Contributed by Carol on Friday, May 08 @ 15:28:55 CDT

BOAST THE MOST COMPOST

Part 1: Fast and Easy Compost

When we moved to the Ranch in 2007 the compost pile went up the next month. It was February and the weather wasn't even ready for the early onions, peas and lettuce to be planted but I knew from what little I'd read that without yet a flock of chickens to feed food scraps to we would have plenty of raw material to compost. Let's combine this with the fact that we had a first year garden to put in soon and this was the ONLY year I wanted to buy compost and manure by the bag full. That was our first and last compost purchase.

God has given us all the means to enrich our garden for free. You just have to know what to do with it. True, if you just dumped all your organic waste onto an open spot in the field, leftover salad here, banana peels there, you could create a rich environment for planting within a couple of years. Even with a “traditional” compost pile added to your plot later, you could have the same results. Pile of leaves, add some potato peelings, a forgotten sandwich, even some barnyard manure and bedding, but in this traditional setup you still have to wait almost a year to get a usable material to add back to the soil.

The reason you must wait is so that the entire pile turns into a crumbly dirt-looking consistency. Once the pile is “done” one is assured that all weed and grass seeds are decomposed enough not to sprout, and that all the breaking down that can occur has actually occurred. One theory many gardeners warn of is that incompletely broken down compost will rob from the soil and plants in your garden the nutrients it needs to continue the decomposition process. So farmers and gardeners everywhere make a huge pile and leave it for a year in hopes that they'll uncover rich compost the next time they break it open. And many inexperienced farmers and gardeners open up a year's worth of pile to find less than desirable results. Whole chunks of hay and leaves untouched by the decomposition process! So they must invest in another year's worth of bagged compost. Especially if the family's produce supply depends on it.

So what's a small scale farmer to do? Hearing horror stories of one, two, and three year compost piles I just knew there had to be better methods. I had read a little about barrel composters that you turn and composting containers that regulated airflow and light and moisture and all of this, but they seemed to require investment in a product that we couldn't afford (some “barrel” type composters are over $200 a pop!) and they all make only a little compost at a time.

Then I found a book at the local library's annual book sale.

Make Compost in 14 Days (Rodale Press)

“Ha! Must be a manual for one of those barrel composters! Well, it DOES have a small section on vermiculture (worms) so I think it's worth 50 cents.”

That afternoon I was astonished at what the small book contained.

The science behind God's plan for living things to return to the earth was laid out in plain English. I knew the “basics” of composting already. But the WHY was now explained. (And it certainly wasn't just this book. I read every gardening book I can get my hands on.) Having the whole picture helps you better understand gardening trial and error.

So here's how a compost pile works:

Organic material of various types is piled or stacked or thrown into a large container and left to break down into a usable substance for the garden. This does not just happen on it's own, and the plant matter itself does not do it. The decomposition of the materials in a compost pile are the result of the tiny living organisms that break down organic matter. This process can take a couple of weeks or a couple of years. The reason most compost piles take so long is result of proper ingredients in improper proportions, and just as any living thing needs air, water, and the correct nutritional balance of food, so do the living creatures that are present in your compost piles. So keep in mind you are essentially taking care of a colony of microorganisms, not just a pile of leaves and manure.

The care and feeding of your tiny new friends:

The proper care of your compost pile not only helps the microorganisms inside break down your ingredients, it gives them the ideal environment to reproduce in! More microorganisms hard at work means a quicker finish.

Environment: Many folks already know that a compost pile must be moist and have access to air. I have read about perforated pipes and tree branches and such, but the best way to circulate air in the compost pile is to fluff it frequently with a hay fork. A shovel will work, but is really putting more muscle into it than necessary. The more you introduce air pockets, the faster the pile breaks down. Stabbing the pile with your hay fork every now and then will surely introduce air, but the ideal, I've found is to flip the pile from one location to another every two or three days. This fluffs up your flat soggy pile and introduces new air pockets. Also keep in mind that warm temperatures make for faster reproduction and thus decomposition.

Water: Wet the pile as you first create it and you may never have to water it again in some climates. Out here it tends to be dry so we wet it down periodically. Some people cover their piles with tarp during really heavy rains which could be a good idea, but usually I just let the rain get it wet and then fluff it with the old hay fork to ensure it's not too soggy. It should be damp, but not soaking wet or you will essentially wash away the microorganisms.

Food (compost culinary school): This is where things may get tricky and many people get discouraged. But the truth is, just about anything can go in a compost pile! Of course, the ingredients that make up the compost pile must be plant and animal materials and wastes, but most information out there falls short on telling people how much of those ingredients to incorporate and in what proportions.

Here are some common examples of materials you can incorporate in your compost pile.

Hay Sawdust Grass clippings

Weeds Leaves corn stalks

Manure Animal bedding paper

Kitchen scraps fruit and vegetable peelings

Now, would someone tell you how to make a cake by just telling you to throw together flour, sugar, eggs, and milk? How many eggs? How much sugar? What if I can't find milk? It may resemble or eventually become a cake with some tweaking, but it would not be the end result you envisioned.

It would make more sense to tell you that 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp baking powder, and ½ cup milk when stirred, baked, and cooled would result in a cake.

Here would be a closer formula for a good fast-acting compost pile:

Start with 50 pounds of spoiled hay. Add 40 pounds of seaweed, 10 pounds of leaves, and 20 pounds manure.

Here we are closer to a good end result, but not everyone's circumstances are the same. You may not have milk but still have a need for cake. The same goes for a gardener that would like to have compost yet does not have access to a certain material, such as seaweed, or corn stalks. If you need to substitute an ingredient, however, you need to know what that ingredient plays in the big picture. You can't substitute a teaspoon of salt for the baking powder in our cake recipe, because the salt will not make a cake rise. When you put together a good pile and want the best results, you have to know WHY you are putting your ingredients in. When you know how each ingredient works, you can build your own formula based on the things you have at hand.

Here are a few of the basic guidelines that will allow you to put almost anything into your compost pile in the correct proportions:

You have two kinds of ingredients that will need to be balanced out, and that's it. Those high in nitrogen, and those high in carbon. (Also referred to in books as the protein-carbohydrate ratio.)

Most of the time you can follow the rule:

GREEN or SOFT=NITROGEN BROWN or CRUNCHY=CARBON

Common high-nitrogen ingredients:

-meat, guts, fresh bones, fur (these things may attract animals, but get digested quickly enough in a fast pile that this is only a worry for the first week - just get a good fence around your pile)

-fresh grass clippings (must be green still to be high nitrogen, can also be partially rotted or wet)

-leftover table scraps

-manure (fresh works best, although old manure will still help a little)

-alfalfa, legume, or other fresh, naturally high-nitrogen plant hay

-humanure (I would use only if you can get that pile really hot and really fully composted!)

-urine (very high nitrogen, but gets used up fast in a compost pile so you need many gallons of it if it is to be a primary nitrogen source--though perfect for maintaining nitrogen balance in a pile you think doesn't have enough nitrogen to finish processing. There is usually plenty in daily/weekly animal bedding.)

Common high-carbon ingredients:

-leaves (again, green and soft/fresh=nitrogen, brown=carbon)

-hay/straw

-SMALL twigs

-wood chips, bark

-sawdust (takes a long time to decompose, especially if from treated wood)

Proportions: You will need about twice as much carbon as nitrogen type materials for a start (2:1). Depending on the actual type of nitrogen source you could do a 1:1 ratio as well, though I would not try this with butchering remains (I speak from experience). Try a 1:1 with dead leaves and very fresh grass clippings. Try a 2:1 with hay and cow manure. Manure contains more nitrogen than fresh grass clippings, so it will need to be balanced with a lot more roughage. Don't be afraid to experiment with different proportions though! Creating the proper balance is not rocket science if you keep in mind that you need enough nitrogen for your pile to heat up, but not so much nitrogen that your pile smells like ammonia or rotting sewage. Similarly, if you are wetting and mixing and nothing is happening (and it's not 32 degrees outside), try adding more nitrogen. When building the initial pile you will want to alternate the carbon and nitrogen heavy ingredients in very thin layers. After the first few days of completion a good mixing with the hay fork will mess up all that fine layering, but it helps the initial process begin.

Remember, you HAVE to turn over and re-mix the ingredients in the pile every two or three days for the FAST results. This really sets it apart from other composting methods. But don't shy away from a little work! Here you can see that our home composting method is easy:

The Sustaire Household Method of Composting

We typically build our piles on the ground in a fenced-off (chicken proof) portion of our yard. The size depends on materials, but is usually about 3' x 3' x 3'. Depending on the availability of materials, different things go into the piles at different times.

One recent pile consisted of the following:

3 wagon-loads old hay

2 wagon-loads rabbit manure mixed with just a little bedding (hay)

½ wagon load of goat manure

about 5 gallons worth of food scraps

5 gallons rabbit butchering waste (bones, skulls, fur, organs, unused tissue, blood from 5 med. rabbits)

3 wagon-loads of fresh-picked garden weeds (and dirt all over 'em)

10-15 gallons old dish-water (complete with food scrap particles)

This particular pile was built over the course of about a week. I knew I needed to start a new pile and so on went the hay and manure. Next came the food little by little and then I weeded the garden and put that on. The dishwater was poured over the pile whenever it was available, and I had enough of a pile to be satisfied with the completion of the building process. However, I noticed that I had a large amount of fibrous material in my pile (hay, weeds, etc). And not enough nitrogen-rich material (old food, manure, etc.). Well, that problem was soon fixed with the generous remains of five butchered rabbits. After I had a huge bucket full of rabbit waste, I carefully opened up and fluffed the bottom of my compost pile with a hay fork. Then I spread the blood and guts throughout the center. I covered it up generously with hay and weeds and poured a little dish water over the whole thing (we live in a dry area, so watering the pile is a must- it should be damp like a moist sponge). It stank a little bit for a day or two (a stinky pile always means too much nitrogen) and I wondered if I should stir it up and add more hay. I ended up just ignoring the smell and it went away quickly, but ONE WEEK later I opened up the now shrunken compost pile to see how much fur and bones I would have to combat. I found only a couple of fist-sized fur clumps and two skulls, one broken down enough to not resemble a skull anymore, and the other I think was not buried deep enough to fully decompose. Remember that's from five rabbits! I found only a few clumps of hay and one or two chunks of manure. The rest looked like dark-brown dirt! And the contents were actually warm to the touch, a sure sign it has been heating up enough to kill weed seeds. Woo hoo, a successful pile! And only a couple of weeks after creating it! Here's the important part though, because this pile is not yet done. I need to get all of the uncomposted debris into the center of the pile. Remember, that's where the rabbit guts “cooked” best, so to speak, and the uncomposted material left over was all located on the outside, or close to the outer edges of my pile. So I carefully separated the fur, hay, etc. from the pile with my hay fork and again, put the material to be “digested” into a thin layer in the center and fully covered it with compost from the former center of the pile. Another week of dumping dishwater on the pile to take care of moisture, then I stirred it up. Done!

Here's another example of a pile with more common ingredients:

(Kelly worked for a man in town and picked up two trashbags full of yard waste to bring home to compost! Thanks Kelly!)

One 35gal trash bag full of leaves (fresh green and old brown mixed)

One 35gal trash bag full of leaves and fresh lawn clippings mixed

A few shovels full of the last finished compost pile

A small amount (maybe would fill 10 gal bucket?) of manure/hay bedding from the goats

10 or so gallons of old dishwater

I got to build the whole pile in a day (Sun), and I only periodically needed to pour dishwater on it (it had rained a bit) to keep things damp. On Tuesday I forked the pile with a hay fork to a spot about 4 feet over and made a fluffy new mixed up pile. On Friday it looked shrunken and I forked it over back to it's original location. On Sunday (pile is one week old) evening it was a cool 65 degrees outside and when I dug my fork in to flip the pile over again, it steamed from the center of the pile! It was really cookin'! So I flipped it over and it shrunk down again the next morning. By the time another week had passed (turning the pile every 2 to 3 days), it was ready. It was no longer so warm to the touch and the debris was hardly recognizable. Ready for the garden!

The work involved is hardly intensive. Building a pile may be done gradually, or you can put it all together at once. I only turn my piles over every two or three days and it takes hardly any time at all with a modest size compost pile.

The ideal is to have more than one pile going at a time. Our piles regularly take about 6 to 10 weeks to get fully decomposed in the winter time. This is because the temperature is cooler, and I sometimes forget about stirring them and checking on the status! In the garden-intensive spring, summer, and early fall, a compost pile gets more attention and the warm weather actually speeds the process up so it really takes about 2 weeks there, sometimes three. Usually, I am just about done with one pile by the time a new one gets built. The undigested outer layer of one pile often becomes an ingredient in the next pile to speed up things even more.

You could stagger pile-building and turning so that you have a pile done every week or two to fertilize during the whole gardening season!

Stay tuned for Part 2: Composting Outside the Pile.