Starting A New Compost Pile
October 7th, 2009 · 4 Comments · Posted in garden
We are switching from local leaves to imported straw in our compost
Besides sun and water, nothing is more important to the life of our food garden here in the District of Columbia than the fertility of our soil. Until we began digging our garden bed, our soil was hidden under a lawn of grass and weeds that had never been landscaped–or at least not that we were aware. Undisturbed, the soil was healthy. It immediately yielded a bounty of vegetables. But maintaining that soil health is something I think about often.
Initially I wanted to create a closed system in which we could grow food simply by recycling all of our wastes and using compost as our primary road to continued fertility. But it quickly became apparent that I would need an outside source of carbonaceous (“brown”) materials for our compost operation. I began foraging the neighborhood for leaves in the fall. At first I stored these in bags, but the bags became unwieldy. Then I purchased an electric shredder to break the leaves down, and soon was ordering large metal trash cans from the hardware store to keep a stash of shredded leaves.
For our compost’s nitrogen (“green”) component, we relied mainly on the clippings from the lawn that remained outside and in between the vegetable beds. But soon that was eliminated from the equation when we switched from an electric mower with a bag to catch the clippings to a manual push mower with no bag. At that point I began collecting coffee grounds from our local Starbucks as well as horse manure from a friendly riding stables.
May I say, the coffee grounds and horse manure make quick work of turning our garden debris and kitchen scraps into a beautiful compost. The only problem is, we never seem to have enough of it. So I am constantly working on our system to make the process a little faster, our storage system more efficient.
We use a three-bin system, meaning we are making compost in two bins with one bin available for turning. Recently I emptied the compost we started in the spring into three of the trash cans I normally reserve for shredded leaves. This means I have a reasonably good quantity of compost for the garden beds next spring, when I will stir a dusting of compost into the soil before I plant my seeds. It also means that I no longer have storage available for the leaves I would normally collect this fall.
But then it struck me that there was no reason I could not use the straw I put down for mulch as a replacement for the leaves. I normally shred the straw to make the mulch easier to apply. Since I happened to have a fresh bale sitting in the garage, I went ahead and ran most of it through the shredder yesterday and used it to start a new compost pile.
Also on hand were about 120 pounds of coffee grounds from Starbucks and six five-gallon buckets of horse manure. It didn’t take long to build a partial pile with alternating layers of our recently collected garden debris, straw, coffee grounds and horse manure. Between layers, I watered. Now I will collect more coffee grounds and more horse manure and continue adding layers until the bin is full.
Making compost this way means I won’t need to cruise the neighborhood snatching bags of leaves. But it will mean purchasing additional bales of straw as needed. The straw, though, has the added advantage of storing in the garage with no need for more garbage cans.
I will miss the satisfaction of turning our local leaves back into the soil. But sometimes an urban gardener with limited space needs to make adjustments.
For more information on making compost, watch my series of video clips here.
Hi Ed … so good to read about your composting, as you are the most serious composter I can think of. I’ve watched your fantastic films, and it’s great to have an update on your new recipe. I find that the main thing to speed the process up is to keep everything WET … I no longer feel stupid when watering the compost, it’s just as important as watering tender plants 🙂
Thanks for sharing
Joanna
Joanna, you are right. I’m not sure people are aware that compost in done by all sorts of tiny organisms that need the same things we do to live–food, air and water. When it’s hot outside and especially if the wind is blowing, compost can dry out quickly. It needs to be watered. Never be afraid to train your garden hose on the compost pile for a long drink. The compost pile should always be a little moist, like a wrung-out sponge. (Too wet is another problem. It might start to smell, in which case you need to add some “browns,” like shredded newspaper, dry leaves, sawdust or straw..)
Ed; I’ve been avoiding the coffee grounds. I thought they made things too acidic for veggies. No?
Also, our beermaking grains operation is up and running! Look here: http://dunwoodysustainability.ning.com/photo/photo/show?id=2660679%3APhoto%3A4687
Pattie, congratulations on your success with composting beer meal! I’m still bumping my head on that claim that it results in 30 percent higher yields. Compared to what? And how was that measured. I’d love to hear the details. The soil forum at GardenWeb address the acidity question around coffee grounds. One of their members actually conducted tests and found that nearly all the acid in coffee is removed in the brewing process. Coffee grounds measure 6.9 for pH, or essentially neutral. Plus, any acidity is buffered in the composting process. You can read about it here: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/soil/2002015354019975.html