Smith - How to build, maintain, and use a compost system: secrets and techniques you need to know to grow the best vegetables

Acknowledgements

Id like to thank the following people for their willingness to provide case study information: Andrea Zuercher, Carrie Bennett, John Cossham, Kimberly Roy, Kimberly Wolterman, Linda Stephenson, Marianne Carlson, Robert and Debra Post, and Sara Estep. It was a pleasure to work with you all. Id like to add extra thanks to Robert Post for going out of his way to provide instructions and accompanying photographs for the barrel composter section.

I would also like to thank all the amateur composting enthusiasts who spend a lot of time and effort to share their knowledge online through blogs, videos, and tutorials. Your work is appreciated and admired.

Introduction: Why Compost?

Garbage becomes rose. Rose becomes compost. Everything is in transformation. Even permanence is impermanent.

Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh

The quote above is from Thich Nhat Hanh, founder of the Unified Buddhist Church in France. His teachings focus on the interconnectedness of all things and often reflect the environmentally minded, earth-caring aspect of composting. The interrelationship of garbage and roses, or more likely manure and vegetables, has been apparent to farmers for centuries. Composting is probably as old as human agriculture. There are references to composting recorded on clay tablets in Mesopotamia going back to at least 500 B.C. The Bible, the Talmud, and other early written sources mention the agricultural use of manure and other compost-like substances, so composting was well known even from early times.

The use of compost as a soil enricher continued until the 19th century when commercially produced chemical fertilizers were developed. These fertilizers were an important part of the formation of modern agribusiness because they were not as labor-intensive as making compost and could support enormous commercial crops. The downside of commercial fertilizers was not apparent for some time, but eventually it was discovered that the runoff of nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilized fields caused algae blooms and subsequent fish kills and dead zones in ponds, lakes, and rivers. Dead zones develop when algae overgrows and uses up all the oxygen in a body of water, killing the fish and other aquatic creatures. Nitrates in the groundwater supply can lead to the potentially fatal blue baby syndrome, which is an illness in newborns that decreases the capacity of their hemoglobin to carry oxygen. As more and more problems associated with overuse of commercial fertilizers have been discovered, more and more people are turning to natural alternatives and are using compost. Even commercial organic farms use compost. The U.S. Department of Agriculture administers the rules and guidelines for the use of compost in organic farms. These guidelines are very specific about what can and cannot be used in compost for organic farming and closely mirror what a home gardener would use.

Many people compost at home for purely pragmatic reasons; they want organic nutrients for their gardens, and composting is the most inexpensive way to obtain them. Making compost can be free if you use an open compost pile or an existing container and tools. This can save money spent on fertilizers, potting soil, and commercially available soil amendments because compost can significantly reduce the need for all three items. This book discusses the benefits of using compost as a soil amendment and tells you how to build and care for your own compost system to yield rich compost that can feed your plants and nourish seedlings. Compost can also save you money on your waste disposal bill. Food waste makes up about 7 percent of the garbage sent to landfills every year. By composting all your plant-based garbage, you could make a dent in the amount of trash you throw out and might be able to get a smaller bin and a reduced rate from your trash collection company.

Other people compost for the good of the planet. Taking the waste from our meals and the trimmings from our gardens and turning them into rich soil amendments that will help grow the next crop of food is an excellent way to remove products from the waste stream and put them to good use. Most people are already well-versed in recycling bottles, cans, paper, and other items that we used to think of as garbage. Composting is a way to do the same with our organic garbage, thus easing the strain on, and saving us the cost of transporting our waste to, already overburdened landfills. Unlike commercial fertilizers, composting also puts organic additives into the soil that help plants grow bigger and stronger and stay healthier. Compost can not only feed plants, but it can also prevent many common plant diseases. At the same time, compost does no harm to the environment the way commercially produced chemical fertilizers and pesticides can. Overusing chemical fertilizers can strip soil of fertility and poison worms and other valuable creatures. Overusing pesticides can lead to resistance in pests, making those that are left heartier and defeating the whole purpose of pesticides in the first place.