Compost

Yes, winter is "almost" here in the North Eastern part of the United States.  It is a few days away, according to the calendar, but it has felt like winter for a few weeks now.

I'm thinking about compost.  I guess, once a person begins to garden, their thoughts are never truly far away from the soil of their garden.

One of the books I took out of the library is "The Rodale Book of Composting" Deborah L. Martin and Grace Gershuny, Editors.  The copyright of the book is 1992, so while the information in it is 21 years old, I am sure there are a few things that I can glean from the book that will help me to better understand how to "grow my soil".

Did you know, there is actually a "history" of composting?  I didn't, but I'm not going to go in to that here.

I wanted to share just one topic from the book today that I found interesting and have never really given thought to. In Chapter 5, there is a section called "from trash to treasure", here is what I wanted to share:

Up to 75% of household garbage is derived from organic matter and, theoretically, can be composted.  If you include sewage sludge, the rate is even higher.  Even if the finished product were simply dumped into a landfill, composting would realize savings because the sheer bulk of the material would be reduced by almost half.  Furthermore, it would no longer pose a toxic leachate problem, requiring expensive liners and test wells.  Using the resulting compost to build healthy soil can be regarded as an added bonus.

I never really thought of this one before.  Granted the book is 20 + years old, but I always thought that any food waste in my garbage can would decompose and make soil in the landfill.  I'm wrong about that and I have to try to be a better steward of my resources.

I never thought that by composting my organic matter it would help, not only my garden, but would also help my community by lowering the cost to haul away my garbage.

I do know that my community does offer yard waste recycling.  Those pick ups are only done during the summer and fall months of the year, the rest of the time, if you put out yard waste, they just throw it into the garbage truck. 

Compost conserves energy because it supplies soil nutrients without calling on fossil fuel support.  It saves energy because it can be made on the farm and in the garden, requiring no transportation from a factory.  It saves energy because it is waste recycled via a very short route - so short as the distance from the kitchen to the backyard compost heap.  Even the organic debris of an entire city can be recycled and returned to the land without leaving the metropolitan area.  Compare this system with the one we have been following since World War II, and you begin to see not only a major root of our current solid wastes and energy problems, but a solution to those problems as well. 

And, it saves energy!  I never thought of this one either.

Before the winter weather arrived, we began our first compost pile in our yard.  I am so looking forward to using it in our garden next season.  And reading just these two paragraphs in this book has got me thinking about better ways for me to use all the organic material I can from our yard to compost it to make soil and to save money and energy.

Isn't it amazing how when you start to do one thing, so many other things open up to you?

Look for a future post about this project.