MAKING COMPOST

My garden has terrible soil, so my mission is to make as much compost as I can for as cheap as possible, using mainly recycled materials. Of those I have: the lumber from my neighbor's old fence, a pile of branches from spring pruning, 7 bags of maple leaves "harvested" from the courtyard at work, piles of bunny manure, straw, lawn clippings, leaves and sand, and the partially-composted contents of my little black composting bin where I put my compostable kitchen waste.

First I consult my Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening and take notes on a dry-erase board for guidance.

Next, the bins. Using the recyled lumber, I build a two-bin system so I can easily turn the pile from one side to the other. Like this:

I even used recycled wood screws. Next the Encyclopia recommends adding structure for aeration, which speeds up composting. It suggests building the pile on a wood palette or something that will get it off the ground, and placing aeration tubes every 3 feet using lengths of wide pvc pipe with holes drilled in it. I don't have a palette or pvc pipe so I rummage around the yard for comparable free materials.

TA DA! Tomato cages and trimmed-down branches from my pruning pile!

Then I realize that I probably should not compost directly against my fence unless I want to replace the fence. Another rummage through the garage and I am back with the remains of Emily's first-grade learning fair project - a black foam tri-fold that makes a perfect backstop for the pile.

After laying a lattice of branches, out come the bags of maple leaves, which are nice and dry and easily chopped with the mower into a beatiful, fluffy first layer. On top of that goes a layer of bunny manure, then some topsoil and a sprinkling of wood ash.

Here's how it looks when the first layer is done.

So now it's just a matter of repeating the layers, with a variety of materials for my veg-matter layer. This time I pull up my black plastic compost bin where I keep all my kitchen waste. The contents look like the world's nastiest layer cake:

Third layer. >>>

It begins to sprinkle. A few dark clouds move over the house, but back behind the fence it's sunny and mostly dry. For the rest of the afternoon it is sunny with intermittent sprinkles. The wind kicks up from time to time, specifically when I am trying to spread the ash. Because Ma Nature is a big flirt.

Kept at it all afternoon until the pile was four layers high. Neatly restacked my lumber pile. Found a few planks with mantis nests on them, so put them in their own protected mantis nursery spot. Burned some of the pruning pile so I'll have some wood ash for the next layers. Layed the branch lattice in the second bin so it's ready for turning in 3 weeks. Raked up all the leaves the wind scattered. Put away the lawnmower & tools.

Cost of the entire project?

$14.85 + tax for a pitchfork, plus paid Emily a buck a bag to bag up all those maple leaves back in January. So in all, about $22.00 for better garden soil this summer.

Composting is sexy.