Composting for Fun and Profit

Composting is the art of turning organic waste into a rich soil amendment called humus. When incorporated into your gardens, humus increases the ability of the soil to hold water and nutrients. Composting is easy to do and benefits both you and the environment.  It benefits you by improving the quality of your garden soil and it benefits the environment by reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfills. Organic wastes that can be composted include fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee grounds, grass clippings and leaves. Some things you should not include in your backyard compost include meat or dairy products, dog or cat waste, wood, and weed seeds.

 A perfect mixture of material consists of one-half carbon-based material and one-half nitrogen-based material by weight. Carbon based materials include fall leaves, coffee grounds and kitchen scraps, dry hay, and straw. Nitrogen based materials include fresh grass clippings and animal manure such as goat, sheep, cow, llama, alpaca, chicken or horse manure. If you do not have enough nitrogen based material, you can add a high nitrogen fertilizer such as blood meal.

 The composting process consists of bacteria breaking down the organic material in a process somewhat like fermentation. These bacteria are naturally present in the organic materials themselves; however, you can get a faster start to the process by using a commercial compost starter. The organisms that live inside your compost pile need air to survive.  Mix or turn the pile three to five times per season using a pitchfork, garden hoe or shovel.  Proper aeration can make a big difference. You will know if your bin is not getting enough oxygen if the pile smells of ammonia.  A properly maintained compost pile will have no odor.

 The composting process will create heat and the temperature of the pile can exceed 160 degrees.  At that temperature, most weed seeds will be destroyed.  If the temperature is allowed to exceed 180 degrees, the bacteria will die and the process will stop.  To decrease the temperature, turn the pile.

 The organisms need water to survive, but not too much or they will drown.  The ideal moisture level of your compost pile should be like that of a wrung out sponge.

 Cut up or shred organic waste materials before placing them into the compost bin.  This increases the surface area and speeds up decomposition. You can also put kitchen scraps in your freezer for a day or two to speed up decomposition.  Freezing breaks down the cells which aids the composting process.

A bin should be about the same size in all three dimensions; height, width, and depth.  A bin that is too small cannot retain enough heat.  On the other hand, if the bin is too large, enough air won’t get to the center of the pile. For these reasons, keep the sides of your bin between three and five feet. It is also easier to manage two or three medium bins than one large one.  You can build a compost bin yourself out of new or recycled materials, or you can buy one at a home or garden center.  A very simple bin consists of a twelve foot long section of three-foot hardware cloth.  The ends of the hardware cloth can be fastened together to form a cylinder which will give you an open topped bin that is three-feet high and has a diameter of about four feet.  The hardware cloth will hold the material together while allowing air to penetrate the sides of the pile. You can form a cover for this bin out of a half sheet of one-half inch plywood to keep the pile from getting too wet in rainy weather (do we have that here?)

If all of this seems to be too much trouble and you have the location for it, a simple pile of organic material will compost itself over the period of a year or so.  The outsides of the pile will not compost completely and the temperature may not ever get high enough to kill the weed seeds, but the interior will turn into humus by itself.  I once visited a vacant farm that was being sold and one of the silos contained completely composted material.

,Where does the profit in the title come in?  Well, within the next few years, I intend to develop a composted llama manure product.  The registered trade name of this product is Rama Llama Ding Dung.  You heard it here first folks.