Great American Gardens Need Great American Garbage!
By Mike Mairno

The great American garden, needs great American garbage. Whether on the homestead, suburban backyard or in a reclaimed vacant lot in the center of a major city, compost is the Lazarus component that can be added to every delicious garden of delectible delights. Mother Nature provides us with all we need on the planet to maintain a simple, sustainable lifestyle. Composting is merely our way of giving back in tribute, organically, to our benefactress. Gardening and composting is not just in the province of farms and homesteads, but now has become an urban phenomenon too with projects such as the Greening of Detroit, where community gardens are proliferating in old neighborhoods to create gardens, greenspace and greenbelts.

If you think a natural garden innoculated by decomposed organic matter is just for back-to-earth types, think again. In March First Lady, Michelle Obama, got down and dirty in the Presidential White House back forty with a trowel to begin a Beltway Greenbelt Greening of America project of her own by creating a Pennsylvania Avenue backyard garden. Turning the soil with the help of local children from a nearby center for the underprivileged, the idea is a homegrown seed that is morphing into a reality, and according to the White House chef, there will be plenty of Obama organic garden goodies with most of it going to the center to feed the hungry. The rest will be served at formal functions to visiting dignataries and at private dinners. Serving greens to England's Queen. Right on.

Gardens are cornucopias of food and plants, which are living forms taking what nourishment they require from the soil to grow and mature. As good stewards of the planet, it is our job to replenish what we have taken, and to do so in the most natural way possible. I look at a garden not as just a mass of leafy matter, but as a Guggenheim gallery of fine art, created by a composting community of microbial artists. Composting is more than art, as it reduces the mass loaded into landfills, while improving the soil for further gifts from the garden. Rich compost can be plowed into the spring soil as an innoculant, placed on top of the soil as mulch to ward off the eco-evils of erosion and retain water that might otherwise wick away and evaporate from the one-two punch of wind and sun. Compost is not only for the outdoors as it can be added to indoor plants as an organic booster shot. Life is cyclical and just as there is life and death, yin and yang, composting is a cycle of life and death and life reborn once again.

This article is not meant to be the definitive how-to from How-Tao article on composting. Some look at composting as dry, mechanical and by the numbers, but composting can be downright sexy in an organic sort of way.! Composting is music, but unlike an orchestrated symphony with parameters and each instrument knowing it's place in the symphonic mandala, composting and gardening are more likely to fall in the Charlie Parker universe of freeform unfettered jazz riffs, never the same, but always beautiful to feel.

In northern Michigan where I lived in the woods in a small cabin for years, I took up composting early. The necessity of composting was compounded by the fact that there was not easy access to the township dump when you don't own a vehicle. Besides, you didn't want the garbage you were hauling to attract one of the black bears that rule the northern forests and becoming a carnivores happy meal. Northern climes limit your time in the compost pile. By winter, microbial activity, which requires an ambient temperature of around 50 degrees, go into neutral, until spring returns. On the other hand, when I lived in New Mexico, the season was longer thanks to the southwestern sun that blessed the Land of Enchantment with warmth, not to mention spectacular sunrises!

I had been "greening" since 1968 after living on and off the land in California. I constructed makeshift portable cisterns, created miniature greenhourses for seedlinjgs out of the plastic cookie trays, and created an engineering marvel to rival the Golden Gate Bridge building a mini-irrigation system for my small garden out of beer cans, (yes, I had a lot of spare time on my hands not to mention beer). In my quest for further freedom through self-sustainability, I began experimenting with composting, especially in semi-sandy soils that are more conducive to the growth of small pine trees and the rare morel mushroom in Michigan. Composting can be as labor intensive as you want, or like me, as intensely lazy as you desire.

Just say "No" to synthetic fertilizers. Once soil gets a taste of synthetics you create a soil junkie of the garden variety type. Chemicals deplete, not replete. Composting lets you go organic (not narcotic) all the way to the finish line while improving soil. The broken mixture also adds to the porosity of clay soils for proper drainage, and in sandy soils helps retain water to prevent early seepage before the plants have had a healthy fill of liquid at the soil saloon as their tiny roots belly up to the bar. Once the compost is complete, it will have a mighty mixture of microbes with the desire and ability to extract nutrients from the soils mineral parts and in turn, pass these nutrients on to the plants like a hand-off in a football game.

To bin or not to bin, that is the question. Both work but if you bin, you can buy one or build one. I built one from old 2 x 4's on my property and forest deadwood. Crude, but it did the job, and I had the added rush of accomplishment by constructing my own. Open piles take longer to ferment as a fine wine would, and they attract critters and varmints from voles to field mice. You can construct one from four old wood pallets, cinder blocks, stacks of railroad ties or if in an agricultural area, barter for some straw bales to build the bin. You're only limited by imagination.

Compost microbes need water, and deciding the amount is an artform/science in itself. Bin placement in composting, as in real estate is all about location, location, location. A well drained dry spot is best, but if water does collect in the area, you can dig diversionary drainage ditches to move the water away during rain storms, lining it with pea gravel or other small stones to prevent erosion of your miniature Panama Canal. If your garden is nearby the ditches can divert the water to the garden. The moisture level in the pile itself, should be lightly damp, not soaking, and when adding dry components, water them lightly before putting them in. If the pile is too dry, the piles deompositon will go into slow-motion, so balance is crucial.

You can line the bottom of the pile with straw or twigs first that won't mash down. This elevated state helps keep any water overflow that gets past your irrigation efforts from soaking directly into the pile during rainy days, and a good old fashioned tarp overhead will do wonders in keeping natures deluge from diluting your efforts. The elevated also allows for proper air penetration into the pile which is another balancing act you will have to contend with.

The garden compost galaxy requires air to weave it's way throughout the pile, in the way that a fiber artist creates a tapestry. Proper air flow will maintain a full-speed ahead environment in which the heat-generating microbes function to maximum capacity, turning garbage into garden gold. Too little air will create anaerobic microbes that not only work at a slower pace, but, the compost will raise a stench that may have your neighbors, storm the castle gates with pitchforks and torches. Water and air levels are a balancing act, not magic, and can be mastered through trial and error.

The compost "food" material is broken down to "dry" and "wet," kitchen and yard, or in eco-terms, "browns" and "greens". When you think green, think wet. When you think brown, think dry. When you're feeling blue, think of your finished compost and it will put a smile on your face. Now, back to the basics.

Greens can come from the yard or farm as grass clippings, plants, manure (certain types), green leaves, fruit and veggie scraps, etc. They hold moisture in captivity, and anyone who has tried to sun dry fresh fruit or vegetables knows how much moisture content that has to be evaporated before the dried edible product is ready for inclusion in your backpack. Coffee grounds, eggshells and depleted tea bags are a wonderful addition too. The greens are a source of rich nitrogen, and an excellent provider of protein for the proletarian like microbes as they Greens are great additives to the mix but as always with greens, mix them well with dry browns so they don't mat up space to cut off air circulation.

When you think "brown", think dry. Old leaves, dead plants, wood chips, straw, sawdust. These act as a source of energy for the microbes, and because they are dry by nature, should be moistened prior to inclusion to your fermenting compost horn of plenty. The balance of dry and wet compliment each other as the bulkier browns help with aeration, and the wet greens maintain adequate moisture levels.

Anyone who has spent much time in the woods or on the road, knows that hardwoods make for a long lasting camp cooking fire, while the pines flame up and burn fast for quick hot fires. In the compost, the connifers breakdown slower than hardwoods, perhaps because of the water and sap (a great campfire starter by the way) content in them.

Compost don'ts. Don't add chemically treated woods, and human waste or humamure is an absolute no-no. You may live the healthy lifestyle, eat properly and live to be 100, but adding humanure to the pile is dangerous and potentially poisonous, If you think manure just happens, think again. When it comes to manure...get a horse! Or a cow or a chicken even. Pet droppings from Fido and Felix? Forgettaboutit. Meat fat and bones will take a millenium to breakdown so don't waste your time with that waste matter either. Diseased plants, and dormant, not dead weeds that can regenerate in the pile and end up in your garden along with your plethora of plenty is also verbotten.

Composting is a very personal endeavor dealing with "browns and greens," air and water amounts and making sure you have enough nitrogen and protein in the pile to keep the workers happy. When compost is complete, It's ready for the garden or mulch. Mulch prevents erosion, water evaporation and the drying affect of wind and sun. As it decomposes the mulch will release nutrients to the soil and the worms will have the equivilent of a farmhands field day.

Completed compost is pure organi-poetry. It has a feel and smell all it's own. It also has a magic and a power all it's own when placed in heaping harmonious helpings onto and into the garden. In martial arts, the goal is to attain a black belt, in the garden, a simple "greenbelt" along with a "green thumb" will do just fine.