I have heard John Dromgoole, owner of the well known Natural Gardener nursery in South Austin, praise kitchen compost on his radio talk show, over the compost he sells in his store. The compost John sells at the Natural Gardener is actually very good unlike the bagged composts from nurseries and home improvement stores which are full of wood chips. You are left wondering if you spent your money on mulch or compost, or in the case of the manure compost, you will wonder what those cows ate! That was long ago, probably 8 years back. Today, I make my own compost, and I am a serious gardener who believes in organic methods as well as sustainable practices. Gardening has become more than a hobby ever since I found, in the cycle of growing, fruition and decomposition, the very rhythm of our lives. Gardening has become a rosary in my hands.
Composting appeared to be such an easy thing to do before I began. After all, decomposition is a disintegration process. Little did I know that like producing something, decomposition also needs to meet certain requirements, without which it either takes too long or it creates new problems. Composting after all is controlled decomposition of organic matter achieved with the help of microorganisms. Depending on the kind of microbes active in the compost, composting is broadly classified into aerobic composting and anaerobic composting.
Anaerobic composting is decomposition without the use of oxygen by the predominance of anaerobic bacteria breaking down the matter into methane, hydrogen sulphide and other intermediate compounds. Some of these byproducts may be phytotoxic and also can produce bad odors. In could cause undue trouble for gardeners with small yards as the odors could raise objections from neighbors. The absence of heat in the decomposition process can mean that weed seeds and pathogens are not killed. All these add upto considerable disadvantages for a small scale gardener when compared to aerobic composting.
Aerobic composting is accomplished with the help of aerobic microbes that break down the organic matter using oxygen and produces carbon dioxide in the process. This process produces heat which kills pathogens as well as seeds of weeds and also accelerates the process by quicker decomposition of fats, proteins and complex carbohydrates like cellulose. Even though more nutrients are lost in decomposition, when compared to anaerobic composting, this method has more advantages for a small scale gardener. The composting technique I have perfected over the years is an aerobic one.
My very first attempt at composting involved a huge composting bin that I bought from the Municipal Utility District in our locality. We had ample supply of leaves and kitchen scrap to feed the composting pile, but I committed the folly of adding half eaten cooked food too, which generated more moisture than needed and brought real nasty looking maggots into the pile. It also attracted rodents. The large size made it almost impossible to turn the components of the compost pile, and turning is important for aeration of the pile. I almost gave up on my composting, which is when I began to hear stories of successful composting in pots and that prompted me to give it a try. I was also more aware of the requirements of composting after my initial failures. Today, it has been almost 2 years, and I haven’t thrown any kitchen scrap in these 2 years. It has been a completely new chapter in my life as a gardener, making me a successful home composter as well as a successful vegetable gardener.
Pot composting is very easy to do and ideal for a gardener with a small yard. The total cost of the 6 pots and the 6 lids, ideally made of clay which breathes well, may come around to 40 dollars. I have kept one pot in my back patio, and it is the pot that collects the fresh kitchen scrap daily. There are, additionally, 5 pots lined up near the fence, each one is in a different stage of the composting process, with the pot in one end receiving the scrap collected in the patio and the one at the other end in the final stage. Let me call this arrangement of pots as my assembly line.
What goes into my compost? Compost needs wet ingredients and dry ingredients. This balances the moisture and keeps worms out from the picture. My wet ingredients mainly comprise of all the vegetable and fruit scrap, and tea grounds. The dry ingredients comprise of egg shells, some paper products without a lot of printed matter on it, leaves and soil or finished compost. Soil or compost is also necessary to add the required microbes into the mix; it becomes something akin to a starter culture for the composting process.It also helps to shred large pieces of scrap like water melon skins as it makes stirring easier and helps in faster decomposition.
Once my collection pot fills up with these, I move them to a bucket and then carry it to the receiving pot in my assembly line. In moving them to the bucket, the contents get turned over, which adds a lot of air into the mix which, as we know, is essential for aerobic composting. When I move it to the assembly line, I also give the rest of the pots a stir and also move the contents in the receiving pot to the next one in line. The contents in the receiving pot will be around a week old which is the time it takes for a pot of kitchen scrap to be generated in my house; we are a family of 2 adults and 3 kids. I also move the contents in the rest of the pots up the assembly line, making sure that the final pot is emptied of its content if it is ready. A compost that is ready to be used will look like soil, and the only kitchen scrap visible will be egg shells, which take longer to break down, but it doesn’t harm plants with its presence. In winter, compost takes longer to finish, in which case, I just store the contents of the last pot in a big plastic bin, where the finishing process can be completed.
I have found this process to be very easy and I have found its worth in the plants that look healthy and happy in my garden. But, this compost is not always enough for my use, and I do buy additional compost from the garden stores. I use the compost I make mainly for my vegetable garden. And they seem to love it!
timeless pursuits 