Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Mowing the lawn? Toss the clippings into the compost pile and mix them in. Weeding? Toss it in!
Our coffee grounds and kitchen scraps and shredded cardboard paper tubes all go in a bucket on
the counter and then out to the compost bin each day. Whenever I add anything that might mat
up, like a bunch of grass clippings or leaves, I am careful to turn the pile over and stir it up a little
bit. You want air to be able to get inside the compost bin so the whole thing heats up and breaks
down. By the time the bin is full, you've got a good mix of raw materials added in.
Now let that compost bin sit and age and let the microscopic workers do their thing and start fill-
ing the second compost bin. By the time that bin is full, your first one will have cooked down into
dark, rich, fertile compost ready for you to add to your garden. If you find that you are filling your
bins faster than the compost is becoming ready (this might happen if you have lots of manure or
household waste you're adding, as our large family does) then simply add another bin.
On a diFFerent Scale
Have you heard about how the Native Americans would bury a fish where they planted their corn, peas,
and squash? That was something we've now fancied up with the term “trench-composting.” You can do the
same thing in your own garden by digging a deep hole, filling it up with vegetable scraps from the kitchen,
and then covering it up with dirt. Plant heavy feeders like squash or melon vines on top, and voilà! You've
composted with no hassle or overthinking.
A couple of quick words about some special composting ingredients:
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Wood chips and other hard materials like corn cobs or avocado pits won't break down in the
compost bin well unless you shred them up in a wood chipper, so most gardeners avoid these
altogether.
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Coffee grounds will raise the acidity of the soil in large quantities, so some people prefer
to age their coffee grounds in a separate compost pile reserved for acidic-soil plants like
blueberries, camellias, and hydrangeas.
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Wood ashes are taboo with some gardeners because they raise the pH levels in high amounts,
but I like to add them for the micronutrients (namely potash) and because we have a wood-
burning stove so it seems wasteful not to compost something that could be composted. Wood
ash shouldn't be a problem unless your soil already has a high pH level or if you add a lot of
them into the mix.
If your compost bin begins to stink, you've probably added too many large leaves or a big mound
of grass clippings that have matted together into a soggy, slimy mess. To solve this problem, add in
some bulky material like straw and stir up the entire pile. Your compost bin should be kept moist,
but not soggy, and you want to make sure that it gets plenty of air into the middle of the pile.
