Montshire Minute: Compost

Originally aired during the week of June 29, 1998

Monday

Welcome to the show. Today, we'll be trying out a brand new recipe. Instead of a mixing bowl, you'll need a small garbage can. Now, throw in the peels from two oranges, some coffee grounds, some old tea bags - you getting all this? --oh, and a few banana peels, and maybe some grass clippings from the lawn. What's that? What am I making? Well, to be honest, this is a recipe for dirt. That's right. Well, of course you can't eat it, but good soil is important for growing all the other things we do eat. Let me tell you, mix up a few batches of this stuff, add it to your garden, and you'll grow the best crop of beans and tomatoes you've ever had! Another word for this material is compost. Composting is the conversion of organic material (plant matter) through decomposition into soil. This is a form of recycling that occurs in nature all the time.

Tuesday

Take a walk in the woods this time of year and the forest floor is covered with old leaves, rotting logs, all kinds of dead vegetation. Of course this material is very important to the life cycle, because it gradually decomposes into soil as invertebrates (like insects and earthworms), and microorganism (bacteria and fungi) break it down. Composting household waste like coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable rinds and peels, eggs shells and the like is just our artificial way of speeding up the decomposition process. Besides producing a great fertilizer for plants that grow in our gardens, composting holds lots of environmental benefits. Yard and food wastes make up approximately 30% of garbage in the United States. Composting most of this waste would reduce the amount of stuff we incinerate or throw into landfills .

Wednesday

A neglected pile of organic waste, say grass clippings, will eventually decompose. But it may take a long time. What composters want to do is speed up the process. "Active" composting can be completed in two to six weeks. This method requires three key factors: "aeration," (or making sure the compost has plenty of oxygen by turning over the pile); moisture, and the proper carbon to nitrogen ratio. The ratio should be roughly 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen (30:1) by weight. Leaves are a good source of carbon; fresh grass clippings are a good source of nitrogen. The composting process slows if there is not enough nitrogen, and too much nitrogen may cause ammonia gas which gives off a very unpleasant odor. Anyway, if all these conditions are met, temperatures in the compost pile will be around 130-140 degrees Fahrenheit, a perfect environment for rapid decomposition.

Thursday

So you want to start a compost pile? Great! You'll be doing the environment a favor by reducing the amount of garbage you lug to the landfill. And your lawn and garden plants will also benefit from composted soil. So how exactly do you go about doing it? It's a little more complicated than spreading garbage all over the garden. If you have a small yard, you can use a plastic, preferably insulated bin (remember, you want the mixture to stay warm). You can jump-start the decomposition process by adding a bit of old compost or leaf mould. You can also buy manure if you're starting it for the first time. Dead leaves serve as a good source of carbon; add to it some "green" stuff like grass clippings. Mix thoroughly, and add water. Then you can start regularly adding table scraps. The bacteria in the compost will also need air, so turning the mixture and providing some ventilation in the container will be important.

Friday

If you don't have room in your yard for a compost pile, consider inviting some earthworms into your home. Vermicomposting, as it is called, uses the soldiers of soil to breakdown compost material. Two pounds of earthworms recycle one pound of organic nutrients in one day. Earthworms also aerate the soil which helps the soil hold more water and break down materials faster. leaving behind excrement that provides rich nutrients for plants. Earthworms eat just about anything organic, including food, kitchen and garden wastes and even paper and cardboard. A large bin bedded with soaked peat moss mixed with dead leaves, some lawn clippings and soaked, shredded newspaper makes a good worm farm. As with outdoor composting, it is best to avoid putting bones, meats, fish, or oily fats in the worm box as they emit odors and may attract mice and rats.