Garden Gab

In the last few posts we discussed setting up and maintaining your compost pile and debunked (or at least helped you prevent) the spontaneous combustion theory.  In this post, we’ll help you diagnose what is making your compost pile reek like the Swamp Thing and how to correct the problem.

Is the stench of your compost heap enough to make you faint in horror?

Once you are established, your compost should not stink.  At most it should smell like damp dirt.  But there are three mishaps that can lead to stinky garbage.  There are ways to tell which problem you have, but my favorite (because it’s sort of like a game show quiz) is guess that smell.

Contestant number 1: this compost heap is redolant of rotten egg with a tinge of sulfur.

The problem?  Remember when we talked about the different microbes that do all the work in your compost heap?  There are aerobic (that is, works well with oxygen) and anaerobic (doesn’t play well with air) varieties.  The aerobic work faster and they smell better too.  Their anaerobic cousins prefer clouds of noxious gas.

What should you do?  This compost pile needs to be turned.  Especially if it is soggy.  Thin materials like grass and leaves mat down in the rain, closing any air holes that might have been in your nice, fluffy pile.  Turn your pile to release those stinky odors and work some oxygen back into the pile.  Not only will it smell better, it will do its thing much faster.  In the future, consider adding rough or bulky items such as sticks, corn cobs or even cardboard to keep those air passages open.

Contestant number 2: Your eyes water when you approach this pile and it sends out waves of ammonia.

The problem?Too much nitrogen and not enough carbon.  This can happen if you’ve added a lot of green materials like kitchen scraps or grass clippings.  Nitrogen needs carbon to equal it out otherwise the pile will get cold and emit a foul odor. 

What should you do? Add brown or absorbant items such as leaves, sticks, straw, paper, or corncobs.  This will help absorb extra moisture and reheat the pile.  If you have recently added manure, back off for a while or add campfire or stove ashes in to even it out, as this too, can cause a heavy ammonia smell.

Contestant number 3: this wholly evil pile reeks of death and destruction.  It’s also attracting rats and I think I saw a buzzard flying overhead

What’s the problem?  Somebody put meat, bones, dairy or other animal byproducts (besides cow or horse manure) into the pile.  This is bad, bad, bad.  Not only will this pile be stinky and attract pests and scavengers, it can also make you sick both because of the disease carrying pests and the microbes that are growing on the meat (and by the way can infect your whole compost heap and hence, your vegetable garden- this is how horrible stories like e. coli in perfectly unassuming, friendly looking lettuce can happen).

What to do?  If you are really serious about composting animal products along with your vegetables, consider Bokashi composting.  What is Bokashi? It’s a fermentation technique that began in Japan and it embraces those stinky anaerobic microbes by sealing the waste in an airtight container (this also means it won’t reek and drive you insane).  For a great example and walkthrough, try the Green Fingered Photographer’s blog here.  

Thank you for playing guess that smell, tune in next time for more composting surprises!

Oh, so sorry compost heap, better luck next time

I don’t like bursting anyone’s myth bubble, especially one as interesting as spontaneous combustion in a compost pile.  There’s nothing like a little hint of danger when it comes to gardening.  So instead of telling you that spontaneous combustion could never happen to your compost pile, thus depriving you of theoretical excitement, mayhem and general neighbor annoyance, we’ll explore why some piles spontaneously combust and the steps you can take to prevent any fires. 

First, what exactly is happening when you compost organic materials?  In nature, microbes, insects and animals aid decomposition.  The insects and animals (like beetles, worms, mice) do a mechanical breakdown of materials first (that is, they chew things into small bits) and the microbes finish it off to make humus (a rich soil that also results from composting).  The goal of composting is to speed this process up, so composting largely bypasses the fauna element and hands things exclusively over to the microbes.  Some of the microbes use aerobic fermentation (for those of us to whom both biology and chemistry class is a thankfully distant memory, that’s the kind of fermentation that happens in the presence of oxygen).  As these microbes do their eating thing, the oxygen gets used up and the temperature rises.  In a tightly compacted area, like a large compost heap, the temperature can get quite high.  This is actually a beneficial thing.  The higher the temperature in your pile, the faster your compost becomes humus.  This is why aerating your pile by poking air holes or turning your pile is important.  When the pile runs out of oxygen, the aerobic microbes quit.  That leaves only anaerobic fermentation which is a much, much slower process.

The bomb in the backyard

So we’ve got good oxygen and high temperatures, that’s good right?  Well, sort of.  By aerating your pile and by turning it you will release some of the heat that has built up, but not enough.  Most of the heat lost from a compost pile is carried away with evaporating moisture.  That’s why it’s important to make sure your pile stays damp, not just on the surface but down to its core as well.  As long as you keep your pile damp and make sure it is turned or aerated about once a week.  Not only will this prevent a heat build up, it will help your aerobic microbes do their thing quicker.

Most compost fires start because a large pile has been ignored for too long.  These piles are dry, so there is no moisture carrying heat away.  They are also not getting any oxygen and aren’t releasing their heat through air holes, so the heat is building up almost like a bomb inside the core.  These facts also make it easier and more productive to begin a new compost heap once your original compost has reached the humus stage rather than piling new material on top.  It will keep your pile smaller and more manageable as well as making it easier to reach the good stuff.

Every heap of garbage deserves a good turn

So remember, while you are living out there on the cusp of gardening disaster:

1. Keep your pile moist, on the level of a damp sponge, cool it down extra on especially dry days

2.  Poke your compost pile regularly (I prefer a pitchfork) or turn it to release heat and to keep the aerobic microbes happy and productive

3. Good things come in small piles, so keep your old compost and your new in separate places.

Next time we’ll talk about curing your compost pile’s bad breath.

Gardening: thrills, excitement, danger lurking around every pile!

Lots of people get weirded out or scared off when someone mentions composting, but in all honesty, it isn’t terribly technical, you won’t burn your house down and unless you are adding the wrong things, it won’t produce a cloud of stinky, rancid gas. 

There are lots of good reasons for creating a compost heap, but my personal favorites are:

            a. it creates rich, well draining soil for my garden and

            b. it VASTLY reduces the waste I have to send off to a landfill. 

Even if you don’t have a garden or flower bed, I hope you will take a week and just look at what you throw out that can’t be recycled.  Think about all the food that goes bad, gets stuck in the kitchen drain, fruit peels, and is just not eaten.  Also think about flower clippings from arrangements, lawn clippings, dead leaves and twigs.  If your family is like mine, close to sixty percent of your garbage consists of compostable material.  Sixty percent!

If saving the earth is your goal, composting is also one of the easiest ways you can reduce your impact on the environment.  That’s not to say you can’t get extremely fancy with your compost pile.  In fact, the faster you need fresh compost, the fancier you’ll want to get when it comes to compost bins.  But you can also have a perfectly good bin made out of chicken wire or my choice, a box made with movable fence rails.  You can even forgo a bin and just maintain a compost heap in a corner of your yard.  The key is, the smaller the bin space, the more the internal temperature will rise, provided you keep turning it (more on that later) and the faster you will develop garden ready compost.

Selecting a compost spot

Now, there’s two kinds of lazy when it comes to composting.  There’s winter lazy and there’s spring lazy.  Myself, I happen to be spring lazy.  I’d rather trudge all the way out to the corner of the garden in winter to add to my compost heap and not have to lug fresh compost in the spring to spread over the garden.  If you happen to be winter lazy, you’re going to want to keep the compost pile closer to your house so you don’t have to suit up and walk a half mile in the freezing snow to empty your compost bucket into the pile.  It’s completely up to you.  However, you will want to make sure that wherever your pile is, it will be in direct sun as much as possible.  So try not to put it directly under your eaves or it will lose a lot of its potential heat and decompose slower.

Now we’re cooking!

So, near or far, space age bin or pile, what should go into your pile?  Any form of plant life will work in your compost pile.  You will want to keep any animal remains (that is bones, meat, dairy, egg shells, pet waste) out of the pile, not because they will not decompose, but because they attract scavengers of both insect and animal kind, and once you’ve got them it’s hard to get rid of them.  Fruit and bread should be turned into the pile quickly to prevent other pests like raccoons from dragging them out and making a mess on your lawn.

The key to starting your pile is mixing brown items (such as twigs, old leaves, wood chips) with green items or nitrogen rich items (such as grass clippings, cow or horse manure or fertilizer).  The combination of carbon and nitrogen as these items mix will begin the raise the decomposition rate.  Adding soil or old compost (find a composting buddy!) will kickstart the process by introducing the bacteria that starts composting your waste.

You will want to keep your compost heap damp to help the decomposition process, so water it when you water your flowers or vegetable garden in the summer and check it every so often in the fall and winter.  it should be moist but not soggy.  To make sure you get the whole pile, you’ll want to poke holes or turn the pile as you water it.  You can buy all kinds of aerating tools and special shovels to turn your pile, but I prefer one sturdy pitchfork to do the whole job.

If you are starting your pile now, you will want to conserve your pile’s internal heat.  You can do this by making a ring of medium to large rocks around the pile to reflect the heat.  Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a compost pile!

Next time we’ll debunk a few composting myths like spontaneous combustion, solve a few common problems like stinky heaps and show you how to turn and use your compost.

A ripe rose hip

If your hips are anything like mine, they don’t fall off very easily.  My rose hips that is.  They are still around well into the winter, bright red peeking out of the snow.  This is important because once a rose hip falls off its stem, its really past the point where you can save them for a new bush.  But chances are, even if your roses have brittle stems, your hips are still sticking around unless you’ve had a really strong storm.  Rather than waiting around to trudge out in the snow to save your rose hips however, now is a perfect time, as winterizing your home and garden winds down and you are tying up all the loose ends of your yardwork.  If you are not interested in starting a new bush but only want to protect the one you have, saving your rose hips are unneccessary.  Instead, add a layer of mulch, compost or miracle gro at the base of your rose bush to protect and nourish the root system over the winter months.

To start a new bush however (or share your roses with friends) you will need to save the seeds from your rose hips.  Be warned though, unless your roses are heirloom, the roses you get on the new bush may not look like the roses from your parent bush.  Ripe rose hips range from deep yellow to scarlet to orange-brown.  If you squeeze a ripe rose hip (don’t worry this won’t hurt the seeds) it will feel like a slightly under-ripe blueberry, with a little give and a hard center.  If the rose hip has dried and rattles or looks like a completely shriveled prune (a little pruney is ok), these seeds will probably not germinate for you.  With a thin knife, slice open your rose hips ( you only have to split the casing a little, its like cutting into a green pepper, there is a thin casing outside and a large ball of seeds in the center).  Pull the seeds out of the casing (you may have to dig them out with tweezers or your knife) and soak them in a bowl of water.  If you have any floating seeds, these have already used up their energy store and won’t germinate for you so you can throw them out.  After rinsing you will want to keep them in a plastic bag or container wrapped in a moist towel or damp peat.  Put them in a cold refrigerator but not the freezer.  After about 6 weeks you will want to transfer them to a seedling tray or if you live in warmer climates, you can plant them right away.  The seedlings will need direct light, but if you have a sunny window you won’t need anything extraordinary like a grow light.  Plant your seedlings after all danger of frost has passed.

An innocent looking cucurbit

The week after Halloween has always been a blue one for me.  It’s the jack o’ lanterns really, their faces caving in from frost and rain, their bright yellows and oranges fading or turning dark brown.  But then, next year’s garden will need something for compost! And it always makes me feel better to save pumpkin seeds for next years crop.

The basic procedure once you have collected your seeds is fairly simple: they need to be thoroughly rinsed in water to get all the stringy pumpkin threads off and then completely dried so that they don’t mildew.  In fact, after they are completely dry, spread them out on a screen or cloth for a month in a cool dry area to make sure they are absolutely dry.  Moisture will also cause rotting while you are storing your pumpkins, so it’s important to store them in a cool, dry place (like your wood shed, covered porch or cellar) in a “breathable” material.  I prefer cupcake liners because I keep my seeds in a box and they act as breathable cups, but a paper envelope or paper bag will work just fine.  Closed jars and plastic bags tend to promote rot no matter how hard you try to keep them dry.  So that’s the simple part.  The hard part is selecting the right seeds.

Put that down.  You have no idea where it’s been.

You’d think choosing seeds would be the simplest procedure ever.  Just scoop them up out of the nearest pumpkin right?  Well, if all you want next year is random squashlings, then yes, have at it.  The scandalous truth is that pumpkins (and squash) are the rabbits of the plant world.  These orange minxes will cross pollinate with any nearby Cucurbit that happens by.  If you grew your own pumpkins, you’ll want to pick just one or two of your very best to collect the seeds from.  This will ensure you get pumpkins similar to the best of the crop this year.  Choose the pumpkins that look best to you.  If that’s the largest or the roundest or the most orangey is up to you.  If you are trying to harvest seeds from a pumpkin bought from the store (even an organic one) you’ll be playing the Cucurbit lottery- which can be loads of fun for the adventurous, but disappointing if you are trying to win the blue ribbon for fabulous pumpkin at the fair.  You just don’t know where that pumpkin has been!  And these seeds can produce anything from a perfect pumpkin to a pumkin/gourd/cucumber hybrid monster (which admittedly would make a pretty interesting jack o’ lantern).

In the spring, you are also going to want to make sure your pumpkins, gourds, cucumbers and zucchinis are spaced widely apart for the same reasons.  What to do with all the seeds you don’t save?  Why, roast them of course.  Just coat the seeds and a cookie sheet with about a tablespoon of olive oil and spread the seeds all over the pan.  Sprinkle with salt, garlic powder, or any popcorn seasoning and bake at 325 until the seeds turn light brown for a delicious and healthy snack.