Not Italian Food

I got to play in the dirt for the first time in a while yesterday. I started a beautiful decomposing mass of organic matter, the compost pile. It’s the cornerstone of a healthy garden, providing a nutrient-dense medium for plant growth. A good farmer knows you need great soil to have great crops. So here is how I did it. I know there is a seemingly endless amount of variations, ingredients, and otherwise, but I went with what I had available and tried to stick closely to the biointensive method, though I haven’t had the opportunity to grow crops specifically for composting. The video below is a quick slide show of the lasagna-style stacking process. 

First, I found a nice spot and mapped out about a 4’x4′ border. The square is important because it allows for an even gravitational force to be exerted on the entire pile, as opposed to the heavy center and light sides that result from a rounded pile. I broke up the soil using the manure fork, pushing about 12″ deep and creating sufficient pockets for air flow. I didn’t worry about the weeds, I guess I’ll see how that turns out in a month or so.

Next, I put a base layer of dried sticks, again to encourage air flow. Each step after that was pretty simple. I alternated layers of brown, or carbon-rich materials with layers of green, more nitrogen heavy material. I used dried leaves for the carbon layers, they are about a 40:1 carbon:nitrogen ratio. A good ratio for the pile is about 30:1, so I had to balance that with some nitrogen layers. For the green, it varied a little, I used grass clippings, food waste, coffee grounds, and some pea plants I pulled up the other day. On top of each green layer I added a sprinkling of soil to encourage some good microbial action. As the pile grew, I added stakes on the four corners to help ensure it stayed square, and watered to keep the pile moist (which is why it appears to shrink near the end of the video).

Overall it was a pretty simple process. I will be adding a few more in the coming week because I still have a lot of leaves and clippings to work with and I’m collecting food waste and coffee grounds from any willing donors. I will need to keep it watered consistently and monitor the temperature at the center of the pile, which will ideally exceed 100 degrees F soon! In a month or two I will check in on the pile, flip it and make sure any material that is not decomposed makes it to the center of the pile, though this one may take significantly longer due to the cold temps and shorter periods of sunlight.

 

Grow Happy,

Zach

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