Friday, May 29, 2009
Urban Farming Urban Farming, Chapter 11: Compost Happens
Posted by Carrington Fox on Fri, May 29, 2009 at 6:50 AM
My compost pile smells like shit. And not in a good way. I'm told I've been overdosing on nitrogen and not adding enough carbon. That makes sense, since I started with a pile of grass clippings, with relatively no dead fodder such as leaves or straw. After all the rain of the past few weeks, the clippings compacted into a slimy blanket of what looks like wet green felt when I dig it up with my pitchfork. (Did I mention I got a pitchfork for Mother's Day? So hot.)
After building my pile primarily with yard waste--grass clippings, weeds, etc.--I finally took the compost plunge by throwing in non-protein kitchen scraps such as fruit peelings, egg shells and tea leaves. When my pitchfork jabs into a cantaloupe rind or corn husk, I feel sort of bad-ass, as if I've shattered some barrier that existed between my yard and me. This makes me realize just how warped my relationship with my quarter-acre of urban nature actually is. (If the idea of food touching the ground makes me shudder, then clearly I don't have healthy expectations of my food actually coming from the ground.)
Having turned the pile and mixed some air into all that sogginess, I feel like things are composting a little better now. The acrid smell is abating, and I see lots of happy worms. (How do I know they are happy? Well, they're not sun-baked on the asphalt, so they should be pretty psyched.)
My new obsession with my compost pile comes as I realize just how shitty my soil is--here again, I don't mean that in a good way. Far from the fluffy-crumbly curds of moist organic matter that I would wish for my fledgling garden, my dirt has achieved the texture of over-baked cornbread, crackled across the top in a way that looks good in decorative painting but bad on arable land. The fact that little strings of frisée and arugula have pierced the surface is nothing short of miraculous. I owe my plants better, and I'm counting on my homemade compost to make the difference next year.
Metro provides some very helpful resources for would-be composters, including a pamphlet, demonstrations, classes, thermometers for checking the heat of your pile, buckets for collecting kitchen scraps and Earth Machine compost bins, which are currently back-ordered. As for me, I'm sticking with the simple gadget-free pile method, which seems the easiest and gives me a great opportunity to use my pitchfork. But I'd love to hear how other people are making compost happen.
Comments (6)
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This is the best compost bucket I've found to keep in the kitchen. It's for sale in lots of places and you can find lower prices, but this picture shows it well: https://www.kitchenworksinc.com/itemDetail/25004/STAINLESS-STEEL-COMPOST-BUCKET-WITH-CHARCOAL-FILTER
As for aerating the compost pile itself, the best hint we found is to put a drain pipe directly into the center of the pile with the end sticking out and up. Just go to Home Depot or Loews and look for plastic drain pipe with the holes already in it and about 6 inches in diameter. You want it large to let lots of air in.
Finally, we had the same hard dirt when we started our garden. After a few years of working compost in, it is now good enough for even carrots and parsnips. I don't know if there is a shortcut to getting loamy soil unless you get a truckload of good stuff to work in all at once.
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just keep working the soil, I had the same thing years ago, now I have wonderful dark soil and great for planting.
I use mushroom mulch in the beds and all year long I collect coffee grounds from the hateful Starbuck's, great way to amend the soil all year long.
good luck and happy gardening, I live in Oregon, great place for the out of doors.
Yeah, I balked at first, but I meant in the most scatological way. This is, after all, the family farm blog, at least from time to time. I hope no one took offense.
two things you need to know: First, if you need more brown matter, remember that every fall, without exception, people all over the city collect these things called leaves, bag them up, and set them at the curb just for you. Some of them even shred the leaves for you (I know, so thoughtful!) and you can tell by squeezing the bags which ones are shredded.
Also, there are these places all around the city (some are blue and some are orange) where they actually keep compost (and manure too) in 40 pound bags and sell them for a dollar or so a bag. It's like heaven, only with checkout lanes.
I was convinced to use these orange and blue places after letting my in-laws and my wife collect manure from the neighbor's cow pasture one day long ago. There's only so much of this back to nature stuff one has to stand and I'm all for standing farther away from fresh manure.
