Composting, How to Start

"Composting is an excellent way to avoid both wasting useful, natural resources and creating environmental problems, while at the same time producing a high quality and inexpensive soil amendment." (howtocompost.org)

The other day, a friend and I were discussing our gardening plans, both of us eager to get out there and work in the dirt, when we touched briefly upon composting. I got to thinking later that, while I've posted a few times on the topic, I've never actually talked about it in any depth. And if you, like my friend, need to improve your soil, this is the easiest, least expensive way to do it. Plus, it's environmentally responsible.

As a preface, let me say that when we moved into our home, nearly three years ago, a section of the backyard had obviously been used at one time or another as a garden. Also obviously, it had been quite a while since it was actively used for that purpose. But...at some point, someone took pains to improve the soil and we now reap the benefit. However, after three years of regular, year-round composting, our soil is even better than it was. Case in point: In the summer when the ground is warm, you can go into our garden, pick any place, dig up a shovel-full of dirt, and find at least one fat, juicy worm in there--if not a few of them. That, my friends, is garden-friendly soil! I love seeing those worms.

So here's the easy, no-cost way to compost:

• Pick a spot in or near your garden plot, out of the way of foot traffic, and dig a hole. Smaller is better, as this site attests, but you want it big enough that you won't have to dig a new hole every week.

• Collect kitchen scraps in some kind of small bucket in your kitchen (I use a milk jug with the top cut off). Nearly everything from your kitchen that you would normally throw away can be composted--excluding any meats, bones, fish, or animal fats. These waste products attract cats, rodents, and other pests you don't want in your backyard! (For additional items to leave out of your compost, see this article at thegardenofoz.com.) Not to mention, these waste items would make your compost pile pretty smelly.

• When the bucket is full, take it to your compost hole and dump it in.

• Every week (or more often, if you're better at remembering than I am), shovel some dirt over your compost materials. The microorganisms in your soil will greatly aid in the breakdown of your compost.

• Regularly turn your compost with a shovel to mix it up and add oxygen, an important part of decomposition. If you live in an area that is very dry during the summer, adding water to your compost every week or so also helps to break it down more quickly.

• Once your compost hole is full, completely cover it with dirt and let it sit a few weeks to a few months. Meanwhile, dig a new hole.

It's that easy!

For more efficient composting, the above-linked site points out that mere kitchen scraps isn't the ideal ratio of green to brown compost material. So be sure to add some leaves if you have them, too. Another amazing thing to add, that most people don't even think about, is human hair. If you give your family haircuts, one of the best things you can do with those hair clippings is take them out to the compost pile. They're full of nitrogen, which can be hard to find in other compostable items. (See my post on composting hair here.) Of course, if you have rabbit droppings, those are an ideal, slow-release fertilizer, also full of nitrogen that could be added to your compost pile, in moderation.

Note on composting seeds: Before we got chickens, we put all kinds of seeds in our compost pile, since they were kitchen scraps that we didn't eat (such as cantaloupe and watermelon seeds). Either we didn't mix our compost often enough or the sun didn't bake the seeds hot enough to kill them, because we ended up with all kinds of volunteer plants in our garden last summer. It was fun to see which vegetables and melons we ended up with, but that was enough surprises! I am glad we can now give our chickens all the seeds we don't want and spare that experience this summer.

Nutrition and Intuition

Last week I was honored to be a guest author at A Peace of Soul, an inspirational blog written by my friend, Leslie. She is an RN, a Simply Healed practitioner, and an NAET provider who also uses the Emotion Code. (I first mentioned her here.) Her incredible gift for healing has blessed the lives of my immediate and extended families, and there is a very peaceful spirit about her. I love reading her messages because they uplift me and make me think about things in a different way. You can find my post about the connection between good nutrition and good intuition here.

Garden Planner

Are you tired of planning your garden with pencil, paper, and a really, really good eraser? I certainly am! So this week I've been having fun trying out something new: Garden Planner. This great program is free for 30 days, and you don't input any credit card information to try it out, so a subscription won't automatically start. It's helping me see my future garden much more vividly, which makes it easier to see how I should arrange my various herbs, vegetables, and berries. It's also helping me think of new things to plant which are appropriate to my area, and includes details on each plant, like where it grows best and when to plant it. And when I'm finished planning, I can print off my "garden map" to use outside while I plant it all. Check it out here!

Gardening: "A Subversive Activity"?

Fellow gardeners: Have you ever considered your garden "a subversive plot"? I hadn't. But it makes sense. And knowing this, I feel more empowered and impelled to continue this subversive activity (hee hee)...

Below is an 18-minute video of Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Gardeners International. He believes "A genuine shift of power in society will follow when people take food production into their own hands. Some staggering statistics are offered here, that really take the conversation beyond gardening as simply a healthy, virtuous hobby." (Note: his humor is a little hokey at the beginning, so just bear with him. He's got some really good things to say. :) )

Edible Front Yards

There is a movement for front yard gardens that is gaining popularity, acceptance, and excitement throughout the country. I used to not understand this idea, but the more I pour water into my lawn each summer, wasting such a precious resource in my desert climate, the more I realize how much merit this idea actually has. Why give any plant so much water if it doesn't give anything back (in the edible sense)?

So here at the end of winter, when I start my yearly yearning for spring and begin planning my garden, I am learning more about edible landscaping. Since I already have five SFG boxes in front of my house, the next step of creating even more of an edible front yard, isn't too hard to imagine. And I've had many favorable comments about the boxes so far, so I don't think my neighbors would mind more front yard edibles. :)

In my attempts to learn all I can, I am currently reading two books I found at my local library that are giving me lots to think about: Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy, and The Edible Front Yard by Ivette Soler. The photographs are beautiful and inspiring, and my brain is awhirl with possibilities!

Of course, there are also many inspiring website on this topic, such as The Front Yard Farmer, Dog Island Farm, and--of course-- UrbanHomestead.org. Northwest Edible Life even explains why you shouldn't rip up your grass before planting edibles. Good information!

I'm not sure how many of these ideas I'll be able to implement this coming spring, but I'm moving in this direction...

I would love to hear your experience and ideas on edible front yards!