Part of reconnecting with Nature’s rhythms can be experienced by turning a compost pile in the dead of winter, seeing the steam rise in the dead of winter, and smelling that foresty scent of organic alchemy. This Winter Solstice, we are graced with an offering from Bob Howard. We are lucky to have him and Dessie to remind us that we can truly join Heaven, Earth, and everything else! A collective Thank You, Bob!
Without further ado, read on!
15 Dec 2024 Bob Howard
Compost: What, How, and Why
“Through gardening we grow wisdom; through dying we grow life.”
Judy Lief, 2019, book dedication
Composting is a foundation practice of gardening. The neolithic age of around 10,000 years ago is known as the first agriculture revolution, a time when hunter-gathers gave up the nomadic life for settled communities of farming and gardening. These first gardeners used compost and humus-rich soils. Domesticated food-garden plants have a long history of evolving in compost soil.
Compost is a product of organic matter decomposition. It’s an environmentally healthy step of the carbon cycle. Plants also play a role in the carbon cycle. Using sunlight plants combine carbon dioxide and water to synthesize carbohydrates. Those energy-rich molecules are the main source of energy for all living things. A byproduct of photosynthesis is oxygen, which we breathe in. A byproduct of our respiration is carbon dioxide, which plants take in. Plants and animals mutually breathe together; the waste product of one is the “fresh air” for the other.
Compost is an organized way of decomposing organic matter which gardeners use to enrich garden soil. Compost feeds millions, in fact, billions of microorganisms, earthworms, and other soil life; adds water-holding capacity; increases aeration and tilth of soils; suppresses disease pathogens; and helps to grow healthy plants.
I keep three general rules in mind when making a compost pile. First, make the pile at least 3’ wide, 3’ long and 3’ high. I generally make the piles longer and/or wider than that. But this is a minimum so that the pile will heat up enough. Second, the bacteria, fungi, other microbes, and earthworms require both moisture and air. Aim to keep the pile slightly moist, “moist like a damp sponge that you cannot wring water out of it.” Third, locate the pile out of direct sun and convenient to the kitchen and to the garden.
I suggest that you visit someone who successfully makes compost in your area and go visit them for a demonstration. There are many variations on how to make compost. I’ve attached a video in the notes. As the speaker says, “relax”. If you put together a pile of organic matter, it will decompose. A pile of leaves left in a corner of your yard will compost. As you get experience with the kinds of material, the sizes of particles, and the moisture/air levels, you will consistently make good compost. Be sure to watch the last two and a half minutes to the video, from 12:55 to the end, to see someone build a typical compost pile.
Most home gardeners make compost with kitchen waste and, unlike the video, you will almost certainly not make your pile all at one time. Many people add a little at a time, mainly when you empty out your kitchen waste. If starting a new pile, I suggest you buy a bale or two of straw or gather a pile of leaves, and add kitchen waste to that. Once you have one compost pile going, it’s easy to add kitchen waste or a bucket of weeds from the garden to that existing pile.
I keep two piles side-by-side. One pile (#1) is “finished” and ready to use in the garden. The other pile (#2) is “cooking”. I add fresh material to it until it’s ready to “close”. This can take one to several months (before it is ready to “close”) so the material on the bottom will be well composted by then. When I’m ready to “close’ a pile, I also turn all the unused “finished” material (pile #1) into the pile (#2) that I am “closing”.
Now the space where I had the “finished” pile (#1) is empty. That space is where I start building a new pile, adding kitchen waste, weeds and plant material from the garden (including comfrey that I grow for the compost), and farmyard manure if I have any. Space #1 is now the “cooking” pile, and space #2 will become the “finished’, or usable pile. I may have to wait a month or two for the “finished” pile to be ready to use.
Compost does many good things for our environment and gardens, including diverting organic materials away from landfills, enriching garden soil, increasing water-holding capacity, reducing erosion, and probably saving you dumping fees. But compost is more than a practical technique.
I think about and appreciate my compost as much as I do the shell peas, hydrangeas, and even the design of the garden. I’ve built a wooden arbour to shade our compost area. We call it the “compost palace”. It also serves as trellis walls for growing roses, clematis, and Japanese hydrangea vine.
Organic or biological gardening is often defined by what it says “no” to, like pesticides and chemical fertilizers. For me, being outdoors in the garden, and making compost in particular, feels much more like saying “yes”. I feel a sort of calm joy. The work feels healthy. I’m creating an appreciative environment, one that is in good relationship with the natural world.
Compost is really just following nature’s method. Grasslands and forests compost; they recycle dead leaves and roots back into the soil. My garden teacher, Alan Chadwick, described gardening and compost-making as well as our very life as a life-into-death-into-life cycle.
Making and observing compost I sense the dying and dissolving phase of life. It’s a simple yet deep observation to see waste material and other used up biological life turn into a seedbed and nourishing soil for new growth.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave the example of one candle lighting another as a analogy for reincarnation. Dylan Thomas declared, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” For me, compost is an obvious example of the life-into-death-into-life cycle. Is it too romantic to imagine letting go of this life like a leaf in a compost pile?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monty Don, Making Compost, ¶3,
Using the language of Rudolf Steiner studies, here’s a philosopher-gardener, Jeremy Naydler, talking about his search for authenticity and the role gardening plays in his life.