Compost - putting waste to work

I always wanted a compost pile when we moved into our first house in Connecticut. My dad has huge circular piles, surrounded by wire fencing, in his huge back yard in Massachusetts. Not wanting to wait years for stuff to decompose, which is how long it takes in these huge piles (which have to be aerated every so often, and it's difficult, back breaking work), I purchased one of those brown plastic 3 ft tall rectangular bins that you can find in various catalogs and garden centers. I kept up with it for a couple of years, but it was placed too far away from the kitchen for food waste, and ended up not being used.

When we moved to California, to a little postage-stamp-sized yard, I lamented that I would definitely not have the room for any kind of compost pile. Lo and behold, when the mail came one day, there was a fat envelope from "Compost-Tumbler" advertising their different spinning composters. There was a huge one for big yards (a friend of mine has that one, and it gets really, really heavy and hard to turn), and another style for smaller yards. I found the perfect space for it, in a small niche on the side of the house. It took about an hour to put together.
Every day, I put coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable or fruit waste, white paper or newspaper-only the black and white part, no colored ink, paperboard egg cartons, even dog fur from when I brush Charlie, etc. into a small plastic bowl next to my sink. When it gets full, every other day or so, I make a trip to the bin--it beats putting it down the disposer, or throwing it into the garbage. Garden waste also goes into the bin. When I weed, deadhead, cut back any plant, the material is disposed of in here, instead of in the trash. It took about 6 months for the first batch to be ready. Because the bin is in a mostly shaded spot (no other place for it where there is sun), I added a compost accelerator. Now, I have compost pretty much whenever I want it.

Composting is an adventure in basic science. Take carbon-based waste products and mix them with nitrogen-based waste products, give them some time, some heat, and a few spins to stir it all up, and you get black gold. As if by magic, a rich, nutritious substance is created from what you might throw away, free for the taking. You can put some into a bucket, add water and let it steep to make a tea for your plants. I took clumps of compost that were filled with earthworms and buried them in my garden so that the worms could find a new home. They will aerate my soil, and continue to do their work as they eat and poop their way through life in their new home.
the top photo shows an earthworm crawling on the inside of the door, and bottom photo shows what the waste turns into: dark, loamy and moist.


When you get the ratio of carbon-based material to nitrogen-based material just right, there is no noxious odor at all. The ratio should be about 50-50, dry to wet materials. If there is too much wet stuff (such as vegie waste) there won't be enough oxygen in the pile and it won't heat up. If there is too much dry (such as paper or dried plant material), there won't be enough moisture and nothing will be able to break down. The pile should smell sweet and loamy. What was once waste is now fertilizer. Kind of a neat metaphor for life, as well.