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Support the planet's natural carbon cycle function:
Start Composting
By Mark O'Farrell
Fall is in the air! And of course that means leaves are on the ground and swirling in the air. People are scrambling to gather them up. Leaf blowers are howling and trucks are rumbling to the landfill and back. This great whirlwind of seasonal activity, just to keep nature from doing her job.|
There isn’t a more productive way to
break a sweat on a chilly fall morning than to gather up all of
that landscape debris and turn it into a tonic for your plants.
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There isn’t a more productive way to break a sweat on a chilly fall morning than to gather up all of that landscape debris and turn it into a tonic for your plants. But don’t waste all of that energy by throwing it in a pile and forgetting about it.
Making a successful compost pile is easy if you understand and apply a few basic concepts. If you want to get a little more scientific about it, check out the following excellent reference: ATTRA.ORG. Otherwise, put on a sweater, get out there, and follow these basic rules!
When you build a compost pile, you are really building an ecosystem for microorganisms. You want to pay attention to four basic principles to ensure that you build a beneficial environment for the organisms that you want and discourage the pests and unwanted organisms that might otherwise invade your pile.
Recipe.
The first step in successful composting is to start with the right ingredients. It’s a lot like baking a cake. If you don’t start with the right ingredients, nothing you do will ever make the cake come out right.
Your recipe can include a wide range of organic materials, but you want to make sure that the carbon to nitrogen ratio is approximately 30:1. That means that for every part nitrogen rich material, such as fresh grass clippings, weeds, manure and kitchen scraps, you include approximately three times that in dry, brown fibrous material such as leaves, dried plant material or chipped or ground woody material.
You can make your pile as big as you can manage, but you should have enough material to make it at least a cubic yard, or 3 feet square and three feet high. Mix the materials together and wet them down when you start the pile.
Aeration.
Ahh, yes. Another opportunity to get some of that much needed off-season exercise. In order for your community of decomposers in the pile to have the oxygen they need, you will have to turn the pile at least two or three times per season. More often, if you want to speed the composting process. Your microorganisms are getting a lot of exercise, too. They need oxygen.
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Moisture Management.
Like any living community pile needs a reliable supply of water. It depends on thermophyllic organisms, or organisms that produce heat which makes adequate water essential The pile should be kept moist, but not too wet, or it will become anaerobic and ruin your compost. When you turn your pile add enough moisture to make it about as wet as a wrung out sponge. If it is too dry, you will see a grayish- white, ash-like residue that means your microorganisms have run out of water.
Humidification.
Finally, your pile needs to rest. After active decomposition, your compost should be dark brown and crumbly, with a minimum of recognizable fiber that needs to be screened out. Letting the pile sit for a few weeks will allow it to stabilize, so that it is the best soil amendment available for your lawn and garden.
If you don’t have enough material for your own compost pile, you can always build community by working with your neighbors to pool materials for a community pile. If all else fails, you can take the easy route and find a local composting operation who takes green waste for a fee, like Full Circle Compost in Minden, NV. You may not derive all of the health benefits of working your own pile, but you will still be breaking the bad habit of disrupting the carbon cycle.
For more info contact Full Circle Compost at 775-267-5305.
