Composting 1.0

Happy Earth Day!

The compost pile sold our second home.

Every house we've lived in has had a compost pile of some form. Our first house was in a residential suburb in upstate New York. The compost pile was hidden behind the swimming pool. I had built a simple three bin structure out of 2 x 4s and chicken wire. Each bin was enclosed on three sides with the fronts open. I loaded the first bin with garden debris, leaves and kitchen scraps. I'd mix in a few shovelfuls of garden dirt to get the decomposition process going. The first bin would sit until I had more organic matter to add, than I'd move the partially broken down brown stuff from the first bin to the second bin and fill up the first bin with new leaves, old garden plants, more kitchen scraps and dirt. I would continue this process until I had compost going in all three bins. By the time the last bin was full, it was ready to dig into the garden. The compost wasn't perfect. It had some visible leaves and chopped up plant stems, but the kitchen scraps had lost their identity. If I dug the compost into the garden in the fall or early spring, it would continue to break down in the garden before I planted seeds or seedlings.

Our next house was in the Midwest, halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. Again, it was in a residential suburb, but this yard was deep and treed and backed up to an open area. I decided to skip the pretense of a composting structure and just have free standing piles. The half dozen oaks in the backyard provided an abundance of leaves. Each fall I would rake up the leaves, layer than with moist garden dirt, old vegetable garden plants and kitchen scraps. After letting the pile sit over winter, I would turn it over into a new pile next to the original one. I would follow the same process that I did in the last house, minus the bins and with substantially bigger piles. The finished compost was similar – not perfect, but good enough to amend the soil in the vegetable garden and in the landscaping. The piles were large and free formed, but since the yard had a lot of wild vegetation along the back property line, it was hidden from the house.

When we decided to sell this house, my husband wanted to empty out the compost piles and rake the area flat before putting it on the market. Who would want a pile of rotting leaves in their backyard? I, however, thought it would be a selling point. (Composting had always been my thing, not his.) The compost pile stayed, mainly because lack of time prevented my husband from doing anything about it.

A few days after we had put our house up for sale, a young woman came through to view it. She returned that night with her husband, put an offer on the house, and eventually it became theirs. They had been renting a farmette at the edge of town, were looking to live in the village, but hoped to continue to garden. The wife told us she liked the house, but when she went to the back of the property, it was the compost pile that made her call her husband and schedule another visit that evening. She said she knew it was the house for them.

We now live in a residential neighborhood several miles north of our last house. Our yard is treeless and open and backs to marsh land. I have three black plastic compost bins on the back property line. Our neighbor supplies us with leaves, and I add the garden debris and kitchen scraps. I also have a friend that supplies me with horse manure. I use a compost tool to aerate each compost bin several times a season. I find I have almost perfect compost for my vegetable garden.

When I construct compost piles, whether in enclosed bins, open bins or free-form piles, I think “salad”. The best salads are made from a variety of ingredients. Compost piles need a variety of ingredients as well. Brown matter (fall leaves), green matter (most garden debris – weeds, bolted lettuce, old tomato plants, most fall garden cleanup), garden dirt and well rotted manure are the basics of the compost salad. The dressing of the salad should be just enough to coat the the ingredients without making them too soggy. In the same way, water needs to be added to the compost pile to keep it just barely moist. The best description of the ideal amount of moisture to strive for is the consistency of a wrung-out sponge. Lastly, the salad needs to be tossed. Open bins and free formed bins can be turned over into an adjacent space. Enclosed bins can be stirred with a spading fork or a compost aerating tool. The more frequently the compost salad is tossed, the quicker it breaks down into rich compost. During the warm spring and summer months, tossing the piles once a week should do the job.

Whether you have a compost pile in your backyard to minimize your carbon footprint or have one to nourish your vegetables and flowers, composting is a rewarding and doable endeavor in almost any yard. And it might help you sell your house someday...

Pray for a good harvest but continue to hoe. - Amish Proverb