Compost

One very easy thing you can do to reduce your impact on the planet, and bolster your gardening efforts, is to compost.  Compost makes rich fertilizer and mulch out of yard waste, food scraps, tree trimmings, old lumber and even certain types of paper.  You can even compost human wastes, although you may not want to use that to grow vegetable crops.

There are two basic schools of thought with regards to home composting:

1. fast breakdown, more work
2. slow breakdown, less work

Either one can produce suitable compost. Fences, grates and bins may look smart, and may occasionally make things break down faster, but are not necessary.

How to build a fast-burning compost pile:

• Get a spinning composter:
• Get a heat-assisted composter.
• Get serious power equipment:  Your city or county government may purchase enormous equipment to grind, shred, pile and aerate local lawn trimmings.  They probably won't let you borrow it.  However, the end product may be available to you for much less than the cost of purchasing bags of compost at your local Wal-Mart.
• Use lots of grass clippings.

How to build a slow-burning compost pile:

1. Pick a good location: in hot, dry climates, it should be a shady, cooler location.  In cold or wet climates, it should be a well-ventilated location.
2. Break up the ground a bit:  You don't have to dig the location, but aerate the top layer of soil and completely remove weeds. If this is your first pile in the area, you may wish to add some worms: Red worms are best, but nightcrawlers will do.
3. Start with a layer of small sticks or brush:  The idea is to trap some air pockets at the bottom.
4. Build your pile in layers:  When possible, alternate layers of brown materials and green materials.  The mixing of carbon (brown) and nitrogen (green) wastes fosters breakdown. A layer of green grass, covered with a layer of wood chips or dead leaves, works well. Paper and cardboard is carbon.  Coffee is nitrogen.
5. Chop up big things:  Fruit rinds, over-the-hill garden plants, etc. all break down faster when chopped up.  Try a machete: sharper blade equals much less work.
6. Keep the pile damp:  Not wet, damp.  In areas with dry seasons, sprinkle the entire pile for no more than five minutes a couple of times a week in the evening. 
7. No meat or fat:  Fatty table scraps or meat leftovers tend to attract pests.  Bread, some chips and crackers and most tortillas seem ok.
8. Make your pile as big as possible:  Bigger piles burn hotter.  Anything much smaller than roughly three feet in diameter will break down very slowly, and may not break down completely in any amount of time. Lawn cuttings break down relatively fast.
9. Crack the thing open once in a while:  This doesn't mean turn the pile upside down.  Just break it open with a spading fork, a rake or a shovel.  Let some air in.
10. Keep building:  Depending on the size of your yard and the amount of waste you generate, the pile will take 4-12 months to produce a meaningful amount of compost.  Get materials where you can.  Perhaps a neighbor with a big yard can help. 
11. Keep a tub in your kitchen:  A one-gallon plastic ice-cream bucket seems about the right size.  Keep the lid on when not in use; empty regularly.  People with more class should purchase a special "compost crock' for their kitchen.  Put all your vegetable trimmings in there.
12. Be picky about your materials:   Never put Bermuda Grass or other really tough, noxious weeds in your pile.  Beware of vines, burrs, any seed heads or root-runner plants and other potential fringe survivors.  Watch out for heavily fertilized or pesticide laden lawn clippings.

Harvesting your compost:

Without building specific apparatus, the easiest way is with a screen or a series of screens, and a big wheelbarrow. Place the screen over the wheelbarrow.  Shovel the compost on.  Shake or scrape with shovel to force the compost through.  Keep going until the barrow is full or until you have all you need.  Use while fresh to take advantage of teeming microbial life.  Keep the screening discards for re-composting.

Composting with manure:

Many kinds of manure makes a fine addition to compost pile, can increase composting temperatures and can result in a compost which is more like a fertilizer.  All manures should be completely composted before tillage.  Treat manure like nitrogen; layer it in between carbons, like sawdust, wood chips, leaves or dry grasses.

Human manure:

Believe it or not, this is composting of human wastes is managed successfully in many parts of the world with no ill health affects.  It has been done for thousands of years.  It need not be stinky or unsanitary.

Human compost may not be suitable for growing vegetables, especially root crops; however, it is perfectly suited to trees, flowers and other plantings.  Use it in a wood-lot, a hedge row or buffer zones.

Check these sites for information on composting toilets and "humanure"

• The Humanure Handbook
• Canadian Office of Urban Agriculture
• University of Kentucky on humanure and forest restoration:  Includes a brief fertilizer analysis.

Vermicomposting:

This is the art of worm composting.  The end product is a very beneficial soil amendment.  Although we recommend adding worms to any compost pile, worm composting can be done in your apartment, in your office, in a classroom, just about anywhere.

Worm composting resources:

• Worm composter from our affiliate, Real Goods.
• California Integrated Waste Management Board: vermicomposting resources
• Study on earthworm castings as a soil builder  (North Carolina State University Extension)

Cautions:

Always be careful when handling manures of any kind.  Never use any manure which is not fully composted.  

Large compost piles can spontaneously combust.  Keep tabs on the temperature of large piles.  Keep them away from dry forests or grasslands.

Pine and redwood tend to be quite acidic.  A large amount of pine or redwood can reduce microbial activity in the compost pile, and kill worms.

Use paper layers sparingly.  Avoid colored ink, glossy paper and chipboards. Shred paper whenever practical.

Enter your compost tips or secret ingredients here!