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Southwest District
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Do you like the aroma of moist earth or wet concrete after a lovely rain? You can experience this fragrance in your own garden.
Try composting it will give you the fresh clean scent of good earth.
So, you’ve never created a compost pile. Or, maybe you think composting is just a bunch of yada yada. I’m here to tell you that you really can’t do without a compost pile. Your flowers will love you. The earth will love you. The benefits are beyond your imagination. Composting does not smell, it does not attract varmints, nor is it a useless pile of unknown rubbish in your back yard.
To convince you, I am going to tell you about a little experiment that I tried. There was a time that I, too, was not convinced that composting was all that the organic nature lovers declared it to be. So, I took two identical roses, planted them in the same size pot, with the same type of potting soil. One plant contained my homemade compost that had been “cooking” for about a year. The other plant was fed with a commercial fertilizer.
You may know that there are many different recipes for composting. I personally do not have a favorite. I just throw “whatever” into the compost bin and let’er rip. Typically, I throw dried leaves, cuttings from my wisteria, veggie scraps from the house, a little dirt for spice and a ninety nine cent bag of steer manure to make it cook. I don’t use lawn cuttings, because I don’t have a lawn.
After about a year and a half there was a visible difference between the potted roses. The roses with the compost seemed more vigorous, the stems were stronger, it was taller and it had 4 more blooms than the other. Ok, I’m convinced. Let me try to convince you;
I had the opportunity to attend a Home Composting lecture at Oxnard’s Plaza Park. Robert Medrano, from Peach Hill Soils, Organic Recycling, was giving a demonstration on composting. He sells commercially prepared compost, worm castings, soil mixes and topsoil. He brought delicious samples of his compost. I say delicious, because the aroma was a robust sweet earthy smell, much like the freshness we smell in the air after a good rain. The texture was a dark brown, crumbly, soil-like material. Robert explained what composting is and the benefits of using compost. He says that composting is the natural breakdown of organic materials. It offers a unique opportunity to contribute to, and directly benefit from, part of the solid waste solution: recycling. Other benefits of compost are that it will loosen clay and compacted soils for better drainage. It increases moisture retention in sandy and porous soils. It will suppress weeds and make nutrients more easily available to plants.
Getting started isn’t difficult. Decide what materials you want to include in your “compost recipe”. Keep in mind the volume and availability of the materials you want to include and the volume of compost you want to generate. Fruit and vegetables remains are good sources of nitrogen, especially when green yard debris is in short supply. I collect food remnants in a covered container in the kitchen and transfer them to the pile every few days to prevent fermentation and odors. Include dryer lint, too.
Here’s how you get started: Identify a suitable site for your outdoor compost pile. Make the location easily accessible. Locate on level ground, not too close to coniferous tress to avoid an overabundance of evergreen needles. Evergreen needles are acidic; however they can be used in small quantities. Locate pile by a windbreak such as a wall, which can help prevent drying breezes from robbing the pile’s moisture. Avoid building the pile against wooden structures e.g. fences, shed. Compost can rot some types of wood. Decide if you want to use a compost bin. It can keep the material in a confined area to retain heat and moisture, deter pests, and help to reduce the effects of wind and weather.
Collect enough material to build a 1 cubic yard (3” by 3’ by 3’) pile. Throw in your dry leaves (chop and moisten if you have a desire for quick decomposition), brush, twigs, wood chips or other woody residuals. Add flowers and other vegetative remains, weeds (add weeds before they flower to keep weed seeds out). Add clean straw and hay if you have it (place loosely on the pile to avoid clumps), shredded newspapers, paper towels, and tubes, paper coffee filters and tea bags. Perhaps you have fruit and egg shells, coffee grounds/filters (bury these in the center of your pile to limit fermentation odors). Add your grass clippings (add to pile within 24 hours of cutting because nitrogen content decreases as grass dries). Manure/soiled straw, poultry stock, rabbits (no house pet feces). Add water, stir well, then compost happens. The time required to fully compost materials will vary from six weeks to a year depending on the pile composition, pile temperature, outdoor temperature, moisture content and aeration.
An interesting phenomenon is that the original composed pile is merely a fraction of the original volume. Your pile will reduce considerably while it’s cooking. You’ll know it’s cooking because the pile will be warm to the touch. If you want to get technical, there are compost thermometers to register temperatures. Temperatures should be constant between 115-120 degrees for a week to 10 days. Turn the pile every four to five days or when you have the energy. We turn ours about once or twice a month. This provides aerobic composting, which helps with decomposition and eliminates odors.
What will you do with your new “dirt”? May I suggest a nice 2-3 inch layer around the base of your roses to encourage water retention and enhance your soil. Perhaps you would like to include a couple of handfuls to a newly potted plant, mixed with the soil to add nutrients and to encourage growth. Or, maybe you would just prefer to go out and smell the dirt.
