Compostess with the Mostess

Composting is not just the bedrock of an organic garden or home ecosystem, it is fundamental to reducing household waste.

Organic and Great for Plants

Composting is a natural (well, ultra-natural) process of making what seems useless highly usable and valuable.  As your banana peels, potato peels, grass clippings, potato peels, brown leaves, shredded paper and other natural byproducts are blended and given oxygen and time to decompose, they will fuel the small but vital piece of organic matter that can propel you into building a natural, organic ecosystem around your habitat.

One of the amazing things about compost is that there is only one element you cannot overdo in composting - the application of oxygen.  Compost could have excessive green matter (grass clippings, vegetable peels, vegetable byproducts, plant and flowering plant byproduct) or too much brown matter (leaves, paper, cardboard, dryer lint).  However, compost can never have too much air.  Thus, it is a bit like life and the natural state of living things.

How it works

Micro (bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes) and macro-organisms (earthworms, insects, nematodes) are the engines of decomposition.  These micro and macro lifeforms digest and process the waste in our refuse and generate compost as a byproduct of their activity.  To do their work, thrive and multiply, the living organisms in compost need carbon (energy), nitrogen (green matter), water/moisture, and oxygen.

There are stages to the decomposition that vary and raise the temperature within the compost pile.  Compost can get warm to hot, regardless of the temperature outside this is why composters will sometimes see steam emanating from their compost piles and bins.  Regardless of the season, microbacterial activity will take place at temperatures between zero to upwards of 200 degrees fahrenheit.  Between zero to seventy degrees within the compost pile (especially around 50/55 degrees, psychrophile microbes will be at work.  As the pile heats to between 70 to 90 degrees within the compost, mesophiles are the main microbial actor.  Then, thermophile microbes take center stage over 100 degrees.  Thus, your compost pile is alive throughout the year.  The outside temperature will alter the activity in the compost pile, as variation in the amount of carbon, nitrogen, moisture and oxygen.   


Receptacles

You can build your own compost bin, out of, say, an old metal garbage can by punching holes in it.  You can also just designate an area of your yard as the compost area.  I love composting and have become particular about how to design and create a most useful receptacle.  This has not yet, or may never be manufactured...so, I mainly use a compost bin I purchased on Amazon for around $100.  The Koolatron Dynamic 6.7 cu ft stationary compostor has nice ventilation and a pleasant design and color.  The door for shoveling out compost at the bottom has broken, but it still is a nice design.  However, I just checked the price on Amazon and it is listed for $185.47.  Yikes, inflation has surely bitten since my wife purchased this item.  Loudoun Cty folk are welcome to contact me if interested and I will try to arrange a group discount that can be shipped here.

It is best to build your compost over the summer months when you will have a diverse range of vegetable and fruit waste from the summer harvest.  Then, you have a solid chance of having great compost on hand for the autumnal planting season.  For instance, to allow your plants to thrive through teh fall and winter and establish a richer root system, you may elect to rake back the mulch around your plants (preferable leaf mulch) and add about 1" of compost to the top of the soil.  Then. rake back your mulch on top of the compost.  During and after autumn, add leaves to your compost bin or start to build a leaf mulch area out of your property area.

Is there an Ideal Green/Brown Blend?

Typically, the experts recommend 3:1 ratio of brown to green, but I suggest you monitor your compost and tweak appropriately.  Composting is a natural process that is imperfect and not rigid.  As long as the compost smells earthy and does not appear soggy, it will thrive.  Essentially, as you add the proper ingredients to the organic matter is alive, it will breakdown as nature intended.  A portion of the soil, albeit a very small portion, is a living organism, the rest is air, water/moisture, and insects most likely.  Insects and worms will appear to feed on your compost.  Nothing carried them there except nature.  What a great thing.

If the compost smells foul, you should first add carbon/brown, though you can also add some organic top soil to your compost to bring some balance back to it and accelerate the process.


Compost is bigger than us and more important than we realize 

Compost is yin and yang, it requires balance to be dine properly and it also is a cornucopia of bacterial and beneficial organisms.  The special, natural processes surrounding composting are bigger than we realize.  As you spend time crafting the balance of your compost pile, you will connect your consumption system, i.e. the foods you eat, to your garden and your soil.  This connection to your soil is really important.

At least once a week for the past few years I take a deep whiff near my compost pile to check its balance.  It is always an act that put me at ease, and I never understood why until I came across a few articles on some studies that suggest the benefits of the bacteria in compost are actually a real thing.  There is an ancient relationship between bacteria from soil and humans, a relationship that humans have drifted from as a result of modern life, with the negative consequences most likely resulting in poor guts health, anger, and forms of depression. 

A study of the soil bacteria mycobacterium vaccae found that humans benefitted from interactiving with it the soil bacteria enhanced vitality and improved mood.