Composting Basics

Isn't it lovely? My compost pile

Oh, the glamor, the beauty, the awesomeness of a good compost pile. Composting basics are easy to learn. Most people can add a compost pile in the yard or garden.  Whether you purchase a compost tumbler, compost maker or another device or make on yourself, nothing beats nice, rich compost added to the garden soil.

Why is compost so great? First, it reduces the waste leaving your home in the garbage pail. Garbage added to a landfill doesn't do much good, and those rich scraps of vegetable peels, coffee grinds and eggshells are lost in the massive amounts of trash bulldozed under the landfill.

Secondly, and more importantly, compost adds nutrients, improves soil structure, and adds beneficial microbes back into the soil. You see, nature never intended us to dump pounds of chemicals onto the soil. Nature created an intricate cycle of life that ensures that nothing goes to waste. Plants that die decay back into the soil.  Compost is mankind's way of organizing and speeding up the process.

Situate your compost pile with a few considerations in mind. It must be close enough to the house so that on cold, rainy, or snowy days, you won't hesitate to step outside and dump the compost bucket. Keep a compost pail, bucket or bowl in the kitchen. If it sits on the counter top, keep a cover on it unless you like breeding fruit flies.  My compost bin is a unique contraption that fits next to the garbage pail.  I have a garbage pail in a sliding drawer that pulls out from under the kitchen counter.  There was a shallow plastic bin, probably for recycling, behind it. I had it converted into a compost pail. A friend cut a plastic rim for the pail. The pail is simply a plastic bathroom garbage pail from Wal-Mart. It's lightweight and washes up easily, plus it holds a lot, making for fewer trips to the compost pile.

Your second consideration is the potential for odors bothering your neighbors.  Here in Virginia, that is not a problem for me because I'm on 17 acres, but on Long Island my neighbor received complaints when his compost had a strong ammonia odor.  Odor means something is wrong with the compost pile. It could be too "hot" with too many fresh grass clippings, or the wrong materials were added.  He needed to turn and lime the pile to correct the odor problem.  Living so close together in our suburban neighborhood, however, made the odor worse for the neighbors who didn't garden and didn't understand compost piles. They called the town complaining he kept his garbage behind the house because they saw him throwing eggshells there.

Wherever you place your compost pile, you'll need two areas. One area is for 'fresh' materials added to the pile. Once these begin to decompose into compost, the fresh compost should be moved to the second area. Then you will always have fresh compost to use in the garden.

I only use compost outdoors, never bring it inside, as I'm terrified of what might hatch out of it.  All sorts of insects love compost and when you turn the pile, look for nice, fat worms (a sign of a great compost pile) and other insects.  These insects do eat the vegetative peelings and their droppings such as worm casings add to the excellence of the compost pile.

What can you add to a compost pile? Anything plant-based and some limited additional kitchen scraps:

• Grass clippings
• Leaves from autumn raking
• Flowers from the florist that die
• Vegetable peels such as potato, carrot other peels
• Apple cores
• Fruit peels
• Stems from vegetables
• Eggshells (rinse them first)
• Coffee grounds and filters
• Tea bags
• Shredded newspaper
• Cow, goat, chicken or horse manure

Don't add animal droppings from house pets such as cats or dogs. These attract vermin and may contain bacteria that you don't want to add into the pile.  Never add animal bones, fat or leftover meat.  You'll only create a smell and attract every wild animal.

Most books suggest starting your compost pile with a layer of corn husks, straw or hay; then layering manure, garden products, grass clippings, leaves etc on top like a lasagna.  The picture here is my pile. It's ugly. It's a pile of garbage. It works just fine.  I have to turn it every once in while, making sure that soil covers the peelings. The citrus peels take a long, long time to break down, so I bury them well.

My compost pile sits at the edge of the woods and has frequent visitors. The brown stuff you see on it are pine needles; not ideal, but the pines will drop them.  I used cinder blocks leftover from the house construction to build the walls of the two compartments.  I put out the compost in the evening while I cook dinner, and most of the grapefruit rinds still have pulp in them. The next morning they are absolutely picked clean. Banana peels have a habit of disappearing, as do pineapple cores. I suspect I have some very happy opossums in my woods!

What tips do you want to share with readers on composting?

For the Love of Compost

I'm not ashamed to say I love my compost pile. I love the mystery and magic of nature that transforms my household garbage into black gold, that rich, crumbly soil that looks like chocolate cake. I love the industrious earthworms that wriggle in and out of the pile. I love feeling like I'm taking care of Mother Earth every time I throw out some eggshells, coffee grounds, and lettuce that's seen better days.

My dad's compost pile in Floral Park, the suburban/urban town I grew up in just outside of New York City, was a thing of beauty. Constructed of bricks and sandwiched between the picket fence separating our property from the M's (where Miss Nita lived) and the greenhouse he'd erected against the garage, he maintained that pile with focused concentration, babying it with amendments, liming it occasionally, turning it...that compost was so wonderful, when we sold the house after my dad died, my sister took away as much as she could in garbage cans the evening before the sale was to go through!


In Huntington, we built the first compost pile for John's family. His mother thought it was dirty and foolish. John liked the idea. We copied my dad's use of discarded bricks but unfortunately built it around an old locust tree. We had one happy locust tree and it always took a while to get enough compost for the garden. But I had wonderful fat, wriggly earthworms there.

Here in Virginia, we started the compost pile even before we dug the first hole in the garden. A friend tells me that's the true sign of an organic gardener - she builds a compost pile before she puts one single plant into the ground. My new pile is in the woods, just beyond the flower garden. We used some of the cement blocks leftover from construction and created a simple outline.

I tried to turn the pile last fall, but a swarm of yellow jackets was on it and they chased me away. I see now the lovely black gold soil under the top layer and I'm counting the days before I can add it to the vegetable garden.

Last night when I walked Shadow, we started a creature investigating the pile. I didn't catch a good look at him but from the size and motion and the sound of branches snapping I think it was a raccoon. In Huntington, John surprised an opossum one evening who was dining on a banana peel in our compost heap; last night's scavenger found the pineapple core I'd tossed into the pile, and the only remnants this morning were a few scattered fragments of pineapple on the path leading to the pile.

I love composting. I feel so connected to the earth, to my farm, to my garden and to my food.

Do you compost too?

Today's photo credits...top picture is from Morguefile; bottom photo is my flower garden next to the driveway this past fall. The compost pile is just behind the pine trees.

Vegetable Garden Progress

Ever wonder what 29 TONS of compost looks like? The first picture shows 29 tons, delivered last week by Tom Hertzler. When I told my sister we had a tractor trailor truckload delivered she just couldn't picture it. And I think she wondered why we need it! Now that you can see the progress on the production garden you'll know why. The soil here is clay - hard, red, nasty clay, with some lumps of undefinable gray rock thrown in and beautiful glistening crystal quartz gems. The quartz is astonishing in its color, clarity and splendor. We have one six sided crystal on the mantle in the library. But the soil...after 20 years of loblolly pine, construction on the house, and probably pasture and tobacco growing before the loblolly, the soil is devoid of life. I had it tested and the test results were the worst I've ever seen! The pH was something like 3, soil fertility less than 1 percent, and so few nutrients. Poor soil!

If you also have lousy soil, build raised beds. Raised beds enable you to fill them with black gold goodness and grow wonderful vegetables. Each of the raised beds in the pictures above are destined for either herbs, root crops, or above ground crops. We are filling them with a mixture of 50% compost, 40% top soil from the garden center, and 10% peat moss. The untreated beds in the front are made with standard pine lumber and will be used to grow root crops and medicinal herbs. The remaining pressure treated lumber beds are destined for green goodies like spinach and Swiss Chard, my two favorite green vegetables; broccoli rabe, which you can't find anywhere in Virginia; beans, including some heirlooms I've been dying to try; watermelon and cantelope; corn; tomatoes; peppers; eggplant; and if I'm brave enough, onion sets, summer and winter squash.

I transplanted one poor potbound oregano into the new herb bed. That's the green shrubby-thing. Next year, I hope the pictures show it overflowing!

Note the 'garden gate' John made. It has the cross piece. Once we get the beds filled with compost, the deer netting goes up on the 8 foot tall posts, the gate is put in place, and hopefully I won't be feeding the critters.