Deborah L. Martin - The Complete Compost Gardening Guide: Banner batches, grow heaps, comforter compost, and other amazing techniques for saving time and money, and ... most flavorful, nutritous vegetables ever.

THE COMPLETE COMPOST GARDENING GUIDE

Banner Batches, Grow Heaps, Comforter Compost, and Other Amazing Techniques for Saving Time and Money, and Producing the Most Flavorful, Nutritious Vegetables Ever

BARBARA PLEASANT & DEBORAH L. MARTIN

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Gwen Steege and Delilah Smittle
Text design by Dan O. Williams
Cover design by Leslie Anne Charles/LAC Design and Dan O. Williams

Illustrations by Mavis Augustine Torke, except for those on pages 248, 255, and 264, by Kurt Musfeldt
Cover photography by Donna Chiarelli, except for front cover, bottom center hans slegers/iStockphoto
Interior photography credits appear on page 319

Indexed by Chris Lindemer, Boston Road Communications

2008 by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information, please contact Storey Publishing, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pleasant, Barbara.

The complete compost gardening guide / Barbara Pleasant and
Deborah L. Martin.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-58017-702-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-58017-703-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Compost. I. Martin, Deborah L. II. Title.

S661.P54 2008

631.875dc22

2007049729

DEDICATION

To our families and friends
who have endured and (with time)
supported and encouraged
our composting experiments and adventures.

A working compost garden is an interesting place, because you never know what kind of compost might be lurking beneath an innocent pile of leaves or perhaps a pen of withering weeds. The former might be a Nursery Reserve where pots of chrysanthemums have been tucked in for winter, and the latter might be the topmost layer of a Layered Crater or Honey Hole. If phrases such as these confuse you at first, please bookmark the glossary (pages 290292). After you have read the definitions of important concepts a few times, and start experiencing your landscape as a compost-generating system, ideas like Comforter Compost or Hospital Heap will become as familiar to you as how to prepare a planting hole.

Materials. When you have an abundance of anything from pulled weeds to cardboard boxes, review your options in the materials section that begins on page 50. Do the same if you are considering importing a load of manure or supercharging a weedy heap with a high-nitrogen plant meal to heat it up.

Techniques. In part 2, beginning on page 130, we discuss dozens of methods you may want to try, starting with Banner Batches made in bins or pens, and then moving on to time-saving Comforter Composts and eye-appealing underground composting methods. There are also techniques to help you make your compost as good as it can be, which may mean deactivating weed seeds or sifting your black gold through a handmade screen.

Plants. As composts essential green portion, plants are at the heart of every Compost Garden. Part 3 covers plants that are especially responsive to compost gardening methods, including some to grow just so you can compost them. Throughout the book, plants that pair up perfectly with particular methods are featured in the Perfect Match boxes.

Learning from experience. We dont want anyone to get hurt, so in situations where there might be a risk of injury, weve included safety tips worth knowing. Also look for snippets from Debs Diary and Barbaras Journal, our firsthand reports intended to help you repeat our successes, avoid our failures, and join us in the creative fun of composting. As you learn from your own experiences, you can share your best ideas at www.compostgardening.com.

YOU HAVE PICKED UP this book and opened it to the first page, so you probably expect it to show you new and better ways to compost. Great! The information, ideas, and projects here will certainly do that and a whole lot more, so find a comfortable chair and settle in for a while. This book will change the way you garden in such fundamental ways that a few seasons from now, you may look back at how you used to do things and wonder why it took so long for you to figure out that composting is, and always was, at the heart of your garden. Looking back, you may ask yourself: What was your heap doing hiding behind the bushes? Why were you carrying compost here and there instead of letting the process happen in places where the soil needs help? How many times did you worry that you were a composting failure because you never saw the faintest hint of steam rising from your heap? We used to ask ourselves the same questions, and this book is the result of that probing.

Like most gardeners who believe in the powers of compost, we followed directions we picked up from dozens of books and magazine articles, and from composting guides published by Cooperative Extension Service professionals and waste-management experts. We were repaid with pretty good results. Still, we sensed that there were some pieces of the puzzle missing, and we wondered if there were better ways to avail our gardens of the benefits of compost without facing endless work and frustration.

Its amazing what you can learn when you put aside ideas about the way things are supposed to work and pay attention to what actually happens in your garden. You may be surprised to discover that you can make better compost more easily by working with Mother Nature instead of working against her. Fortunately, she is a patient and persistent teacher, as shown in the following quick examples: