Grow Your Own
(Page 9 of 13)
May/June 1970
By Jeanie Darlington
COMPOST
RELATED CONTENT
One of the basics in successful organic gardening is compost. You can create your own soil conditioner and fertilizer by simply using all your garden and kitchen wastes and whatever other organic materials you can come by. Compost enriches the soil with humus, and that is the most important factor in a healthy garden. Even if you never plan to have a garden, start a pile anyway and give the stuff away to your friends. Composting your garbage will help the ecology and besides, making compost is fun.
Compost is decayed organic matter. There are many methods for making it. The original Indore Method was developed by Sir Albert Howard, the father of Organic Gardening. He found that decomposition took place quicker if you layered different organic materials.
He first laid down a 5-6 inch layer of green matter, then a two inch layer of manure, and then a layer of rich earth, ground limestone and phosphate rock. He built a series of those layers up to a height of 5 feet, covered the pile with a thin layer of soil, made an indentation in the top to catch rainwater, and left it to decay for 6 months or more. While building the pile, he placed pipes through the pile, and then pulled them out when it was the full height, to provide aeration.
This is an aerobic method. The bacteria rely upon a supply of oxygen to break down organic matter quickly and thoroughly into rich black humus. The process can be speeded up by turning the pile frequently. There is a 14 day method which involves finely shredding the material with a shredder or rotary mower, and turning and watering the pile on the 4th, 7th and 10th days. For more information on this, see the reference to the book Compost in 14 Days in the bibliography on page 82.
I prefer an anaerobic method. By sealing the heap, that is by covering it with black plastic, there is no smell, no insect problem, a minimum of turning and water, and quick results: 2-3 months for finished compost.
I don't have a shredder, so I don't put twigs and branches in the pile. But if you have a lot of land and a large garden, a shredder would be a big help. Shredders cost less if you have your own power source such as a power lawn mower. Or perhaps you could buy it along with several neighbors and use it jointly.
A 4' by 8' area built to a height of 4 feet is a good size for a compost pile. If you have a large garden, make several piles. Choose a fairly sunny location and loosen the soil to expose the bacteria. Start with any weeds, grass clippings, dead plants and leaves. Layer these with liberal sprinklings of manure. Keep the hose handy and wet down each layer.
All your decomposable garbage goes in the pile too vegetable and fruit scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds and tea leaves, bones, moldy back-of-the-refrigerator gleanings, and the occasional recipe that flops. Most supermarkets will give you boxes of produce that are too old to sell. (Probably a lot of it will be edible, in fact.)
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