Doing the composting thing

There’s a counter in the newsroom that serves as a giveaway shelf — people put things there for others to take, whether it was something sent to them or some kind of food they want to share. I grabbed a small book the other day about composting.

I’ve wanted to do composting for a while; the idea of throwing away all the leaves from my lawn drives me nuts (we live under a huge maple tree). But that’s what we do so the grass doesn’t die — all that wonderful plant food raked to the street.

When we lived in Cincinnati I tried a commercial composting box, but that was a miserable failure. Forgetting the fact that the wind kept knocking it down, I had neglected to actually read how to compost, and thus filled the thing with grass clippings. (Grass clippings make great compost food, but not compost. You want to mix ‘em in with the stuff that’s actually gonna break down.)

But with this little book in hand, I now knew what I had done wrong.

My wife, bless her heart, had already moved most of the fallen leaves to the street, where they had been swept up. But there was plenty left, and darn it, I was gonna use it. I considered another commercial composter, but decided to stick with something simple.

We had this expandable pet gate thing called the Pet Yard with sides that could be snapped together — you could have a square, pentagon, etc. We had 12 “sides,” so I took four and made a square. The thing is sturdy and has holes the size of chicken wire, so plenty of air can get in. I put it by the side of the house where it would get some sun.

Then I raked up some big piles of leaves onto the lawn and took the lawnmower — with the bag attached — and mowed the leaves. In a few minutes, I had a bag full of shreds with some grass mixed in. (That was another mistake of mine. If you want compost within a few years, you need to shred the leaves.)

Bag after bag I emptied into the Pet Yard compost bin, in which I had stood a tube of screen about four inches in diameter right in the center of the bin — a chimney to get air to the center. I filled the bin, which is 30 inches square and 26 inches high, in about 20 minutes and still had leaves left over.

And that was that.

The next day I went to admire my handiwork. Aside from having settled a bit, the shredded leaves looked about the same. But then, crossing my fingers, I stuck my hand into the leaves.

And in the middle it was warm. Quite warm.

My compost was cooking after only a day. :)

One of my goals in this was to keep it simple. I know there are folks who have huge, complex composting systems, and who measure the exact amounts of carbonaceous (i.e., carbon-rich) material (leaves) vs. the amount of nitrogen-rich material (grass) to strike the “perfect ratio,” and who will go out every N days to turn the pile the proper number of times, but that’s not me. For me, “a lot of leaves and a few handfuls of grass” is exact enough.

I may remember to turn the thing once in a while, but that chimney I put in the middle should make that less important. I’m hoping that the weather is warm enough that I start to get compost out of the thing by mid spring.

My next adventure in this vein: Vermiculture.

Update: This morning, there was steam coming out of the chimney. :)