Adventures in Composting

As I am far from an expert gardener I rely rather more heavily on store-bought aids for my new venture. That being said, I do live on a somewhat woody property which means lots of leaves, and one thing that kept coming up again and again in my research was the glorious goodness of composting. If you aren't familiar with composting there are sites than can explain it to you loads better than I can, but the gist of it is that you can take organic matter and turn it into basically nutrient-rich soil. There are even different types of compost.

I'm assured that, although it might sound like a stinky and gross business, it is actually quite mild and most of your job is to leave it alone. I remember when I was a little girl and we lived in England, the people from whom we were renting our house had a little compost heap in the back of the garden. We Americans didn't really use it and since neither of my parents have ANY interest in gardening, we certainly didn't make use of its yield. We probably botched it anyhow since one thing you do need to worry about is getting the ratio right, and I think Dad just dumped the dead grass clippings on it. Ideally you have "Browns" and "Greens" although even this is a bit misleading. Browns= carbon rich material, Greens= nitrogen rich materials. So kitchen scraps and grass clippings and newspaper (just not the glossy color inserts) and dead leaves. You do have to keep animal matter out of the piles, so no chicken bones or deli scraps or the like, but with my diet that's not in much supply anyhow. You need a ration of about 30:1 (C:N).

Here's the process:-
1) I selected a mesh chicken wire fencing roll from the local hardware store that was wide enough to provide high sides. This meant it would contain lots of material, especially as I intended to add to it for a while. Composting takes time more than anything else. Just waiting. It also needed to be short enough for my diminutive self to still be able to lean over it.
2) I cut off a decent sized chunk and allowed the natural curve of the roll to help coax it into a cylinder. I did have to stamp it down a bit to keep it from curling too much.
3) It came wired to stay together, so I re-purposed some of this wire to make "ties" down the seam. This means that when/if I need to unwrap it to open it I can do so by just clipping the ties. I'm hoping I can just lift it off the pile though.
4) I debated adding cardboard to the inside as a barrier to excess moisture and to keep animals from getting at it, but opted for a tarp cover instead which is wrapped and clipped in place most of the time.
5) There's no base and there isn't meant to be since compost can be really beneficial for the soil on which it is ripening. I placed mine on the intended site of some future roses that will go in some year hence.

(Bonus: the tongs are good for digging scraps out)

6) Next I add layers of dried leaves from the piles and drifts adorning my lawn, and between these I put kitchen scraps of veggie off-cuts and eggshells and apple cores. I topped it with more leaves, and watered the whole thing since it does need moisture.
7) Finally I covered it with the tarp and made sure that was secure.
8) Periodically I add more scraps (or leaves) to it from my handy dandy kitchen bucket which I picked especially for this purpose (the copper goes with my kitchen decor nicely and looks smashing on the counter), water again, maybe turn it and compact it a bit with the spade, and leave it alone.


Earlier I mentioned that there is more than one type of compost. I was watching my favorite gardening show, which is naturally British and called Gardener's World, and it came up that you can make Leaf Compost (which I described above) or you can make Leaf Mold/Mulch which is pretty much just leaves in a bag with some moisture and about a year of waiting. Sounds perfect. Compost is good for adding nutrients to the soil for your plants, and leaf mold is good for keeping moisture in your flower beds. I'll likely need a little of both, though not as much in the moisture department as too much of my yard is already a bit soggy and boggy.

I can see those bags of slowly decomposing leaves sitting very nicely behind the greenhouse that is being delivered on Tuesday. Here's to hoping I'm doing at least some of this right.