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A Note From the Compostmaster General

© Erica Myers-Russo

It's kind of geeky in a tree-hugger sort of way, but I love compost. Really. I love compost itself, that rich brown earthy-smelling stuff that you know is the just the thing for your plants. I love writer Natalie Goldberg's use of "compost" as a metaphor for the creative process - you have experiences, but you have to let them break down awhile in your mind before you can do anything with them. But mostly I love the process of composting - you take this worthless trash, all manner of kitchen waste and yard scraps, heap it in a pile somewhere and more or less neglect it for long enough and voila - valuable organic matter for plants. It's conservation; it's backyard ecology; it's organic gardening. It's turning a liability into an asset, and who can resist that?

And it's so easy. Really. Let's start with the basics - all organic matter will rot eventually, and composting is little more than selectively piling your organic matter somewhere and providing conditions conducive to rotting. To make a compost pile, all you really need are organic matter, a place to put it, and time. The right balance of moisture, air, temperature, and carbon-to-nitrogen will help greatly.

Is it complicated? Like anything else, compost is as complicated as you make it. Certain things should not go into your compost pile: things that will harm the plants that receive the finished compost, like diseased plant matter and weed seeds; things that will attract scavengers, like meat or dairy scraps; pathogenic or toxic things like cat, dog, or human waste and glossy colored paper; and hard or injurious things like blackberry canes. Just about any other yard waste or kitchen scrap is game - coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, old newspapers, leaves, grass clippings, manure… To that end, the secret to successfully composting is a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. Without The Bucket, you never find time to get your kitchen scraps out to the pile. Instead they collect in a bowl on your counter until eventually they smell and draw fruit flies and you are hopelessly demoralized. Or maybe that's just me. Regardless, with The Bucket, you can stash all the scraps and empty the bucket when it's convenient.

Is it smelly? Ideally, no, and the worst-case scenario still smells better than a landfill. To keep your compost pile sweet, you need three things: air, moisture, and the right carbon to nitrogen ratio. The low-maintenance way to provide air is to build the pile around thick layers of bulky material like cornstalks or bamboo poles that allow air into the pile. A more ambitious way is to turn the pile somewhere between weekly and monthly. As for moisture, your compost should have the feel of a damp sponge - moist, but not wet. If you build moisture into the pile, all you have to do is cover it with burlap, leaves, or newspaper to retain the moisture. Finally, the ideal carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of around 30, but you don't have to worry too terribly much about it. A good rule is this: if your pile smells like ammonia, you have too much nitrogen. If it smells, well, like nasty fetid rotting trash, you have too much carbon. Nitrogenous items are usually green and fresh, like fresh manure, grass clippings, or food scraps. Carboniferous materials are generally dry and bulky, like leaves, straw, or aged manure. Either way, if your compost stinks, a good first step is to aerate the pile by turning it, and then add more of whatever you need.