Compost Happens

My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that let's you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap.
Bette Midler

I'm not sure I had the same epiphany as the great Bette Midler BUT there was a certain feeling of being a rebel, going against the compost naysayers. But I had to give it a try. Every book and website assures me that if I layer my compost: greens topped with browns then I should be good to go. I mean how can I not try to make the magic elixir every gardener raves about. Maybe this is what is missing, keeping my so-so garden from becoming the field of my dreams (I can't quite get over the vision that Ray Liotta will appear in my garden after whispering sweet promises of "build it and they will come"). So Husband Extraordinaire found a deal on a compost bin for 1/3 of the price of many I had been looking at. It is a basic bin but just what we needed for our small space and our uncertain resolve. This is really an experiment for us, we want to make sure we have the time and that this big pile o' garbage and cuttings won't stink to high heaven.

So we ignored the first instruction about placing the compost close to your kitchen so that during the winter your scraps bucket can still make it to the compost heap. Being in a townhouse didn't allow us this luxury so we put it out in our backyard. The dirt we placed the composter on was so hard that we added some of our good dirt to give us a first good layer.

The bin was easy to place, light weight, and all we had to do was peg it down so that the wind wouldn't sweep away our garbage goldmine.







Some cute kid brought out the compost bucket from the kitchen (now that does get a little rancid in there but so far we don't smell it unless the lid is open: disposal every two/three days is a must).








Here are our nitrogen rich greens. This is what we scrap off our plates. The only thing you need to avoid is putting meats, dairy, or oily foods. Meat and the like take awhile to decay so these are the culprits who attract unwanted visitors. It is ok to have water in this mix since your compost heap needs to be like a sponge; not sopping wet but damp. Since this first dump I have also been lining my kitchen bin with paper towel. This makes it easier to dump and wipe out and the paper towel is an ok compost item.


"That is really gross, Mommy!" Little SP

We then put in old grass clippings and branches that we had cut away from an old dead plant. Old garden material is great for the heap as well, just make sure it doesn't have any disease.

The fantastic Ms. Trail mentions putting in an activator to get the decaying started but I was fresh out of manure, chicken poop or tea made of comfrey, nettles or white valerian. And I'm not sure how Barry feels about peeing in the compost pin, which is also thought to be a great activator. If anyone has any ideas that would save us any public urination we would greatly appreciate it.

This all seems so easy, right? Well, there is a delicate balance you have to maintain. You need to keep your ratio of greens to browns pretty even and you can't let your pile get too wet or too dry. You also need to make sure enough oxygen gets in there. It's like I'm living in a compost version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Wish us luck!