What is Composting?
At its most basic level, composting is the rotting of organic (plant-based) matter. More formally, composting is the process of breaking organic matter down into its primary components so the resulting humus, which is the rich, dark organic soil made of decomposed plant and animal matter, can be used to fertilize plants and amend the soil. Composting happens in nature when the rain wets fallen leaves, animal droppings, and other materials on the ground. Fungi and microorganisms grow in this mixture and consume the material, breaking it down into component parts, which results in compost. Gardeners can mimic and accelerate natural composting through the judicious application of some simple concepts. Proper balance between wet and dry materials; moisture and oxygen; and nitrogen and carbon will turn yard and kitchen waste into a moist, fertile soil amendment in a matter of months. Composting is quite simple and, after a system is established, takes minimal time and effort to maintain.
How Composting Benefits your Garden
Compost is beneficial to all gardens, large or small, whether you are growing vegetables, herbs, fruit, flowers, or just grass and trees. It is also useful in potted houseplants and container gardens. Because you choose what materials to put into your compost system, you can control exactly what is put on your garden and, if you grow your own fruits, herbs, and vegetables, into your meals. Compost uses gardening waste that would otherwise be disposed of or burned. You can use almost every healthy plant and plant part in a compost system. Instead of raking up leaves and grass clippings to be hauled away, put them in your compost. When a plant dies or vegetables spoil, put them in the compost instead of in the trash that has to be trucked away to landfills.
Moist garden humus compost with small wood chips, bark and sticks.
Many state and local governments are developing programs for composting as well as mulching.
Using compost will reduce the amount of watering you have to do and will keep your garden soil evenly moist, protecting delicate plants in very hot or dry weather. It will also help amend heavy clay soils so water will not pool and flood your plants. Compost contains bacteria and microbes that create natural antibiotics. These substances can help prevent many common plant diseases and help you grow healthier flowers and vegetables.
Composting is good for your garden, for the environment, and for your pocket book. Here are some reasons you should begin to compost:
• Compost contains beneficial bacteria and microorganisms that contribute to soil health, and it contains the basic building blocks of plants — nitrogen and carbon. It also contains a variety of micronutrients that are vital to the health of your plants. These micronutrients include boron, copper, iodine, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc, and all are important to the health of your plants.
• Compost provides a home for insects and worms, and these creatures play an important role in producing compost, as discussed in Chapter 2.
• Compost helps keep soil at a neutral pH, which is healthier for most plants. PH is a measure of acidity and alkalinity. On the pH scale, 7 represents neutrality and the lower a number, the higher the acidity. The higher the number on the scale, the higher the alkalinity. For example, soil with a pH of 2.4 is more acidic than soil with a pH of 5.3. If soil has a reading of 9.3, it is more alkaline than soil with a pH of 7.5. A pH reading between 6 and 7 is advantageous for your garden because soil at this pH level makes beneficial nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium available to plants. Chapter 6 contains instructions for measuring the pH of your compost or your soil.
Soil pH is a measurement of the acidity or alkalinity of a soil. Soil pH is critical because it affects the health of plants. Before plants can use a nutrient, it must be dissolved in soil water (most nutrients dissolve best when the soil is slightly acidic to neutral). The good news is … Soil pH is easy to check and can be altered / corrected.
• Unlike commercially produced fertilizers that provide a big hit of a limited number of nutrients all at once, compost provides steady, ongoing fertilization by releasing a much wider variety of nutrients slowly into the soil, feeding the plants for a longer time at a much lower cost. While compost cannot completely replace commercial fertilizers (because it is hard to control exactly what nutrients are in a given batch of compost or in what concentrations), it can help lower the amount of fertilizer you have to use to achieve the same result.
• Compost improves the consistency of soil because it creates small clumps of materials known as aggregates. These aggregates create small gaps in thick clay soil, allowing water and oxygen to seep down to plant roots. In dry, sandy soil, these aggregates help hold water, making the soil more nutritious for plants and decreasing the amount of watering needed for gardens, flower beds, and lawns.
• Compost binds with toxins like lead and cadmium so that plants cannot consume them, keeping these poisons out of the food chain. Tests conducted on soil contaminated with oily waste found that applying compost to the contaminated soil led to a significant reduction in toxic chemicals. Compost cleans up toxins because it binds with them on a molecular level. According to the website Composter Connection (www.composterconnection.com/site/introduction.html), compost can remediate (or decontaminate) polluted soil. It traps some toxins in the soil and helps plants consume others. By harvesting these contaminated plants and their roots you can literally pull the contaminants out of the ground.
• Regular use of compost can suppress some plant diseases such as club root in cabbages, white rot in onions, brown rot in potatoes, mildew, and potato blight. Some diseases, such as potato blight, can wipe out entire crops. This happened in the 1840s in Ireland, Scotland, and parts of Europe, but if you catch most diseases early, you can eradicate most of them by removing and destroying the diseased plants. It is easy to tell which plants are infected; they are the ones that are droopy, do not produce blossoms or fruit, or are visibly discolored, moldy, or dying.
• Recycling waste material from your kitchen and garden means you do not have to spend as much money on trash removal or recycling services. The nutrients you create with compost provide free, natural fertilizer for your plants and vegetables.
• Fruits and vegetables that are grown in nutrient-depleted soils contain fewer vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients that humans need for good health. Growing your own produce in soil amended with rich compost can improve the health of you and your family.
How Composting Benefits the Environment
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that about 13 percent of municipal solid waste is made up of yard waste and trimmings. (Municipal solid waste is trash thrown away by households and does not normally include commercial or hazardous waste.) This 13 percent accounts for about 33 million tons of yard waste being trucked to landfills in the United States. Not only is this an unnecessary expense for cities and towns, but the fossil fuels burned to transport this waste to the landfill also contribute to global climate change. Food scraps and kitchen waste make up almost 12 percent of municipal solid waste, accounting for 32 million tons of trash per year. Throwing away these clean, biodegradable materials instead of including them in your compost pile wastes space in landfills. More than eight percent of the waste that each person generates each day, which amounts to more than 140 pounds per person annually, can be recovered for composting. Composting is a simple, enjoyable way to use yard and kitchen waste. It saves money for the homeowner and the municipality, and it relieves congestion on the roads and the use of fossil fuels that contaminate our air.
Composting has many benefits to the environment.
• Composting plant-based materials, rather than letting them rot in a landfill, helps keep gases like methane out of the atmosphere. Methane is a by-product of anaerobic decomposition, which is what occurs in a landfill. In an active aerobic compost pile, almost no methane should be released.
• Composting also results in less carbon dioxide gas added to the atmosphere because the microbes in the compost consume most of the carbon and release only a small amount of it into the air as CO2.
• Compost provides a simple and green alternative to using peat moss. Peat is a non-renewable resource that is dug up and sold to gardeners to enrich garden soil. Peat helps soil retain water and allows water to drain so that garden soil is neither too wet nor too dry. Removing peat from its natural habitat can prevent the wetlands from performing their natural function, which is to filter toxins from watersheds. Compost, which is also porous, decayed organic matter, provides all the benefits of peat with none of the drawbacks or cost to you or the environment.
• Compost provides essential nutrients, allowing the gardener to grow healthy plants without using commercial fertilizers. This allows the gardener to grow fruits and vegetables free of potentially harmful chemicals and saves the energy and money that would otherwise be spent making, buying, and transporting fertilizer.
• There is much less runoff of potentially harmful chemicals from fertilizers into streams and rivers. This runoff can result in the overgrowth of algae in pond, lakes, and rivers and can lead to the death of fish and other aquatic creatures. The runoff can also introduce harmful nitrates into the groundwater supply, which affects human health.
• Compost does not have to be manufactured and transported hundreds or thousands of miles to the point of use, the way commercial fertilizers are. Normally compost is produced near to where it is used (either in the garden or at least in the same community), saving energy and fossil fuels.
Common Myths About Composting
• Composting is difficult.
False. Composting is merely the act of assembling organic materials into a pile and letting them decompose. You can get very fancy with gadgets, measurements and scientific data, but at its base, composting is just human-assisted decomposition of plant materials, and it can be as simple as piling things up and leaving them alone.
• Compost piles always smell bad.
False. Compost piles that contain the right balance of wet and dry ingredients and that are turned or mixed regularly will not smell. In fact, fresh, completed compost smells identical to fresh, fertile soil.
• Composting is just for people who live in the country.
False. Anyone who can assemble the materials and put them into a container can compost. There are composting systems that take up as little as 2 square feet of floor or cabinet space.
• All compost bins are the same.
False. Different styles of compost bins are made because composters’ circumstances differ. Some styles can handle meat and fat scraps; some handle only plant material. Some keep out vermin; others work best indoors. There is a style of bin for every need.
• Any kind of worm will work for vermicomposting (creating compost using worms).
False. High temperatures in a compost bin can kill Common earthworms (and so they usually flee the bin when it gets too hot). They also do not do well in the rich environment of a vermicomposting bin. Only a few species of worms are typically used in composting, and these should be purchased from a reputable dealer.
• You cannot put color paper or inks in compost.
False. Contemporary inks and paper products contain levels of heavy metals and hydrocarbons that are well below the limits set by the EPA, and these substances break down quickly in the compost pile.
As you can see, many myths you may have heard about composting are not true. Composting is a relatively simple, fun way to make something valuable out of your trash. It is good for your wallet, your plants, and the planet as a whole.
About This Book
This book will give you simple instructions for composting no matter where you live or what type of garden you have. Whether you have a large vegetable garden or a small collection of houseplants, using compost will improve the health and beauty of your plants. You will also learn how to make your own compost containers, how to compost with worms, how to make compost tea, how and where to use compost in your garden, and how composting can help the environment on a large scale and make your own little corner of the world healthier. You will find case studies from people all over the United States and one from the United Kingdom. These people all compost at home and were happy to describe how and why they compost, what they enjoy about it, what difficulties they encountered, and how they overcame them.
Composting is a good idea not only financially, but also for your soil, your family, your community, and the world as a whole. In this book you will learn:
• The benefits of composting
• How composting can lead to healthier vegetables
• How composting can improve the health of your plants
• The science behind composting
• What items can and cannot safely be composted
• How to build your own outdoor compost bin
• How to compost indoors or outdoors with various kinds of commercial bins
• How to compost with worms (vermicomposting)
• How to tell when your compost is ready to use
• How and where to use compost and compost tea
• Ways to manage some of the problems that can arise with composting
You can skip around throughout the book to get a lot of useful information on composting, but Chapters 1 and 2 contain valuable information on what should go into a compost system and what actually happens once the compost starts to decompose. If you are new to composting, consider reading at least those two chapters before skipping ahead. If you are a somewhat experienced composter, feel free to jump the sections that interest you.
Note on terminology: Throughout most of this book, the term “organic” is used to describe items that are derived from living organisms, not necessarily items that are free of chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers. This is because the produce that most people purchase at the grocery store has been grown with the use of some chemicals, and not all of those chemicals will be removed through the process of composting.