So we learned from this quarter’s
Life’s Little Secrets segment that completing the
‘Circle of Life’ is essential for a perpetually healthy and
fertile system. We often forget what the actual purpose of a fruit or
vegetable is. It should fall to the ground and begin to biodegrade,
leaving the seeds in a fertile pocket left by the microorganisms that
devoured it. We break the ‘Circle’ when we take all of the fruit
that would more than replenish the soil. So what can we do?
Compost our scraps and give it back to
the soil. The beautiful thing is by composting the produce, paper,
cardboard and other recyclables we purchase, we can put far more into
our soil than we take from it. So here are some vital tips for anyone
ready to help their land feed itself. There are many ways to compost
and for different purposes. This is how to turn you household food
scraps into next year’s bountiful harvest. We will be covering
other forms of composting in later CYL How To blogs.
First, understand that there are foods
for the various fauna that exist in healthy soil. Having the right
quantity of browns, greens, high nitrogen, oxygen and moisture will
dictate how healthy your compost will be for the garden of your
choice. Brown materials are primarily fungal foods. Green and high
nitrogen materials, are primarily bacterial foods, and the water and
oxygen are to keep the organisms we want to thrive in our pile alive.
Here is a list of things that are
considered brown materials for your compost heap:
Fallen leaves, branches or wood chips ¼
inch to 3 inches in diameter, straw or other plant stalk materials
from the garden, pine needles, bark, paper, cardboard cut into
strips, and saw dust.
Green materials for your compost
heap are clover, vegetable scraps, egg shells, fruit waste, general
garden waste (clippings), green leaves, and two that are brown in
color... coffee grounds and peanut shells.
High nitrogen materials include
aged chicken manure, alfalfa, fresh grass clippings, seaweed, cow and
horse manure, and meat*.
First you will need to source enough
scraps to make an entire heap or pile so that as you add your scraps
over time it will be warm/cool enough in the center for microbes and
other decomposers to eat away at your freshest scraps. The pile
should be 3.5 feet tall and the base of the pile should have a
diameter at least 4 feet. The pile should consist of 50% browns and
50% greens… no more than 2% high nitrogen if you have some that you
don’t want to waste. Layer one on top of the other. Remember that
oxygen must flow through the pile. Air-pockets are the most important
attribute of a healthy compost pile. That means mixing wood chips
into greens that will collapse as they decompose.
Things to avoid:
- Compacting your pile and not allowing oxygen to penetrate all the way into the heap.
- *Meat and dairy until you get more experience in composting, so your first try is not marred by animals spreading your pile throughout the yard.
- Weeds. It is not optimal, in this kind of pile, to compost weeds especially if they have gone to seed. Using this method, they will not become sterilized and will likely sprout up when you use your finished compost.
- Over-saturating or allowing too much water into your compost heap.
- If you want to use any freshly-cut grass, avoid grass from artificially manicured properties. You don’t want the residues from lawn chemicals in your heap.
Once your pile is established, you can
water it gently. Put a tarp over it (to have control of water
saturation) and let it sit for a week. Now you can begin to put your
new food scraps in. Dig a hole 2 feet into the pile, put your scraps
in, and fill the hole back in. Leave a flag or some object in the
place where you put your last scrap in so you will know where to put
your next batch of scraps in. I typically move clockwise so I don’t
disturb my recent additions.
IMPORTANT TIPS
- If you have any beautiful healthy soil and worms do not hesitate to add it to this pile.
- Using a tarp helps keep moisture in or out as needed. To determine if you should add water, grab a handful of the compost (from at least 8 inches into the pile) and squeeze it in your hand. You should see a single drop of water between your clenched fingers. This represents the perfect 50% saturation levels that optimum compost requires. More than that, you should leave the tarp off on non-rainy days and use a pitch fork to help oxygen get deeper and help dry the pile. If your pile contains less than that you should spray gently with a hose or watering can. Again do not put too much water so you can let it sit longer before watering again. Too much water is worse than too little.
- Your compost should smell faintly sweet. If your pile smells bad that means you do not have enough oxygen in the pile. That smell is the nutrients you want to be left in the pile being released as a gas by microbes that thrive in only low-oxygen (anaerobic) conditions.
- This pile takes 6 months to a year to mature.
- If you reach the limit of space for your pile you can add some small quantities of high nitrogen and turn it regularly to accelerate the pile to maturity.Benjamin FritonCo-Founder and Chief of Research & Development
