by Margie Siegal
Photo credit: Marla Koss
A friend was turning green over my productive tomato patch. We discussed what I might be doing right – and then I remembered that I had dug out my compost bin at the beginning of the year, sifted the contents and dumped a large portion of the results on the spot where I later planted my tomato starters.
Composting is a good habit to get into. You can compost your chickens’ bedding (if you have chickens), your rabbit’s bedding (if you have a rabbit), scraps from the kitchen, shredded newspaper, spoiled produce, past-due vegetable plants and lawn clippings and turn the mess into Grade-A mulch and fertilizer for your garden. The only expenses are up front- a pail for the kitchen, a sturdy bin for the back yard and a pitchfork to turn the maturing compost. You can make a sifter by taking a drawer from a damaged dresser you may see on the street or elsewhere, removing the bottom and stapling chicken wire or any other sturdy wire fencing with ¾ inch to 1 inch holes to it.
Here’s what to look for:
Compost Bin
The bigger the better, because you will be surprised how fast it fills up once you get in the habit of dumping stuff in it. I like recycled plastic bins with a lid. If you are in a rural area, you can make your own bin out of chicken wire and two by fours, but here in the city, you want to keep critters from having a party in your bin and making a mess, and smells to a minimum. Dark colored plastic doesn’t rot and helps heat the contents, since dark colors absorb light. There are many bins with unnecessary bells and whistles, which add to cost. A good bin is made of thick material, has a lid that is easy to open and shut and has vents to encourage aerobic organisms. Anaerobic bacteria create horrible odors. At last look, a good, simple bin costs $60 – $90.
Compost Pail
Anything that you like that will work with your kitchen. Many commercial pails have charcoal filters to reduce odors. Put fruit and vegetable peels and moldy produce into your pail. Dump your pail into your compost bin once or twice a week, wash out with boiling water and repeat.
Pitchfork
Handy item to have around regardless. The key words are well made and sturdy.
The Basics
Set up your bin in an out of the way but easily accessible corner of your yard and start dumping plant based stuff into it. Any non-toxic vegetable matter will work. It’s easier to say what you DON’T want to compost than what you do, so DON’T put the following in your backyard bin:
- Meat and fish scraps – attracts raccoons and other critters
- Anything that has been treated with Roundup or other herbicides\
- Diseased plants or leaves from a blighted tree. Your compost may not get hot enough to kill the organisms, Rotten produce is perfectly fine – it’s starting to compost all by itself!
- Dog and cat droppings. Attracts critters, plus may spread disease. Droppings from vegetable eaters, such as parrots, goats, guinea pigs and hamsters, are fine.
- Branches and plant stalks more than 2 inches thick. They will never break down. Chop or grind first – or put in the green bin thoughtfully provided by the City.
Levels One, Two and Three Composting
If you just dump the mower basket, kitchen scraps, decayed fruit and vegetables, and dead plants into your compost heap, and don’t do anything else, you will eventually get compost. It won’t be the best compost, and it will take a while to turn into the crumbly dark brown soil treatment that you want, but that’s OK. You are still making your own mulch and fertilizer and you are still doing your part to recycle. I think of this method as Level One composting. You might think of watering the compost during the summer months. Ideally, it should be as wet as a wrung out sponge. If you forget, you forget.
Level Two composting involves more time, but produces faster and better results. Experts suggest collecting brown materials (shredded newspaper, lawn clippings, dry leaves) and green (wet materials, such as kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and herbivore manure) and mixing 3 parts brown with one part green with your pitchfork. Water until the pile is the consistency of a wrung out sponge. Mix up once a week.
Level Three composting involves working towards a specific end result, which means considerable time spent in research. There is no consensus on what works best. Those interested in the subject can read Steve Solomon’s Gardening When It Counts, books and on line articles on biodynamics or the classic work on the subject – the Rodale Book of Composting. Note that what works in areas where the ground freezes may or may not work in Alameda.
Your Finished Compost
Eventually, depending on how much work you put into your compost, the contents of your compost bin and environmental factors, what you put in your bin will turn to dark brown, crumbly soil. If you don’t stir up your compost, the finished compost will be on the bottom of the bin. Some bins come with a trap door in the lowest layer, so you can shovel out the end product. If yours doesn’t, spread a tarp out, pitchfork the top layers onto the tarp, and when you get to the good stuff, shovel it into your sifter so you can remove peach pits, thick broccoli stems and the spoon that you have been looking all over for. Dump any un-rotted material back into the composter.
What to do with the compost: Put the sifted compost around fruit trees. Add it to the soil in your vegetable patch. (Steve Solomon suggests adding agricultural lime to the compost in the veggie garden.) Use it as mulch in your flower border. I always spread the compost on my planting area and let it sit for a few weeks before planting, to avoid the possibility of burning my starters. Compost adds water holding ability, nutrients, and workability to soil. You really can’t add too much of the stuff. Just ask at my tomato plants!