening may not be the hobby for you.
The simple, basic truth about composting is that the best fertilizer is free, and you don't need to be a scientist or a tireless laborer to get it. Without studying too often, worrying too much, or working too hard, I make fine compost, grow successful gardens, and I never send any organic material to the landfill. From the first time I stuck a shovel into the ground, those have been the simple goals.
Thanks! I’m sure you’re PLENTY busy these days. I’m just getting cranked up. ;)
Compost mostly comes from Washington DC nowadays... at least, that’s what we have to call it on a family forum. /rimshot
There is nothing better than compost. I’m going to try to get a hold of some mushroom compost and worm castings this summer. Also plan to get some nice mushy seaweed, give it a good washing with fresh water and work it into the garden. Should make a nice compost.
Has anyone out there ever tried heating a hot house with fresh manure? I have a friend who used to heat her cold frames with horse manure. I want to be able to try and winter over some stuff in my hot house in Nova Scotia but am way too cheap to use fuel. I’m thinking of pails of fresh horse manure. The building is pretty small so it might just work.
I remember seeing a program years ago on PBS about a woman who had a greenhouse attached to her chicken house. She vented the chicken air, which was very warm, into the greenhouse and had free heat all winter. I believe the her property was somewhere in the northeast but can’t be positive.
Heeee Heeeee! Yes even on those days!
Nobody’s got me beat for crabby days.........I think my posting privileges were saved last Thursday because my puter shut down on me...........
You might enjoy Elliot Coleman’s books. He gardens year-round using movable hoop houses...in Maine! :)
http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/
His wife is Barbara Damrosch and she knows her stuff as well (at the same site.)
I’ve been logging 60 hour weeks in the endless RAIN, fer Pete’s Sake. Do you know how HARD it is to sell annuals in the rain? No sales, no ‘Pink Cadillac’ at the end of this Living Hell. ;)
Did I mention that it’s been raining a lot? LOL!
Rain in the forecast and a certified Commie in the White House! Who wouldn’t be crabby? LOL!
Yeah, but my busy has so little to do with gardening it ain’t even funny.
I’m actually kind of happy (well that’s probably too strong a word) that the riding mower is still not working and all the grass/weeds need to be done with a regular mower because when hubby’s not home I can go push that for a while and not have to deal with the dag-gonned telephone constantly ringing.
I really wish I could find a job and then I wouldn’t have time to deal with school, softball, girl scouts, church, and 100 other things everyone seems to need me for.........maybe then I would be able to do some gardening :)
I LOVE to mow the grass. Ours is about thigh-high...it’s not drying out enough to mow between rainstorms. Grrrrrrr!
How are your peppers doing? What’s the ‘Pepper Jelly Forecast’ for this season? ;)
I hear ya!!!! I truly do. I feel like I’m living in a swamp and it really bites because I know danged well that we won’t get any rain for the next several months.
I like most bugs, except potato beetles which are immune to everything except brick A and brick B, at least here. And anything that bites, of which we have an over abundance. LOL
Fireants are in a category all of their own. Nasty things.
We get those huge grasshoppers here—the ones that are about three inches long. The grasshoppers even eat porch screens. Thanks to the environazis, we can only get plastic screen. June bugs are pretty cool.
My garden is doing much better than I expected this year. We have been eating fresh yellow squash for several days and even had the heirloom grape tomatoes ripen already.
I never thought I’d see the day my wife would eat fried squash, but I fried two in olive oil and she ate the better part of two whole squash. Wonders never cease.
The constant rain we’ve been having is why mowing is occurring everyday that it isn’t raining. The riding mower gets it all done in 2 afternoons. With the regular one it is every day. I got most of the west side yard done yesterday, and hubby started the east side today. Problem is, he had done both last Thursday.
Everything BUT my peppers are growing like weeds. Well, and some tomatoes.......
Miscommunication between mommy and 10yo cost me some 30 beefsteak tomato plants. I was not a happy camper, but it was totally my fault.
I’m having seriously lousy luck with peppers on the whole. I’m doing fine with cayennes and yellow hungarians, but that is about it. I’ve got a few jalapenos and a couple assorted other ones, but other than that, PHHHHHHHHHFFFFFFFFTTTTTTT on my peppers.
Ask me about basil and that’s a whole other story -— I could keep you in pesto for years with how much I’ve got :)
Talk about understatement.........
I assure you I will never forget sitting on a pile of them -----while wearing hotpants. That evening gave a truly new meaning to that style of short shorts.
Fresh squash sauted in olive oil? HEAVEN on a plate!!!!!!!
I try to compost most organic material scraps. I compost pine needles and aspen leaves that I rake up in the yard. I compost kitchen scraps and even used paper towels. I made a 16X16 ft area boardered with stacked rocks on a sloping yard and had 3 ft at the deep end and sloping up to about 1 inch at the top. I would just bury kitchen scraps into a trench and mix in dirt to help the breakdown. It all looks browh in a few months. I just moved compost around to make a terraced, raised bed and to work some compost into the ground in rows just in back of this compost area. I will have a 16X16 ft area that is very good compost and a 20X25 area that has rows enhanced down to 12 to 18 inches depending on the difficulty of large rocks encountered here at 8,500 ft elevation in the Colorado Rockies. I plan on gradually enhancing the 20X25 area and building it up into raised beds. I have these areas fenced now to keep the pesky fox out that digs up everything looking for something edible. I will have to see how the fence works against the occasional bear. I have a big stack of rocks over 50lbs each that I have dug out of the garden areas to build the outside border of the next raised bed areas. Since I am gardening in my compost area now I will need to rotate areas where I am burying kitchen scraps. I will use the pine needles and aspen leaves to fill walkways between raised beds and then work them in at the end of the season. If I don’t bury the kitchen scraps deeply I will be inviting bear trouble. A compost bin would be nice, but would not survive the summer.
bookmark
Are any of you familiar with “Lasagna Gardening”? I just received the 2nd advertisement from Rodale this year for the book. It looks interesting, but don’t think I will be spending the money for the book. Guess I will check to see if the library has it.
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