Natures Prizm

Gardening with Compost Makes all the difference! What do you do with your kitchen waste?

Spring is the usual time to start a garden, but if you live in a tropical zone like I do, gardening really never ends, and the “beginning” slides around the year to fall. One of the simplest ways to assure that you have a good beginning, no matter what the time of year you start, is to compost kitchen waste year-round.

There are many composting systems available for purchase, but if you have a quiet corner out of view of your patio and the neighbors, you can create super rich compost using just kitchen waste, the addition of some regular ingredients you likely already have in your yard, and some ingenuity.

My yard is sandy topsoil with creamy white sand 6 inched down. It’s hard to call this “dirt”, and it offers very little in the way of nutrition, except for the fact that over time some leaves or grass clippings have improved the texture and added a bit of nutrition. As a result, I have made a big difference in the ability of this so-called “dirt”to provide energy and build robust plants by creating my own compost routine.

I chose to create a screened enclosure; about 3′ x 3′, and by adding dirt, leaves and ashes from the fireplace during the winter, have created some pretty decent compost. You will need to cover the top with something heavy, or with chicken wire, if you want the resident raccoons and opossums from digging it out and feasting on your compost ingredients.

Each time you add new kitchen waste, throw a layer of grass clippings, leaves you have raked from around the yard, and some of whatever dirt you have available. Be sure there’s a covering of dirt to keep flies and other unwanted elements out, and next time you come to add waste, use a shovel or other means to stir the latest layer before you add the new layer.

When you live in a hot climate, as I do, this method will work pretty fast, and if you keep adding to your pile, within a few months you will have much improved soil on the bottom of the pile. If you use an open system, like the one shown below, you will be able to reach the bottom layers without a lot of work, and by removing 6-8 inches of the bottom section, the next layer up will slide down and continue the process.

Depending on how much vegetable and kitchen waste you have on a weekly basis, after a while you may want to start a second compost area. Having two spaces allows your original area to further process while you add to the new one. As time goes by, you will be able to alternate removing and adding to each bin, so you constantly have ready compost for your garden.

CASE STUDY:

This picture shows how easy it is to nestle a compost “bin” into a corner of your yard, and as you can see, I have a small brush pile circling it,which gives birds, like wrens, a place to nest, and other beneficial critters a haven. As time goes by, the under layer provides additional compost material; you just lift the edges and scrape out the top layer of dirt. It will have richer than normal and broken down wood mulch; perfect layering material for the next time you add fresh kitchen waste to your compost pile.

A chicken wire enclosure stabilized with lengths of 1/2″ metal pipe at each of the four corners, and covered with a recycled heavy wire shelf. The front wire panel is attached along the left side, so it can be opened to remove compost from the bottom of the pile once it has had time to compost.