Judith’s Corner -March, 2002

    Win Lambertson, Master Gardener and compost lover, came to talk to GVRS last month--she had a small, but fascinated, audience. I compost, so I’m the choir when it comes to this topic. It surprises me when anyone thinks that it’s too hard, or too unrealistic, to do. I’m always looking for the path of least resistance, so if I can do it, anyone can.

    Composting is irresistible to me because it feels like I’m getting away with something--that I’m getting something for nothing. Making compost makes me feel . . . hopeful. It’s a little bit magic.

    A few years ago, while hypnotized by Jerry Baker, Master Gardener, on PBS, I ordered the composter that Jerry was selling. It’s not exotic--it’s that black, plastic one that’s square, and about 4 ft. tall. It has a slide door on the lower front, and it’s ventilated. It cost $65. I give it big points for durability--it’s been emptied, dumped, bashed, crushed, and moved around a lot in those years. I now have it in a perfect, sunny spot, on a pallet, within an easy walk from my kitchen door. I’m amazed it’s intact and functional. It looks new.

    My compost rules are simple: anything that a dog won’t (normally) eat is compostable. Now, I have an apple core eating dog, so I’m making a generalization, here, but the composter keeps the stuff brewing, and the dogs aren’t interested. No meat, pasta, oils, bones, or dog poop--everything else is ingredient.

    Kitchen waste is wet, which is good. I keep a cookie-jar size, round, plastic container under my sink--I line it with the plastic bags from any produce department. I DO NOT keep it covered, because covered things STINK, and I don’t want any stink. Every day, I throw stuff in there--coffee grounds, egg shells, produce clippings, bits of grass I’ve pulled off the dogs, dog hair, house plant debris, dust-bunnies--whatever. Sometimes it fills quickly--sometimes it takes a couple of days to fill. When it’s full, or about to be yucky, I toss it in the composter.

    What else do I put in the composter? Dirt, grass clippings, leaves, swept up debris, saw dust--a better question is what doesn’t  go in. If it’s organic, it’s ingredient. There’s no magic to the ingredients. Just like with cooking, the magic is in what you do to the ingredients.

    Good compost comes from stirring and turning this mix of ingredients, and keeping it relatively moist. Compost compresses as it breaks down, and I have this nifty tool, meant for aerating compost. It’s a pole about three feet long, with a horizontal handle at the top so that it can be pushed down into the compost. When you pull the pole back up through the compost, metal wings extend at the base of the pole, and chews up through the compost as it exits. The more you wiggle the pole as you push down, the greater the aeration, and the likelier the wings are to grab hold and rearrange things. If you can imagine an old crone standing over her stew pot, stirring away, that’s how I look when I’m aerating my compost. It’s also great exercise for upper arms, shoulders, and pecs!

    I also use a short handled pitch fork to turn things over and around, and I give the composter a shake now and then to keep things settling evenly. The corners in the square dry out quickly, and are the most difficult area to keep evenly moist. If it seems like the compost is too dry, I just empty the dog’s water dish, or what’s left in my watering can, into it. I’ve learned that too many grass clippings at once can overwhelm the process AND your nose, so I mix some things in gradually, or in layers.

    Every three or four months I open the bottom of the composter and start shoveling out wheelbarrow loads of compost. I found a rectangular 2 X 4 frame, covered with a heavy screen, at a yard sale, which fits on top of my wheelbarrow, so I screen the compost. Whatever doesn’t make it through the screen goes back into the composter, just like sourdough starter.

    Win Lambertson noted that compost is an amendment, and not a fertilizer, which is an important distinction in usage. She also mentioned that adding nitrogen to the compost could make it into a fertilizer, so I want to know more about that! I’m telling you, compost is magical, and makes roses soooooo happy. Just do it! 

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