Date: Fri 04-Dec-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: JUDYC

Quick Words:

GardenKids-compost-aerate

Full Text:

GARDENKIDS: Compost -- The Miracle Worker

By Pat Sullivan

What goes around comes around. And so does compost!

Black Gold, as it's frequently called, is simply recycled spent garden debris

and sometimes kitchen scraps which might otherwise be wasted. It's easy to

make and inspires in us a sense of doing the right thing by returning to the

soil what plants takes from it. The best bonus is that it improves the

structure, moisture-holding capacity and nutrient content of the soil.

I learned my best lessons about composting in the Children's Garden at the New

York Botanical Garden. In early spring the kids work compost into the soil as

they prepare their individual garden plots. Throughout the growing season they

side-dress their veggies and flowers with compost, using it as a natural

fertilizer -- providing all the essential elements for healthy plant growth.

The kids learn to add weeds and spent plants, which they remove from their

plots, to the compost pile and observe the miracle of the decomposition

process. After a few months of watering and frequent turnings to keep the

materials aerated, we have what the kids say looks like chocolate cake crumbs:

a sure sign the compost is ready to return to the garden.

Making compost cake (a fun way to describe it to your children) is pretty

simple. The recipe ingredients are air, water, carbon and nitrogen. Carbon,

sometimes referred to as the "browns," comes from dried and dead plant

materials such as leaves, straw, sawdust and wood chips.

Nitrogen, the "greens," are fresh and green plant materials. Examples are

uncontaminated grass clippings, spent garden debris and kitchen scrapes such

as eggshells, coffee grinds, fruits and vegetables.

Chop up your ingredients so the microbes and worms, which are the workhorses

of the soil, can get to them more easily. Stack alternating layers of

carbonaceous and nitrogenous materials on top of each other.

Adding well-rotted manure in between layers is helpful but not necessary.

Finish with a layer of soil from the garden as icing on the top and you are

ready to bake.

There are many kinds of containers you and your kids can build your compost

cake in. A common and efficient method is an enclosed 3 by 3 foot area with

chicken wire supported at the corners with 48-inch two-by-fours pounded into

the ground.

Loosen the soil where the pile will sit to help drainage. Then put small

branches or stalks at the bottom to assure air circulation, and begin your

layering. Enlisting your kids to help build this would be a good math lesson

for them.

Once your cake is created, microbes and worms will start the "cooking" and

decomposition process, converting your organic matter into compost, also known

as humus. Heat is a by-product, so you might see steam escape from your

compost, particularly when you turn the pile.

This is good to do with a spade of a pitchfork every week or so. Fluffing up

the materials exposes the inside to air, speeding up decomposition.

You'll know your compost is ready when the original materials are no longer

recognizable, and, as the kids say, the ingredients look like chocolate cake

crumbs.

This is a fun and educational fall and winter family project. And it's the

perfect time to start so you'll have home-made compost for your spring garden!

More information on home composting is available at the Cooperative Extension

Service in Bethel.

(Pat Sullivan is a children's gardening consultant, master gardener and

instructor at the New York Botanical Garden's Children's Garden. She can be

contacted through e-mail at psullitex@aol.com.)