A Tomato in Every Pot and
Compost in Every Backyard

By Angela Stricker

Slumbering beneath a blanket of fresh snow lies a compost heap. It might not seem like much now, but Richard Allen’s specially designed, biodegradable compost “bin” is a labor of love awaiting spring and the promise of new life. During the winter, microbes, like many other creatures, slow down, but kitchen scraps needn’t go out with the garbage during the winter just because the bacteria are hibernating.

Compost is part of an amazing natural system. By recycling what would otherwise be waste materials from your kitchen and yard, you can create a nutrient rich soil amendment for your garden.

Soil quality is essential to a productive garden. Soil is created naturally by the weathering of rocks and the decay of organic materials. Good gardeners generally have an understanding of their soil and its relationship with their plants. Poor soil yields unhealthy plants. Sandy soil doesn’t hold moisture long, while soils with lots of clay don’t allow excess water to drain away. Soil can be amended with synthetic (chemical) fertilizers, but these don’t improve the overall health of the soil; they are simply a “shot in the arm” that temporarily helps. Unlike synthetic fertilizers, natural amendments like manure and compost improve the quality of poor soils by adding long-lasting complex nutrients and regulating moisture balance.

What can you compost?
You might be surprised…

Coffee grounds, filters and tea bags • Hair from your brush or fur from your cat • Dryer lint • Cotton or wool clothing—rip it up Shredded bills, documents and junk mail—no plastic windows • Pencil shavings • Sweepings from counters and floorsContents of your vacuum cleaner • Used paper napkins, paper towels, tissues • Pizza boxes • Paper egg cartons or berry boxesNut shells • Egg shells • Toothpicks and bamboo skewers • Nail clippings • 100% cotton balls • Houseplant trimmings • FeathersDead houseplants and their soil • Floral arrangements • Used matches • Ashes • Crepe paper streamers • Jack-o'lanterns • Stale pet food

While most of us don’t have manure at hand, we all have the makings of compost. And the process of composting need not be intimidating. Compost can be created by simply throwing kitchen and yard waste into a pile in a corner of your yard and biding your time, although it will take a very long time to get the finished compost, and it might not have the best balance of nutrients. Various bins and tumblers are available commercially to speed the conversion of kitchen waste to compost, but they aren’t really necessary. The formula for compost is simple:

Carbon + Nitrogen + Water + Oxygen = Compost.

However, not all compost is created equal. There are a few key factors to keep in mind if you want to ensure good compost:

• There must be a balance of nitrogen-rich (or green) and carbon-rich (or brown) materials in a composting pile.
• The pile will finish faster if you can retain the heat in it.
• The pile needs to be slightly damp.

Richard Allen’s compost system fills all of these requirements. Artist, gardener, healer, Richard Allen has been gardening and composting for years; he has simplified his garden so that it can be as productive as possible in a small amount of space. His corner lot in Leland features mature fruit trees, nut trees and various berries in addition to an impressive vegetable garden that provides most of his produce. Richard’s entire garden system relies heavily on straw. He mulches his garden beds and paths with it to keep weeds down and help retain water, and for the past six or seven years he has been using bales of straw to construct his compost bins. These biodegradable bins are multifunctional: They consistently create good compost by maintaining heat and moisture, and the bales can be reused as mulch or composted once their lives as compost retaining walls has passed. Richard’s compost piles are significantly more work than an untended pile in the corner of a yard, but the payoff (finished compost in five or six weeks) is well worth the extra time and energy a straw bale pile takes to build.

To create your own turbocharged compost pile, begin with six bales of straw. Lay two bales end-to-end to create a long wall. Perpendicular to the first two bales, lay another bale at each end of the first double bale. Complete the bottom layer by laying another two bales parallel to the first two. Once the foundation has been laid you can begin adding compostable material within it. Begin with a layer of something to serve as a weed barrier. This can be as elegant as landscaping fabric or as simple as sheets of cardboard or newspaper. When adding material to your bin, it is important to remember to balance the nitrogen-rich materials with carbon-rich materials. Begin with a layer of carbon-rich material such as leaves, straw, shredded newspaper, cardboard or sawdust. Add nitrogen-rich material such as fruit or vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings or manure. Continue to alternate layers of carbon-rich materials with nitrogen-rich materials. Other amendments can be layered in if you wish, and a layer of soil or finished compost will help increase the bacteria level in the pile to kickstart the process. For a really efficient pile, a second tier of straw bales should be stacked on top of the first in a staggered pattern similar to that of a brick wall; the pile can also easily be stacked three bales high. Finish the pile with a carbon-rich layer; fruit flies and other insects will find your pile less attractive if it is covered in straw or dried leaves than if it is covered in apple peels. If your pile is very dry, dampen it with a hose, but the pile should not be soaking wet.

Once the pile is complete, sit back and let Mother Nature take over. After a few days the pile will “slump” and you will know it is starting to work. The compost will heat up, which kills weed seeds and helps break down the material in the pile. The straw bales hold the material and retain moisture and heat by limiting the surface area of the pile that is exposed. After three weeks, the pile will be done “cooking” and you can turn it. Begin by pulling the bales away from the compost. The “cooked” compost inside will hold its shape much like a loaf of bread. Rebuild the straw bin next to your first bin and break apart the compost “loaf.”

Remember the formula for compost?

Carbon + Nitrogen + Water + Oxygen = Compost.

We have carbon, nitrogen and water but the bacteria have used up most of the oxygen in the pile. To restart the process, we have to add more oxygen. This is achieved by really pulverizing the compost so that all the inside surfaces are exposed to the air again. Just like a fire needs oxygen to burn, a compost heap needs oxygen to fuel its heat production. Stir up the pulverized compost and fork it over into the rebuilt bin. Then ignore it again for a few more weeks. The compost will heat up and then cool. At this point the compost is finished; use it to top dress your gardens or fill entire beds.

Richard Allen builds a new compost pile each spring as soon as the weather warms up; it takes him several hours to complete each bin. Throughout the fall and winter, he collects materials in a heap near the site of his future bin to make building the pile easier. Once the compost is finished he stores it covered, on a tarp, until he is ready to use it.

Richard is almost entirely self-sufficient. Most of what he eats comes from his own 100' x 125' property. The only things he gets from outside are meat, dairy or eggs. This spring he is downsizing his acreage, but he plans to continue growing most of his food. How? By gardening in the least invasive way he can. Richard doesn’t till his land. Each year he covers his garden beds with a weed barrier, and mulches them heavily with straw, manure and compost. Lots of compost. His system gives back to the earth more than it takes, and he is willing to share his system with those around him: He spontaneously gives tours of his garden to curious passersby and has logged hundreds of volunteer hours at Leland Elementary School helping the children construct, plant and harvest the gardens. He even goes back to prepare meals from the bounty so that the children can see the gardening project from start to finish. Richard knows that not everyone can or will garden as intensively as he does, or reach the level of selfsufficiency that he has, but he is happy to educate anyone with an interest in learning. He hopes that his yard and his compost heaps will be a model for those wanting to live more simply and tread more lightly on this planet.

We can all live more simply. We can all take steps to protect the resources we have or to do more for ourselves. Whether you want to grow more of your own food or reduce your carbon footprint—or both—composting is a relatively easy way to do it. And now, to understand how much of a difference composting can make, let’s have a little science lesson about carbon.

All plant and animal life is carbon based. Carbon exists in different forms, from graphite to diamonds to carbon dioxide, and it cycles constantly, albeit it slowly, through many different forms. The portion of the carbon cycle that seems to be getting the most attention lately is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide gas is a greenhouse gas and a by-product of energy consumption. Not just fossil fuel consumption—our own bodies produce carbon dioxide gas when we breathe, and even the microbes that produce compost create carbon dioxide in the process of converting waste. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are essential to life on earth, but too many of them can cause the earth to become unbearably hot; imagine being confined in a closed car on a hot sunny day. The trapped heat has no place to go, and the temperature continues to increase until everything inside cooks. It’s not a pleasant thought.

All the carbon we have on earth, we’ve always had on earth. Although all carbon is part of a complex cycle, and carbon dioxide levels fluctuate naturally over time, the things we do as humans affect how much carbon is available as a gas at any given time. Over millions of years, decaying plant and animal matter have been slowly converted into fossil fuels like coal and oil. Over the past 3,000 or so years, we’ve managed to burn a large amount of fossil fuels that took millions of years to create. We very quickly released tons of carbon into the air that were previously trapped in the soil.

Through photosynthesis, plants use the carbon dioxide available in the air to create carbohydrates. Plant growth is one form of carbon sequestering. According to Wikipedia, carbon sequestration is “the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it into a reservoir.” This occurs naturally through photosynthesis, but scientists are developing ways to artificially sequester carbon dioxide to counteract the effect of fossil fuel consumption.

As humans, we may not have the capacity to efficiently sequester carbon like plants do, but we can still help reduce the amount of waste we produce each year simply by composting our kitchen and yard waste. In addition, this can help ensure rich, healthy soil in our yards so that we can grow healthier plants. Healthier plants are more efficient converters of carbon dioxide. Do you begin to see how you can be a positive part of the healthy carbon cycle? Even if you’re not a gardener, you can find a way to recycle your scraps, and use the compost to spread on your lawn or to fill container pots.

No one is going to singlehandedly save the world by starting a compost pile, but understanding our place in the big picture is an important step. Maybe a tomato in every pot and a compost heap in every backyard is a good place to start.

Angela Stricker works as a Montessori directress in the Traverse City Area Public Schools. She writes about food, gardening and whatever else strikes her fancy in her blog, HippieInGeeksClothing.wordpress.com.