101129
Began pulling what printed notes I had out of my file cabinets. One
thing I really want to research, not answered in the literature I had,
is whether shredded paper is a suitable addition to compost piles.
Providing the water indicated to be required for effective composting is
going to be a problem. So much of the literature on composting depends
on "lawn clippings" as the primary input that it raises questions as to
whether composting is relevant at all in a fescue free environment.
Yet more complicating is the effect of the ferocious desert winds on any
compost pile, even enclosed within fencing or hardware cloth. They
would most likely result in components of the compost pile being picked
up and blown around surrounding areas, as in fact they do whenever I have
chopped weeds down without immediately raking the disconnected weeds up
for disposition.
BACKGROUND
DETAILS
The purchase of additional land around my Little House
in the Desert recorded on 101115 made a key change in my thinking about
composting. One of the reasons I had never gone into composting was
the amount of space it would require to do any cost efficient version.
So the additional space available suggested to me it was time to do a thorough
review of composting. There had been other reasons along with lack
of space. I never have been a material producer of kitchen waste
nor of garden waste until my first serious gardening efforts in 2010, after
construction of my underground PVC irrigation system in 2009. I am
suspicious about the postured decomposition process because piles of deadwood
("twigs" referred to in the composting literature) formed by clearing woody
plants many years ago from my land are every bit as solid (not decomposed)
as they were when they were parts of living bushes.
There have been trash barrels full of weeds coming out of my land for several
years now, but those have always impressed me as entirely unsuitable components
for creating a product intended to be spread around desirable plant life
"as if" I didn't already have far too many aggressive weeds or that the
composting process was going to kill the weed seeds when even RoundUp and
other herbicides have had no reducing effect at all on the weeds themselves.
I remain skeptical that composting is capable of killing weed seeds and
leery of a variety of commercial steer manure now mixed with compost which
all but certainly consists of composted *weeds*. The online guides
on composting mention "Avoid weeds that have begun to go to seed, as seeds
may survive all but the hottest compost piles. Some types of weeds are
'pernicious weeds' and will resprout in the compost pile."
Salsola
tragus and the other
weeds common in my desert environment certainly qualify as pernicious and
show signs of seed formation virtually as soon as they have sprouted.
They not only survive but thrive in areas devoid of watering and subjected
to months of regular daily temperatures in the range of 110F. The
weeds themselves, even when subjected to a 900F hot air blower barely begin
to *wither* after minutes of such heat, subjected to the flame of a propane
torch they only crinkle and eventually form a fringy glow as they decompose
under direct flame. These are not the sorts of things which are going
to politely decompose under the moderate temperatures generated in a compost
pile. So the great bulk of my foliage waste remains unsuitable for
composting.
Basic Lingo of Composting. "Compost" is a mixture of dead,
decomposing organic material; "organic" has to do with living things, e.g.
plants are organic; "decompose" to rot; "mulch" a protective covering of
loose material, such as wood chips, that is spread on the ground.
A promoter of home composting says that compost is "dark brown, crumbly,
and soil-like; made from things once living; a mix of decomposed brown
and green materials; made with the help of decomposers; sweet or musty
smelling; good for soil and plants; mixed with soil; used as mulch; a way
of recycling; and [as if tedious physical labor was any such thing] fun
to make." Proposed formula for compost = greens + browns + air and
water + decomposers. "Greens" are such things as fresh grass clippings
(fescue is prohibited from my land), fruit and veggie scraps, garden prunings,
recently living plants. "Browns" are such things as twigs, dead leaves,
hay, paper napkins and towels. "Decomposers" are small creatures
like bacteria, worms, and beetles who facilitate the decomposition process.
"Condiments" for a compost pile include fireplace ashes, bone meal, and
previously finished compost. Keys to composting are mixing
in some water, keeping the pile moist (like a damp sponge), and stirring
the pile about once a week. Some things that do not belong in a compost
pile (bad smells, incapable of rotting, or attractive to pests) include
fish scraps, plastic spoons, meat scraps, peanut butter (a favorite of
ants).
A Trouble Shooting guide addresses four common problems of composting.
"Bad odor", caused by not enough air or too much green material, mix the
pile or add in more brown material. "Composts too slowly", not enough
water, moisten and mix the pile. "Pile is damp and warm only in the
center", pile is too small, collect more material and mix it into the pile.
"Pile is damp and sweet smelling but no heat", lack of green material,
mix in more green material like fresh lawn clippings, yard trimmings, and
weeds.
Back Porch Compost Tumbler. One of the commercial composting
manufactures that I looked at was offered by ComposTumbler, 1834 Freedom
Road, Lancaster PA 17601, tel 800-880-2345, web
site . The
original post card offer I received from them was downright silly when
it said their small back porch version "never fills up". Its volume
is a third smaller than one of the trash barrels that I've been filling
in a few hours each week, making sure to tamp it all down to smallest practical
volume between wheelbarrow load additions, and leaving major amounts of
weeds and/or garden waste to be gathered the following week. The
capacities of their three models were expressed in "gallons": Back
Porch 45 gallons (= 6 cubic feet, a volume slightly smaller than a cube
22 inches on each side), Compact 90 gallons (= 12 cubic feet), Original
180 gallons (= 24 cubic feet). The serious drawback is in the "on
sale" pricing: Back Porch 239 + 31 S&H = $270, Compact 349 +
82 = $431, Original 429 + 99 = $528. Gets about 20% worse if one
were to buy at suggested list price. They further require a "Compost
Activator" sold in two pound bags for $11.49 (or maybe "free with purchase
of a tumbler" one, two, or three bags of the "activator") to speed up decomposition
which makes two in the Original, four in the Compact, or eight "batches"
in the Back Porch tumbler. They also suggest a Sifter Screen for
$49 or a green vinyl adwierdteasing afflicted cover for $82, neither of
which fit the small Back Porch tumbler.
The key advantage which the manufacturer promotes is that open bins have
smells that attract flies, mice, scavengers and other obnoxious critters
whereas the closed bin design of their tumblers is "odor free". They
say that "open compost piles may be no fuss but you'll wait longer and
actually get inferior compost ... because by the time compost is ready
the best nutrients have leached into the ground underneath your compost
pile." They emphasize the effort involved in turning compost piles,
especially with rolling type, oblong, or stationary composting equipment.
They argue that their equipment results in no work, no smells, no mess,
and no piles.
The cold stopper for me when I reviewed their literature was the capital
cost in relation to the fact that I can buy quality steer manure, neatly
bagged in one cubic foot quantities, certified weed free and already fine
screened, for roughly $1 per cubic foot. Preparing my intended Raspberry
Patch for 2011 planting, for example, required two applications, several
months apart, of 11 bags of the steer manure. Preparing my larger
Defined Garden Area for veggies first grown in 2010 required proportionately
more. But added altogether my existing uses for compost would take
years
before the original capital cost would be recovered. Furthermore,
the quality steer manure can be purchased as and when needed, not having
to sit around waiting for use at some later date.