Avant Gardener: Compost improves soil and prevents waste

  • By Kyle Valentini
  • March 19, 2013
  • 305
                        
Summary: Compost adds structure and nutrients to soil and recycles food and yard waste slated for the landfill. When left to her own devices, Mother Nature wastes nothing. Humans, on the other hand waste a lot and they do so with little regard for the affect it will have on the rest of the species that share the planet. One source of great waste is food another is fuel. In nature all nutrients are recycled through the food chain, a process that has been taking place for as long as life has existed on Earth. You can follow the same principals in your own garden when you use compost in your soil. Compost as a noun is decayed organic material used as a soil conditioner and a fertilizer. It can come from kitchen scraps, yard waste, animal waste as well as paper and cardboard. Composting as a verb is the act of making compost out of items that would otherwise be discarded. As our food system has become more industrialized, farmers have turned to growing insanely large mono-crops of commodity-traded crops in ways that would be unrecognizable to their great grandparents and in some case even their grandparents. Chemical fertilizers are made from mined materials buried deep in the earth like oil, potassium and phosphate. Some chemical fertilizers like anhydrous ammonia and muriate of potash or potassium chloride harm soil ecology and should not be used to grow anything let alone food to feed humans and animals. Chemical fertilizers require a great deal of fossil fuel in order to be manufactured and this makes their use even more unsustainable. In a sustainable system, nutrients are recycled from the very top of the food chain back into the bottom. By composting organic matter is placed into a large enough mass, with a ratio of the essential elements of life like carbon, potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen. The large mass is important to facilitate a large population of heat-producing micro-organisms, which greatly increase the speed of decomposition. The nutrient balance is important to ensure the micro-organisms a friendly environment to thrive in, and to give the finished product the proper ingredients to support plants health. Because compost is so beneficial to soil quality large scale operations utilize farm animal waste and other organic materials and have made it available for purchase in bags or bulk for larger quantities for use in home gardens and farms. Municipalities make compost from collected yard waste that can be sold for additional revenue. In some communities food waste from schools, hospitals and jails is used in composting operations. You can also make it at home with very little effort. A compost pile should be started on bare earth so worms and other beneficial organisms to aerate the compost and be transported to your garden beds. Begin with a layer of twigs or straw, a few inches deep. This promotes drainage and helps aerate the pile. Add materials in layers, alternating moist and dry. Moist ingredients are food scraps and tea bags. Dry materials are straw, leaves, sawdust and clean wood ashes. Add horse, cow or chicken manure, green manure like clover grown as a cover crop or any nitrogen source. This activates the compost pile and speeds the decomposition process. Cover with wood or a tarp to help it retain moisture and heat which are essential for compost. Covering prevents the compost from being over-watered by rain. The compost should be moist, but not soaked and sodden. Turn. Every few weeks give the pile a turn with a garden fork or shovel. This aerates the pile. By composting, you can help to reduce the amount of waste that is being directed into landfills where it becomes concentrated, toxic leachates and methane gas that is released into the atmosphere. This means a decrease in overall pollution.


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