The Helpful Gardener
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Ch. 16 Compost

Oh you all knew I was going to be up for this one...

"Compost, Compost, Compost."

My favorite answer to about every gardening issue there is. I amend with it, mulch with it, make tea, start seeds in it; just about everything I do in a garden starts with compost.

And after this chapter you know why. Jeff talks about how this was THE gardening tool up until the introduction of chemicals (and how's THAT turning out? :roll: ) We should look at compost for our salvation from the damages of chemical culture; turns out biology is the cure for all sorts of pollution, from low level antibiotics to diesel spills, and compost is just PACKED with a cross section of soil biology that even soil can't match...

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rainbowgardener
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Seemed like the first book club kind of ran out of steam before we finished discussing the book. I think maybe the chapter by chapter thing was too slow. Also, at least for me, the beginning of the book was more new and exciting. After hanging around reading The Helpful Gardener every day for more than a year, the end of it sounded a lot like what we talk about all the time. Probably be more exciting for someone a little bit less steeped in this lore! :) But I thought before we go on to the next book, (One Straw Revolution, which I just ordered) it might be nice to finish up this one a little better. So I went and dug out my copy, see what I could say about the end chapters....

What I liked about this chapter is the continued emphasis that composting is a biological not chemical process, the heat of composting is metabolic heat of the organisms in the pile. NOTE to any gardeners using chemicals: In organic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, miticides, fungicides kill off soil food web members....Materials that go into compost piles should be free of these chemicals. p. 138. Another good reason for organic gardening. If you aren't doing organic gardening, you are depriving yourself of all the benefits of compost.

What I didn't like about this chapter is that it makes it all seem technical, demanding and difficult. Measure, turn every few days, make layers of 10 cm of this and 10 cms of that in this order, really you should make a more fungal/ brown pile and a more bacterial/green pile so that you can use the fungal compost for trees, shrubs and things that like that and the more bacterial compost for your veggies.

I've been doing my lazy, one size fits all composting for years. I throw whatever comes along into the pile, making sure to cover greens with browns and vice versa. I keep it moist. It has sticks in it for air channels and I punch holes down through it for aeration every once in awhile. 4 times a year or so, I turn the pile over, using the uncomposted stuff on top as the bottom of a new pile. It doesn't always heat up as much as he says, but it breaks down completely into lovely compost. And my perennials and veggies all seem to like my fungal bacterial balanced compost. I'm not about to start trying to keep different piles with different recipes.

If I were a beginner, I don't think this chapter would encourage me to want to start composting.

cynthia_h
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rainbowgardener wrote:What I didn't like about this chapter is that it makes it all seem technical, demanding and difficult. Measure, turn every few days, make layers of 10 cm of this and 10 cms of that in this order, really you should make a more fungal/ brown pile and a more bacterial/green pile so that you can use the fungal compost for trees, shrubs and things that like that and the more bacterial compost for your veggies.

I've been doing my lazy, one size fits all composting for years. I throw whatever comes along into the pile, making sure to cover greens with browns and vice versa. I keep it moist. It has sticks in it for air channels and I punch holes down through it for aeration every once in awhile. 4 times a year or so, I turn the pile over, using the uncomposted stuff on top as the bottom of a new pile. It doesn't always heat up as much as he says, but it breaks down completely into lovely compost. And my perennials and veggies all seem to like my fungal bacterial balanced compost. I'm not about to start trying to keep different piles with different recipes.
Hmm...how, then, will we describe my "method" of composting? If RBG's method is is "lazy," then my method must be "comatose." :lol:

I throw in kitchen waste, yard waste, coffee grounds, scavenged leaves, shredded/torn papers as they show up. I have a burlap bag (nearing its end) on top of it all to help keep in moisture.

I aerate--with the classic "winged" aerating tool--the pile every now and then. I've been **needing** to turn the pile for a couple of months, but between the weather, Vergil's surgery, and other obligations, it hasn't happened yet. I think my last full turn of compost was last...October??? :shock: Maybe a week before I fell down the stairs, hyperflexing the right knee. :evil: :x

But the organisms keep doing their thing. I haven't the least clue as to whether they tend to fungal or bacterial results; I use the compost everywhere. I also have a vermicompost operation whose castings I use everywhere but more sparingly.

Works just great. Runs to the cool side more than I'd like, but w/my health situation, this is my reality.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

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The reality of what we do often doesn't fit the "best management practice" that folks are talking about when they write a book. Don't forget Jeff was talking to folks like Elaine Ingham as he wrote this, folks from the professional end of the spectrum. Old burlap sacks are replaced with Compostex fabric, winged aerators are replaced with Scarab turning machines worth your house, that turn, aerate, and spray water or tea on a 8'x8'x200' winrow in a half hour (if they are going slowly). Sure, Jeff is giving you the real deal, and you can't fault his instruction, but the compost will happen your way too...

Not in fourteen days like the Scarab and Compostex, but it will happen...

HG

garden5
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As the author said, there are entire books written on this subject, so I didn't expect much more than an overview. Still, it was a great summary on composting and detailed the microbial action going on in the process. While I would have liked more details about vermicomposting, the inoculation information was very interesting.

The author seems to prefer a top-dressing application of the compost. Probably because this disturbs the existing soil food web the least.

Although he does present composting in the "idea" form, you will also note that he does include some of the, um, more casual composters (including myself :roll: ) on page 141 where he says "If this sound like too much work for you, try cool or cold composting: simply pile organic matter in in a corner of the yard and leave it." See, Jeff and Wayne include everybody :lol:.



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