Coffee in the Garden

I have coffee in my garden. Not sipping the hot bitter beverage while seated in an Adirondack chair, watching the birds, as my wife does in the morning, but using actual bits of coffee beans in and on the soil. Coffee grounds and filters are a regular component of my compost pile and now I've added coffee chaff.

My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Pat and Abby recently. They're the mother and daughter team that manage Purple Mountain Coffee Company in Colorado Springs providing fresh roasted coffee to the eager locals. Pat is an avid, dedicated, and passionate coffee roaster who exploded with enthusiasm as she showed us how her custom-made coffee roaster works.

Pat's custom coffee roaster

She showed us the barrels and bags of coffee beans from around the world that she has the pleasure of roasting. And she showed us the barrel filled with chaff, a byproduct of the process. Chaff is the outer skin of the coffee bean that frees itself from the inner bean when roasted. It is flaky and fluffy with a light coffee aroma but offers nothing to the roasted beans so is separated and discarded. I saw it as a gardening opportunity. Pat was very willing to let me take the large, black plastic bag filled with chaff.

Coffee bean chaff

The chaff will become part of my compost pile and ultimately my garden soil. It will decompose very quickly due to its small size and light texture and will help the pile turn into compost quickly, but the best part is that it's free and available in large quantities. Pat, and every other coffee roaster, has bags of chaff that is either thrown away or given to eager gardeners.

America's, and much of the world's, favorite morning drink produces huge amounts of discarded organic material. In addition to the chaff from roasters, every day millions of pounds of used coffee grounds are thrown away. Not only is this wasteful, but gardeners who toss away the grounds are missing out on a great gardening opportunity.  Recycled coffee adds nitrogen to soil and compost piles.

Collecting the morning filter and grounds

 Chaff is a new opportunity for me while coffee grounds have been a garden staple of mine for years. I've described coffee grounds as one of the near-perfect compost pile additives. It looks like a brown component but improves the pile like a green (see my article "Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part 1" for what that means). It's an easy and quick way to add nitrogen to a compost pile that may be suffering from too much brown. The small size of the grounds help them incorporate throughout the pile and decompose quickly. And they can be gathered in large quantities for free.

Since 1995, Starbucks has supported the corporate policy of "Grounds for Your Garden". Anyone can take home a free 5-pound bag of used grounds. Many Starbucks have a wire rack filled with the bags and you can grab one without even asking. Many other coffee shops have followed suit and offer used grounds for free to anyone who asks.

With the abundance of free used coffee grounds it makes sense to take advantage of the opportunity because coffee can benefit a garden in many ways.

When sprinkled on top the soil coffee grounds act as a slow-release fertilizer. With every rain or watering, a little nitrogen finds its way into the soil as it leaches from the grounds. They also add phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and copper.

While fresh, unbrewed grounds are acidic and can exacerbate a high-acid, surface soil problem, used, brewed coffee grounds leave most of the acid in the cup you drink. Only slightly acidic, used grounds may benefit alkaline soils a bit, but really don't pose any problems to soil pH. As they decompose and provide food for microorganisms, the grounds will act like any organic material and actually move the pH toward neutral.

For vermicomposting (using worms to compost) using small amounts of used coffee grounds as worm food is also a good idea. Some worm farmers say their worms like coffee. Regardless of their food preference, worms will eat the  grounds like any other clean organic matter and produce the wonderful soil additive, worm castings.

Coffee grounds will help deter some garden pests. Slugs and snails don't like the gritty texture of coffee grounds and should avoid areas mulched with them. The coffee grounds should deter cats and send them looking to another cat box. Ants are repelled by the smell of coffee grounds and usually avoid areas where they're scattered.

Like compost tea or worm tea, soaking the used grounds in a bucket of water and using the "coffee tea" on your plants as a foliar feed is a good way of adding nitrogen. While only slightly acidic, acid-loving plants like azaleas, hydrangeas, gardenias, and rhododendrons will enjoy the boost.

If you like the smell of coffee, sprinkle the grounds on the soil throughout your garden. In addition to the benefits above they'll make your garden smell like a coffee shop after a summer rain.

Many people have recognized that the office plants that someone regularly pours a coffee cup into look better than the ones with no coffee additives. That's true. Adding coffee to houseplants provides a nitrogen boost, but if the plant is fed a steady stream of full-strength coffee the acidity will ultimately be detrimental. It's better to supplement normal watering with an occasional addition of diluted coffee. Sprinkling some used grounds on the soil in your pots provides the same benefit during normal watering.

Put coffee in your garden. Find someone like Pat to give you bags of coffee chaff for your compost pile, grab a bag of used coffee grounds from Starbucks or another coffee shop for mulch, and use the filter and grounds from your morning cup of Joe in your compost pile too. It's recycling at its best. Abundant and free, this great organic material will benefit your plants.
 

I have coffee in my garden. Not sipping the hot bitter beverage while seated in an Adirondack chair, watching the birds, as my wife does in the morning, but using actual bits of coffee beans in and on the soil. Coffee grounds and filters are a regular component of my compost pile and now I've added coffee chaff.

My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Pat and Abby recently. They're the mother and daughter team that manage Purple Mountain Coffee Company in Colorado Springs providing fresh roasted coffee to the eager locals. Pat is an avid, dedicated, and passionate coffee roaster who exploded with enthusiasm as she showed us how her custom-made coffee roaster works.

Pat's custom coffee roaster

She showed us the barrels and bags of coffee beans from around the world that she has the pleasure of roasting. And she showed us the barrel filled with chaff, a byproduct of the process. Chaff is the outer skin of the coffee bean that frees itself from the inner bean when roasted. It is flaky and fluffy with a light coffee aroma but offers nothing to the roasted beans so is separated and discarded. I saw it as a gardening opportunity. Pat was very willing to let me take the large, black plastic bag filled with chaff.

Coffee bean chaff

The chaff will become part of my compost pile and ultimately my garden soil. It will decompose very quickly due to its small size and light texture and will help the pile turn into compost quickly, but the best part is that it's free and available in large quantities. Pat, and every other coffee roaster, has bags of chaff that is either thrown away or given to eager gardeners.

America's, and much of the world's, favorite morning drink produces huge amounts of discarded organic material. In addition to the chaff from roasters, every day millions of pounds of used coffee grounds are thrown away. Not only is this wasteful, but gardeners who toss away the grounds are missing out on a great gardening opportunity.  Recycled coffee adds nitrogen to soil and compost piles.

Collecting the morning filter and grounds

 Chaff is a new opportunity for me while coffee grounds have been a garden staple of mine for years. I've described coffee grounds as one of the near-perfect compost pile additives. It looks like a brown component but improves the pile like a green (see my article "Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part 1" for what that means). It's an easy and quick way to add nitrogen to a compost pile that may be suffering from too much brown. The small size of the grounds help them incorporate throughout the pile and decompose quickly. And they can be gathered in large quantities for free.

Since 1995, Starbucks has supported the corporate policy of "Grounds for Your Garden". Anyone can take home a free 5-pound bag of used grounds. Many Starbucks have a wire rack filled with the bags and you can grab one without even asking. Many other coffee shops have followed suit and offer used grounds for free to anyone who asks.

With the abundance of free used coffee grounds it makes sense to take advantage of the opportunity because coffee can benefit a garden in many ways.

When sprinkled on top the soil coffee grounds act as a slow-release fertilizer. With every rain or watering, a little nitrogen finds its way into the soil as it leaches from the grounds. They also add phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and copper.

While fresh, unbrewed grounds are acidic and can exacerbate a high-acid, surface soil problem, used, brewed coffee grounds leave most of the acid in the cup you drink. Only slightly acidic, used grounds may benefit alkaline soils a bit, but really don't pose any problems to soil pH. As they decompose and provide food for microorganisms, the grounds will act like any organic material and actually move the pH toward neutral.

For vermicomposting (using worms to compost) using small amounts of used coffee grounds as worm food is also a good idea. Some worm farmers say their worms like coffee. Regardless of their food preference, worms will eat the  grounds like any other clean organic matter and produce the wonderful soil additive, worm castings.

Coffee grounds will help deter some garden pests. Slugs and snails don't like the gritty texture of coffee grounds and should avoid areas mulched with them. The coffee grounds should deter cats and send them looking to another cat box. Ants are repelled by the smell of coffee grounds and usually avoid areas where they're scattered.

Like compost tea or worm tea, soaking the used grounds in a bucket of water and using the "coffee tea" on your plants as a foliar feed is a good way of adding nitrogen. While only slightly acidic, acid-loving plants like azaleas, hydrangeas, gardenias, and rhododendrons will enjoy the boost.

If you like the smell of coffee, sprinkle the grounds on the soil throughout your garden. In addition to the benefits above they'll make your garden smell like a coffee shop after a summer rain.

Many people have recognized that the office plants that someone regularly pours a coffee cup into look better than the ones with no coffee additives. That's true. Adding coffee to houseplants provides a nitrogen boost, but if the plant is fed a steady stream of full-strength coffee the acidity will ultimately be detrimental. It's better to supplement normal watering with an occasional addition of diluted coffee. Sprinkling some used grounds on the soil in your pots provides the same benefit during normal watering.

Put coffee in your garden. Find someone like Pat to give you bags of coffee chaff for your compost pile, grab a bag of used coffee grounds from Starbucks or another coffee shop for mulch, and use the filter and grounds from your morning cup of Joe in your compost pile too. It's recycling at its best. Abundant and free, this great organic material will benefit your plants.
 

Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part 4 -- Compost Maintenance

Compost will happen in your garden when microorganisms have organic material to eat in the presence of moisture and air. Once you establish a compost pile, neglect on your part will still produce compost, but it may take a very long time. Regular action by you can produce vibrant compost in just a few weeks.

How much time you spend on your pile corresponds with the two basic methods of composting: "cold" composting and "hot" composting. As I've mentioned previously, the activity of the microorganisms in a compost pile generates heat and that heat increases their activity even more. When there is reduced microorganism activity and decreased decomposition, the process generates little heat and the result is a "cold"pile. This is the same process that naturally occurs on a forest floor. The organic material of leaves, needles, and wood will decay, but it may take years. If left to decompose naturally, your "cold" compost pile can take years to produce compost.

If you increase the water and oxygen available to the microorganisms, they become more active. In ideal conditions a compost pile can reach temperatures of 160F (71C) degrees. That's hot. Beyond that point the bacteria can actually die in the heat they've created. It's difficult for gardeners to have a pile that gets that hot, but 120F degrees isn't hard to do. Around that temperature organic material breaks down very quickly. This is "hot" composting.

There are two basic maintenance steps for creating compost in the "hot" method, assuming you have a good blend of greens and browns. The first is to aerate your pile. As the microorganisms grow and multiply they use up oxygen. They can suffocate themselves with an increased population so you need to ensure there is always enough oxygen in the pile. Aerating a compost pile is simply "turning the pile." With a spade, rake, or garden fork (what I recommend) you take the bottom of the pile and put it on top and take the sides and put them in the middle. You're fluffing up and mixing the material so there is more oxygen throughout.

Turning the pile

The second maintenance step is maintaining a good moisture content. The microorganisms need water and if you let the pile dry out they'll stop eating, go dormant, and some may die. Your compost pile should be moist. Think of a wrung-out sponge. You stick your hand in the center of the pile and pull out the decomposing material. If you can squeeze water out of it, it's too wet; if it crumbles; it's too dry; if it feels moist and compacts when you squeeze, it's good.

I don't think it's critical that your pile be perfectly balanced with all of it the same moisture level. The outside of it will dry out sooner than the middle and the middle will always be wetter than the edges. What's important is that you regularly add water to your pile to keep it from drying out. That is, unless you live in a very wet region, in which case you should be ready to add dry material to the pile and keep it covered (a tarp works well) to avoid it becoming too wet.

Watering the pile

The idea is to give the microorganisms a good mix of air and water. If you overdo it on the water, don't worry. The outer surface will dry out and the next time you turn the pile you'll be blending the dry outside with the wet inside. If it dries out a little just add water. They'll adapt to the conditions.

If you want compost fast, start with a large mass and small pieces of organic material. Turn your pile at least once a week and maintain a constant moisture level. With constant attention, your pile can turn to compost in as little as month. I've seen claims of tumblers and closed systems turning yard waste into compost in as little as two weeks. I've never seen that happen and doubt the validity of those kind of claims.

If you aren't in that much of a hurry, turn your compost every two weeks and add water occasionally. You should be able to have compost in about three months.

If you have patience or don't want to make that much effort, turn your pile once a month, add water when you think about it, and you'll have compost in about six months. If you just turn your pile a few times and wait for the rain, you can expect it to take about a year.

I suggest multiple bins or piles if you have the space. With two or three bins you rotate the decomposing material between the bins. Start with the pile on the left, add material to it, turn it, add water, and get it to the mass you are aiming for. At that point when it comes time to turn the pile, turn it upside down into the next bin to the right. While you continue maintaining it, begin adding new material to the now-empty bin on the left. About the time the right pile is ready, the left pile will be ready to turn over, so harvest the compost on the right, or move it to another bin (in a three-bin system) to continue decomposing, move the left pile to the right, and begin the sequence again. This is the basic method I use most often.

One pile almost finished and one just started

Right now I'm using an open structure as my primary compost pile (the pallet one) and am using a closed structure as the preliminary decomposer. Soon I'll harvest the compost from the pile and dump the material from the plastic bin into that space. Then I'll begin filling the plastic bin again. There's no reason the piles have to be next to each other and of the same design.

With work you can compost all year. I know a gardener who treated composting very scientifically, using a thermometer on a daily basis to check the progress of his pile. He was able to maintain pile temperatures above 100F degrees when the outside air temperature was below freezing. He'd have to cover his pile with a tarp to hold in the heat, but he was able to make compost in very cold conditions. It took a lot of effort.

I take a much slower, less energy approach. I'll do the important steps of turning the pile and keeping it moist during the growing season. At some point in the summer I'll collect  the compost. I often use partially decomposed material as a mulch on the plants. For finished compost I usually add it to my garden soil at the end of the season so it has a winter to integrate with the soil.

During late fall and winter I don't make any effort to keep the pile hot; the bacteria slow down, go dormant, and stop decomposing. That's okay because they'll be ready to go when I begin turning and watering the pile in the spring. During those cold months I continue to add to the pile with all of my normal kitchen waste and any other prunings and garden clean-up. When the weather is warm and I'm back outside, there is plenty of material to form a good mass.

My bucket is always on the counter

I am always on the lookout for composting material. I make a point to collect and save leaves in the fall. They're a great brown material. I use a leaf blower in vacuum mode and suck up the leaves. They're shredded in the process and are perfect for my pile.

Collecting leaves

I will often ask neighbors for their bags of leaves when they leave them on the curb for trash pickup. I've even been known to stop and ask strangers if I can have their bags. They did all the work collecting them and I get to turn them into marvelous compost. Along the way I've created a few converts to composting.

My neighbor's leaves ready for my pile

Composting is one of the best things you can do in the wonderful world of gardening. Not only are you learning about how bacteria and other creatures break down organics, but you're recycling refuse that would probably add to an overloaded landfill, not doing anyone any good. I get a great deal of satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment from my piles. One of my readers mentioned to me that she and her husband were planning to start a pile yesterday. How about you?

Compost will happen in your garden when microorganisms have organic material to eat in the presence of moisture and air. Once you establish a compost pile, neglect on your part will still produce compost, but it may take a very long time. Regular action by you can produce vibrant compost in just a few weeks.

How much time you spend on your pile corresponds with the two basic methods of composting: "cold" composting and "hot" composting. As I've mentioned previously, the activity of the microorganisms in a compost pile generates heat and that heat increases their activity even more. When there is reduced microorganism activity and decreased decomposition, the process generates little heat and the result is a "cold"pile. This is the same process that naturally occurs on a forest floor. The organic material of leaves, needles, and wood will decay, but it may take years. If left to decompose naturally, your "cold" compost pile can take years to produce compost.

If you increase the water and oxygen available to the microorganisms, they become more active. In ideal conditions a compost pile can reach temperatures of 160F (71C) degrees. That's hot. Beyond that point the bacteria can actually die in the heat they've created. It's difficult for gardeners to have a pile that gets that hot, but 120F degrees isn't hard to do. Around that temperature organic material breaks down very quickly. This is "hot" composting.

There are two basic maintenance steps for creating compost in the "hot" method, assuming you have a good blend of greens and browns. The first is to aerate your pile. As the microorganisms grow and multiply they use up oxygen. They can suffocate themselves with an increased population so you need to ensure there is always enough oxygen in the pile. Aerating a compost pile is simply "turning the pile." With a spade, rake, or garden fork (what I recommend) you take the bottom of the pile and put it on top and take the sides and put them in the middle. You're fluffing up and mixing the material so there is more oxygen throughout.

Turning the pile

The second maintenance step is maintaining a good moisture content. The microorganisms need water and if you let the pile dry out they'll stop eating, go dormant, and some may die. Your compost pile should be moist. Think of a wrung-out sponge. You stick your hand in the center of the pile and pull out the decomposing material. If you can squeeze water out of it, it's too wet; if it crumbles; it's too dry; if it feels moist and compacts when you squeeze, it's good.

I don't think it's critical that your pile be perfectly balanced with all of it the same moisture level. The outside of it will dry out sooner than the middle and the middle will always be wetter than the edges. What's important is that you regularly add water to your pile to keep it from drying out. That is, unless you live in a very wet region, in which case you should be ready to add dry material to the pile and keep it covered (a tarp works well) to avoid it becoming too wet.

Watering the pile

The idea is to give the microorganisms a good mix of air and water. If you overdo it on the water, don't worry. The outer surface will dry out and the next time you turn the pile you'll be blending the dry outside with the wet inside. If it dries out a little just add water. They'll adapt to the conditions.

If you want compost fast, start with a large mass and small pieces of organic material. Turn your pile at least once a week and maintain a constant moisture level. With constant attention, your pile can turn to compost in as little as month. I've seen claims of tumblers and closed systems turning yard waste into compost in as little as two weeks. I've never seen that happen and doubt the validity of those kind of claims.

If you aren't in that much of a hurry, turn your compost every two weeks and add water occasionally. You should be able to have compost in about three months.

If you have patience or don't want to make that much effort, turn your pile once a month, add water when you think about it, and you'll have compost in about six months. If you just turn your pile a few times and wait for the rain, you can expect it to take about a year.

I suggest multiple bins or piles if you have the space. With two or three bins you rotate the decomposing material between the bins. Start with the pile on the left, add material to it, turn it, add water, and get it to the mass you are aiming for. At that point when it comes time to turn the pile, turn it upside down into the next bin to the right. While you continue maintaining it, begin adding new material to the now-empty bin on the left. About the time the right pile is ready, the left pile will be ready to turn over, so harvest the compost on the right, or move it to another bin (in a three-bin system) to continue decomposing, move the left pile to the right, and begin the sequence again. This is the basic method I use most often.

One pile almost finished and one just started

Right now I'm using an open structure as my primary compost pile (the pallet one) and am using a closed structure as the preliminary decomposer. Soon I'll harvest the compost from the pile and dump the material from the plastic bin into that space. Then I'll begin filling the plastic bin again. There's no reason the piles have to be next to each other and of the same design.

With work you can compost all year. I know a gardener who treated composting very scientifically, using a thermometer on a daily basis to check the progress of his pile. He was able to maintain pile temperatures above 100F degrees when the outside air temperature was below freezing. He'd have to cover his pile with a tarp to hold in the heat, but he was able to make compost in very cold conditions. It took a lot of effort.

I take a much slower, less energy approach. I'll do the important steps of turning the pile and keeping it moist during the growing season. At some point in the summer I'll collect  the compost. I often use partially decomposed material as a mulch on the plants. For finished compost I usually add it to my garden soil at the end of the season so it has a winter to integrate with the soil.

During late fall and winter I don't make any effort to keep the pile hot; the bacteria slow down, go dormant, and stop decomposing. That's okay because they'll be ready to go when I begin turning and watering the pile in the spring. During those cold months I continue to add to the pile with all of my normal kitchen waste and any other prunings and garden clean-up. When the weather is warm and I'm back outside, there is plenty of material to form a good mass.

My bucket is always on the counter

I am always on the lookout for composting material. I make a point to collect and save leaves in the fall. They're a great brown material. I use a leaf blower in vacuum mode and suck up the leaves. They're shredded in the process and are perfect for my pile.

Collecting leaves

I will often ask neighbors for their bags of leaves when they leave them on the curb for trash pickup. I've even been known to stop and ask strangers if I can have their bags. They did all the work collecting them and I get to turn them into marvelous compost. Along the way I've created a few converts to composting.

My neighbor's leaves ready for my pile

Composting is one of the best things you can do in the wonderful world of gardening. Not only are you learning about how bacteria and other creatures break down organics, but you're recycling refuse that would probably add to an overloaded landfill, not doing anyone any good. I get a great deal of satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment from my piles. One of my readers mentioned to me that she and her husband were planning to start a pile yesterday. How about you?

Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part 3 -- The Pile

Compost is a natural result of natural forces. In nature, organic material breaks down and decays when it encounters the billions of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that are all around us all of the time. Insects and animals also play a role. This decomposition breaks down organic material into simpler components and elements. It is these component elements in compost that improve soil and can be used by plants.

Two of the bacteria types that work to decompose fall into these categories: aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic bacteria are living organisms that require oxygen to survive; anaerobic bacteria do not require oxygen for growth and may actually die when exposed to it. The decomposition by these bacteria releases nutrients present in the organic material and releases it back into the environment.

As I mentioned in the earlier article, the microorganisms that break down organic matter require three things: food, water, and oxygen. How you control those three components determines how quickly your pile decomposes. Notice I mention oxygen. You want the aerobic bacteria in your pile. They're efficient and don't produce a bad smell as a byproduct of decomposition like anaerobic bacteria do.

Composting is an activity that offers control over the decomposition process. One part of the process where you influence the make-up of your pile is in the choice of what you compost and how you do it.


You decide what food the microorganisms eat. Just about anything organic is on the menu. These organics fall into the two broad categories of plant-based or animal-based material. Plant-based organics are derived from plants, living or dead. Animal-based organics include actual parts of an animal, but most often consist of animal waste products, usually in the form of manure.

I've already mentioned a number of plant-based items you can throw in your compost pile that come from the kitchen and garden. Some of these things are obvious, like banana peels, celery tops, leftover salad, tea bags, leaves, watermelon rind, and dried out flower arrangements. Don't limit yourself to obvious contributions. Think about things you would throw away that are plant-based products. Things like pizza boxes, coffee filters, stale bread, toilet paper rolls, used cotton balls, leftover rice, stale beer, dryer lint, used paper plates, and shredded bills can all be composted.

Many animal-based items can also be tossed in the compost pile, with some important restrictions. Pet hair, egg shells, and old wool shirts can be used. Manures of all types from plant-eating animals should be a regular addition to your pile. While bones, meat, fat, and fish guts are organic and will decompose, I don't recommend them for most compost piles. Besides smelling bad as they decompose, those ingredients can attract cats, dogs, bears, and many other wild animals that will tear up your pile looking for the smelly food and you probably don't not want them in your garden. Never add cat or dog feces; they can transmit diseases. If you need to add nitrogen to balance the carbon, blood meal and bone meal are good sources, if you don't have local animals that will tear up your pile to eat them.

Rabbit manure and wood shavings before composting

Generally, plant-based material should make up the large majority of what you compost. The manures you'll compost from horses, cows, and rabbits still have a good quantity of plant material in them and can almost be considered plant-based for purposes of composting.

You have a few options of how you add material to your pile. You can take the easy (semi-lazy) way by adding material when it is available. This is the approach I take most of the time. You rake leaves; throw them on the pile. You prune your raspberry canes; throw them on the pile. You have a bucket of grapefruit halves and watermelon rinds; throw them on the pile. You have a half-dozen broken jack-o-lanterns; throw them on the pile. The pile can grow to a large mass pretty quickly, but the pieces will be big and chunky.

Lots of chunks in my compost bin

The other option is to reduce the size of the pieces before you add them to the pile. Shred the leaves, chop up the canes, cut the rinds, and crush the pumpkins. By shredding, chopping, cutting, and crushing the material beforehand you decrease their individual size, but in the process you're actually increasing the overall surface area of the combined pieces. With many small pieces and greater surface area, the microorganisms have more spaces to grow on and eat upon. Smaller pieces decompose faster. It takes more work to reduce the size of material, but it speeds up the process.

Shredding material for the compost pile

There are some materials that take longer to decompose even when cut into smaller pieces. Dried needles and wood from resinous plants will break down, but not as quickly as comparable pieces from other plants. Think in terms of pine needles, cedar bark, and  fir sawdust. Add them to your pile but don't be surprised if you can still see needles and bark when the rest of the pile is dark compost.

There are things that will never decompose no matter how long you have them in your pile. They can almost always be categorized as inorganic. Stones, rubber chunks, and plastic bottles won't decompose. Some metals will tarnish or rust, but they don't deserve a place in your pile. Glass, ceramic, and clay pots may literally break down in your pile, but they don't add any nutrients and should be avoided. Keep your pile organic.

Once all of the material is in the pile, it decomposes quickly or slowly depending on the amount of water and air that are added to the mix. When the microorganisms are busy they generate heat and that heat encourages the growth of more organisms. More organisms means there's a need for more oxygen. This is where you decide how much effort you'll make in your composting activities. And that's where I'll pick it up again in the next article.

Compost is a natural result of natural forces. In nature, organic material breaks down and decays when it encounters the billions of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that are all around us all of the time. Insects and animals also play a role. This decomposition breaks down organic material into simpler components and elements. It is these component elements in compost that improve soil and can be used by plants.

Two of the bacteria types that work to decompose fall into these categories: aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic bacteria are living organisms that require oxygen to survive; anaerobic bacteria do not require oxygen for growth and may actually die when exposed to it. The decomposition by these bacteria releases nutrients present in the organic material and releases it back into the environment.

As I mentioned in the earlier article, the microorganisms that break down organic matter require three things: food, water, and oxygen. How you control those three components determines how quickly your pile decomposes. Notice I mention oxygen. You want the aerobic bacteria in your pile. They're efficient and don't produce a bad smell as a byproduct of decomposition like anaerobic bacteria do.

Composting is an activity that offers control over the decomposition process. One part of the process where you influence the make-up of your pile is in the choice of what you compost and how you do it.


You decide what food the microorganisms eat. Just about anything organic is on the menu. These organics fall into the two broad categories of plant-based or animal-based material. Plant-based organics are derived from plants, living or dead. Animal-based organics include actual parts of an animal, but most often consist of animal waste products, usually in the form of manure.

I've already mentioned a number of plant-based items you can throw in your compost pile that come from the kitchen and garden. Some of these things are obvious, like banana peels, celery tops, leftover salad, tea bags, leaves, watermelon rind, and dried out flower arrangements. Don't limit yourself to obvious contributions. Think about things you would throw away that are plant-based products. Things like pizza boxes, coffee filters, stale bread, toilet paper rolls, used cotton balls, leftover rice, stale beer, dryer lint, used paper plates, and shredded bills can all be composted.

Many animal-based items can also be tossed in the compost pile, with some important restrictions. Pet hair, egg shells, and old wool shirts can be used. Manures of all types from plant-eating animals should be a regular addition to your pile. While bones, meat, fat, and fish guts are organic and will decompose, I don't recommend them for most compost piles. Besides smelling bad as they decompose, those ingredients can attract cats, dogs, bears, and many other wild animals that will tear up your pile looking for the smelly food and you probably don't not want them in your garden. Never add cat or dog feces; they can transmit diseases. If you need to add nitrogen to balance the carbon, blood meal and bone meal are good sources, if you don't have local animals that will tear up your pile to eat them.

Rabbit manure and wood shavings before composting

Generally, plant-based material should make up the large majority of what you compost. The manures you'll compost from horses, cows, and rabbits still have a good quantity of plant material in them and can almost be considered plant-based for purposes of composting.

You have a few options of how you add material to your pile. You can take the easy (semi-lazy) way by adding material when it is available. This is the approach I take most of the time. You rake leaves; throw them on the pile. You prune your raspberry canes; throw them on the pile. You have a bucket of grapefruit halves and watermelon rinds; throw them on the pile. You have a half-dozen broken jack-o-lanterns; throw them on the pile. The pile can grow to a large mass pretty quickly, but the pieces will be big and chunky.

Lots of chunks in my compost bin

The other option is to reduce the size of the pieces before you add them to the pile. Shred the leaves, chop up the canes, cut the rinds, and crush the pumpkins. By shredding, chopping, cutting, and crushing the material beforehand you decrease their individual size, but in the process you're actually increasing the overall surface area of the combined pieces. With many small pieces and greater surface area, the microorganisms have more spaces to grow on and eat upon. Smaller pieces decompose faster. It takes more work to reduce the size of material, but it speeds up the process.

Shredding material for the compost pile

There are some materials that take longer to decompose even when cut into smaller pieces. Dried needles and wood from resinous plants will break down, but not as quickly as comparable pieces from other plants. Think in terms of pine needles, cedar bark, and  fir sawdust. Add them to your pile but don't be surprised if you can still see needles and bark when the rest of the pile is dark compost.

There are things that will never decompose no matter how long you have them in your pile. They can almost always be categorized as inorganic. Stones, rubber chunks, and plastic bottles won't decompose. Some metals will tarnish or rust, but they don't deserve a place in your pile. Glass, ceramic, and clay pots may literally break down in your pile, but they don't add any nutrients and should be avoided. Keep your pile organic.

Once all of the material is in the pile, it decomposes quickly or slowly depending on the amount of water and air that are added to the mix. When the microorganisms are busy they generate heat and that heat encourages the growth of more organisms. More organisms means there's a need for more oxygen. This is where you decide how much effort you'll make in your composting activities. And that's where I'll pick it up again in the next article.

Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part 2 -- Composting Structures

Compost is amazing. Of the many gardening activities I participate in, composting is one I am passionate about completely. To take kitchen scraps, weeds, lawn clippings, rotten fruit, coffee grounds, and a myriad of other organic matter and turn it into a compound that magically improves soil and garden productivity, while bypassing the garbage truck and city landfill, is fascinating and rewarding.

I covered the basic process behind composting in my earlier article, "Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part1". Today I'll cover some preliminary steps that will allow you to start your compost pile.

Let's begin with location and structure. As briefly mentioned in the previous article, locate your compost pile near your garden. If you've followed some of my earlier advice, your garden is located close enough to your house that it isn't a arduous journey to walk to it. Since most of what you'll add to your pile comes from the garden and kitchen, it makes sense that its location is close to both. One of the reasons for composting is to use the finished compost in your garden soil so it makes sense again to locate it near its ultimate end.

My piles near the garden

A well-managed compost pile will not smell bad so you don't need to worry about sticking it in an out-of-the-way spot to avoid terrible aromas. In fact, finished compost has an earthy, clean, warm smell. My compost piles are always near the garden with enough space in front of them that I can maneuver a wheelbarrow to unload organic refuse and later load up with dark, crumbly compost.

The microorganisms don't require sunlight to decompose material so you shouldn't worry about how much shade is on the pile. That is unless you plan to do year-round composting and live in a cold region. Sun will help heat up the pile and in the winter can help keep the pile from freezing; a full-sun location may be preferred. Alternatively if you live in a very dry region locating the pile in the shade may help keep it from drying out too quickly.

The size of your pile is also a factor in determining its location. If you plan to have a single big pile you only need enough space to handle a planned mass with a footprint of about 16 square feet (four feet by four feet). If you want to do a two-pile or three-pile setup, you need to plan for more space, to include paths to and from the piles.

The type of compost pile you have is a factor in selecting the site so let's discuss structure options for composting. Beyond a single pile resting on the ground, most gardeners use some type of structure. Composting structures are open or closed, with open structures usually being some type of cage or box to hold the pile together and closed structures being a type of container that fully encloses the composting material. I find that open structures allow more flexibility in composting and are often easier to manage.

When I planned my last garden, I laid out the spot for a two-pile system and sank 4x4 posts in the ground. The posts framed two, four feet by four feet areas and rose about five feet above the base soil. I secured four-feet high, plastic garden fencing around and in between the posts to create thin walls. The front was open, though I used extra wire fencing to block it and keep the dogs out of the piles.

My two-pile structure

When we moved to our new house, I set up a compost pile right away, before I knew where the garden would be. For this more mobile, temporary structure I nailed together wooden pallets to frame three walls; another pallet served as a removable front. Later this year, once I finish laying out my vegetable garden and put a fence around it, I'll build a more permanent three-pile setup from 2x4 lumber closer to the garden.

My simple pallet structure

For a movable structure that can be located directly on a garden plot, I've used rigid, four-feet high fencing (metal or plastic). A 12-feet long section formed into a circle with the ends attached together creates a space that is four feet in diameter and four feet in height, perfect for a compost pile. When the compost is finished you simply remove the external fencing and the compost falls directly on the spot where you'll use it.

My movable fence system

The idea behind open structures is to help contain all of the composting material as the mass builds. Whether you use wood, plastic, or metal, the structure creates a framework that supports the size of your pile. The structure can be permanent or temporary. Stacked cinder blocks or bricks can be used to create a compost structure. Stacked bales of straw will contain a pile and will also add some material to the decomposing process. Even walled mounds of soil can form a structure.

Open composting structures have some advantages. You can add material to the pile regularly because the top and sides are often open or easily accessible. The cost of building the framework can be negligible if you re-use the components from other projects, like fencing, cinder blocks, wood, or pallets; even new material isn't that expensive. Conducting the regular activities of managing the pile (which I'll cover in another article) is easy because the structure is designed to be accessible. The size of the pile and how much material you compost is flexible; you control the size of the structure. Organisms like beetles and earthworms, important creatures in the decomposition process, are free to enter the pile and do their work. When it comes time to collect the finished compost, all you need is a shovel and wheelbarrow.

Open composting structures have some disadvantages as well. The open structure allows access to animals and pests as well. Exposed to sun and wind, piles tend to dry out quickly and extra water needs to be added to maintain moist conditions. They can be unsightly to some gardeners. Once you start your pile it's not easy to move it.

The other composting option is a closed structure. A closed composting structure fully contains the composting material. These are often made of plastic and are the ones you see sold as a "composter". They're a four-sided box with a lid, a barrel with a trap door, or a big ball with a screw top. Typically you load all of your organic material into the closed structure and leave it until it is fully composted. If it is a barrel system that you hand-turn regularly, there is very little maintenance. If it is a tower system you'll need to add water and air to the material to keep it decomposing.

My closed structure

The advantages and disadvantages of closed structure are nearly opposite those of an open structure. Because the access is usually through a single opening, it isn't as accessible. The cost of most closed structures is higher and can be quite expensive (unless you just use a heavy duty trash bag as the container). Managing the pile (adding water and aerating) can be difficult without special tools. Many structures sold in stores are too small to build sufficient mass and the material takes a very long time to decompose. Only bacteria is at work because other microorganisms and insects don't have access to the pile. Collecting the finished compost can be difficult because of the limited single-door access.

On the flip side, they're very effective at keeping animals from the pile, they don't dry out as quickly, they are orderly, and can be aesthetically pleasing. They're also highly portable so you can change locations easily.

You might ascertain that I prefer open structures. I do. My first foray into composting was with a plastic closed system that I purchased (not inexpensively) from our local utilities company. I filled it from the small opening at the top, layered greens and browns, kept it as moist as I could (which was hard to determine due to the closed sides), and tried to add air to the material. The width of the square base was less than two feet on each side; it was just over three feet tall. After two years of regular attention, the material didn't look anything like compost. I know many other gardeners who tried these small tower composters and had similar results. I don't recommend them.

I haven't had success with this type

The big barrel composters, or "tumblers",  that you hand rotate do work pretty well. They hold a good mass of material, are efficient at maintaining moisture levels, and add oxygen when you rotate them. Their trapdoor design that can make unloading the finished compost tricky. The biggest critique is the cost; they can be very expensive. If you can afford it and don't like getting your hands dirty, this may be the system for you.

With open structures, you'll need to add water regularly because they dry out so consider locating them in a spot that has easy access to a water source. With closed structures, particularly the big barrels, you won't need to add as much water so you can locate them just about anywhere; they can be placed just outside your back door.

I like connecting with the soil and my plants and I think of compost the same way. Seeing the colors change during decomposition, sticking my hand in the pile to see if it's warm, and feeling the finished product all add to the sensory pleasure of gardening. Open structures give me more feedback about the process.

In my next couple articles I'll continue with information about managing a compost pile. It's not hard, but it does take some work.

Compost is amazing. Of the many gardening activities I participate in, composting is one I am passionate about completely. To take kitchen scraps, weeds, lawn clippings, rotten fruit, coffee grounds, and a myriad of other organic matter and turn it into a compound that magically improves soil and garden productivity, while bypassing the garbage truck and city landfill, is fascinating and rewarding.

I covered the basic process behind composting in my earlier article, "Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part1". Today I'll cover some preliminary steps that will allow you to start your compost pile.

Let's begin with location and structure. As briefly mentioned in the previous article, locate your compost pile near your garden. If you've followed some of my earlier advice, your garden is located close enough to your house that it isn't a arduous journey to walk to it. Since most of what you'll add to your pile comes from the garden and kitchen, it makes sense that its location is close to both. One of the reasons for composting is to use the finished compost in your garden soil so it makes sense again to locate it near its ultimate end.

My piles near the garden

A well-managed compost pile will not smell bad so you don't need to worry about sticking it in an out-of-the-way spot to avoid terrible aromas. In fact, finished compost has an earthy, clean, warm smell. My compost piles are always near the garden with enough space in front of them that I can maneuver a wheelbarrow to unload organic refuse and later load up with dark, crumbly compost.

The microorganisms don't require sunlight to decompose material so you shouldn't worry about how much shade is on the pile. That is unless you plan to do year-round composting and live in a cold region. Sun will help heat up the pile and in the winter can help keep the pile from freezing; a full-sun location may be preferred. Alternatively if you live in a very dry region locating the pile in the shade may help keep it from drying out too quickly.

The size of your pile is also a factor in determining its location. If you plan to have a single big pile you only need enough space to handle a planned mass with a footprint of about 16 square feet (four feet by four feet). If you want to do a two-pile or three-pile setup, you need to plan for more space, to include paths to and from the piles.

The type of compost pile you have is a factor in selecting the site so let's discuss structure options for composting. Beyond a single pile resting on the ground, most gardeners use some type of structure. Composting structures are open or closed, with open structures usually being some type of cage or box to hold the pile together and closed structures being a type of container that fully encloses the composting material. I find that open structures allow more flexibility in composting and are often easier to manage.

When I planned my last garden, I laid out the spot for a two-pile system and sank 4x4 posts in the ground. The posts framed two, four feet by four feet areas and rose about five feet above the base soil. I secured four-feet high, plastic garden fencing around and in between the posts to create thin walls. The front was open, though I used extra wire fencing to block it and keep the dogs out of the piles.

My two-pile structure

When we moved to our new house, I set up a compost pile right away, before I knew where the garden would be. For this more mobile, temporary structure I nailed together wooden pallets to frame three walls; another pallet served as a removable front. Later this year, once I finish laying out my vegetable garden and put a fence around it, I'll build a more permanent three-pile setup from 2x4 lumber closer to the garden.

My simple pallet structure

For a movable structure that can be located directly on a garden plot, I've used rigid, four-feet high fencing (metal or plastic). A 12-feet long section formed into a circle with the ends attached together creates a space that is four feet in diameter and four feet in height, perfect for a compost pile. When the compost is finished you simply remove the external fencing and the compost falls directly on the spot where you'll use it.

My movable fence system

The idea behind open structures is to help contain all of the composting material as the mass builds. Whether you use wood, plastic, or metal, the structure creates a framework that supports the size of your pile. The structure can be permanent or temporary. Stacked cinder blocks or bricks can be used to create a compost structure. Stacked bales of straw will contain a pile and will also add some material to the decomposing process. Even walled mounds of soil can form a structure.

Open composting structures have some advantages. You can add material to the pile regularly because the top and sides are often open or easily accessible. The cost of building the framework can be negligible if you re-use the components from other projects, like fencing, cinder blocks, wood, or pallets; even new material isn't that expensive. Conducting the regular activities of managing the pile (which I'll cover in another article) is easy because the structure is designed to be accessible. The size of the pile and how much material you compost is flexible; you control the size of the structure. Organisms like beetles and earthworms, important creatures in the decomposition process, are free to enter the pile and do their work. When it comes time to collect the finished compost, all you need is a shovel and wheelbarrow.

Open composting structures have some disadvantages as well. The open structure allows access to animals and pests as well. Exposed to sun and wind, piles tend to dry out quickly and extra water needs to be added to maintain moist conditions. They can be unsightly to some gardeners. Once you start your pile it's not easy to move it.

The other composting option is a closed structure. A closed composting structure fully contains the composting material. These are often made of plastic and are the ones you see sold as a "composter". They're a four-sided box with a lid, a barrel with a trap door, or a big ball with a screw top. Typically you load all of your organic material into the closed structure and leave it until it is fully composted. If it is a barrel system that you hand-turn regularly, there is very little maintenance. If it is a tower system you'll need to add water and air to the material to keep it decomposing.

My closed structure

The advantages and disadvantages of closed structure are nearly opposite those of an open structure. Because the access is usually through a single opening, it isn't as accessible. The cost of most closed structures is higher and can be quite expensive (unless you just use a heavy duty trash bag as the container). Managing the pile (adding water and aerating) can be difficult without special tools. Many structures sold in stores are too small to build sufficient mass and the material takes a very long time to decompose. Only bacteria is at work because other microorganisms and insects don't have access to the pile. Collecting the finished compost can be difficult because of the limited single-door access.

On the flip side, they're very effective at keeping animals from the pile, they don't dry out as quickly, they are orderly, and can be aesthetically pleasing. They're also highly portable so you can change locations easily.

You might ascertain that I prefer open structures. I do. My first foray into composting was with a plastic closed system that I purchased (not inexpensively) from our local utilities company. I filled it from the small opening at the top, layered greens and browns, kept it as moist as I could (which was hard to determine due to the closed sides), and tried to add air to the material. The width of the square base was less than two feet on each side; it was just over three feet tall. After two years of regular attention, the material didn't look anything like compost. I know many other gardeners who tried these small tower composters and had similar results. I don't recommend them.

I haven't had success with this type

The big barrel composters, or "tumblers",  that you hand rotate do work pretty well. They hold a good mass of material, are efficient at maintaining moisture levels, and add oxygen when you rotate them. Their trapdoor design that can make unloading the finished compost tricky. The biggest critique is the cost; they can be very expensive. If you can afford it and don't like getting your hands dirty, this may be the system for you.

With open structures, you'll need to add water regularly because they dry out so consider locating them in a spot that has easy access to a water source. With closed structures, particularly the big barrels, you won't need to add as much water so you can locate them just about anywhere; they can be placed just outside your back door.

I like connecting with the soil and my plants and I think of compost the same way. Seeing the colors change during decomposition, sticking my hand in the pile to see if it's warm, and feeling the finished product all add to the sensory pleasure of gardening. Open structures give me more feedback about the process.

In my next couple articles I'll continue with information about managing a compost pile. It's not hard, but it does take some work.

Compost and Your Compost Pile, Part 1

Compost is just about the best thing you can do for and have in your garden. Both a verb and a noun, compost should be a part of your gardening vocabulary. Creating compost is easy to do, is good for the environment, and saves money. Today I'll provide some basic information about composting and how it works.

One of my compost piles

So what is composting? All organic matter will decompose due to bacteria and other microorganisms that naturally occur all around us. The basic concept behind composting is that you control the natural decomposition process. By giving the bacteria food, water, and oxygen you provide an environment for them to become little factories that turn yard, garden, and kitchen waste into a rich dark compost. And compost is the perfect material for improving garden soil and supporting better plant growth.

For composting to be most effective you need to start with a large mass of organic material. The larger the mass, the more effective the composting. Typically, this mass is called a compost pile. A minimum pile size of three feet by three feet by three feet is recommended, though I suggest a pile with dimensions of four feet by four feet by four feet. When the microorganisms begin decomposing organic matter they generate heat and that heat helps the organisms to multiply and accelerate the decomposition. The bigger the pile, the faster it turns into compost.

The compost pile can be literally a pile that you place in a corner of your yard or garden. It can also be contained in a structure of wood or plastic. There are many products on the market for holding the organic material while it turns into compost. They fall into two basic categories: those that are open and those that are closed. The container or structure isn't nearly as important as the material and the size of the mass.

A fellow gardener's pile

While all organic matter will eventually decompose, an effective compost pile should have a blend of material. In composting parlance we're talking about "green" and "brown" organic material. The decomposition process requires nitrogen and green plant material is high in nitrogen. Too much nitrogen, or green matter, is inefficient so it needs to be balanced with brown material that is high in carbon, the basic building block of living organisms. With a mix of greens and browns, nitrogen and carbon, decomposing microorganisms have the perfect smorgasbord and can turn waste material into compost.

The only other things they need are water and air. Food, water, and oxygen are the basics of life. The organic material is the food, rain and water from your hose supplies the second component, and the air all around us provides oxygen. You don't need to buy anything to make a compost pile and start the little buggers working; everything needed is already prevalent in nature.

Be aware of the concept of greens and browns and always try to have more browns than greens, but there should always be a blend. If your pile seems to have a lot of greens, add some brown; if it has a lot of browns, add a little green. What does this really mean?

Greens that you would compost are fresh-cut grass, weeds that you just pulled, banana peels and vegetable scraps from your kitchen, and any other plant material that is fresh. Browns that you would compost are dried leaves, straw, shredded newspaper, pruned branches, and any other plant-based material that is old and dried out. On the surface, if the material is green, orange, yellow, or red, it should probably be considered a green/nitrogen component. If it is brown, black, or tan, it should be considered a brown/carbon component.

As you create your compost pile the ratio of greens to browns is important, but you'll see many different recommendations for what is best. Colorado State University suggests starting a compost pile with alternating six to eight-inch layers of green and brown, a 1:1 mix. I've seen one reputable source that suggests 30 parts carbon to one part nitrogen, a 30:1 mix. Another recommends four parts brown to one part green, a 4:1 mix. If it seems confusing it is, because everyone seems to have a different formula. What is consistent in all recommendations is that nitrogen, the green, should not be the dominant material; too much green material can become smelly and not decompose well. Conversely, too much brown material will take a very long time to break down.


I propose that you not worry too much about what ratio you use in your pile. Just start composting. Take your yard and kitchen waste and throw it in a heap in a spot that you designate as your compost pile. It should be near your garden so you don't have to travel far to add to it and take from it. The space should be large enough to contain a pile that is four feet high, wide, and deep. Throw some twigs on the ground, add some dried leaves, toss in some fresh grass, and dump on the scraps from last night's dinner salad. You now have the beginnings of a compost pile.

Layers of green and brown

Unless you've planned well in advance, you won't have enough material to create a pile that starts out with the four-feet dimensions I recommend. So start with what you have. Throw your yard and kitchen waste on the pile. As you build it be aware of the green-brown mix and modify your additions appropriately. When I mow my lawn I use a mulching mower and leave the clippings on the grass; it's good for your lawn to do that. If I find that most of what I have in my pile is brown material, I'll put the bag on the mower to catch some of the clippings and add them to the pile. If I find that I've added a lot of green material recently, I'll make a point to throw in some straw or dried leaves that I saved from fall clean up.

Keep adding to the pile and it will eventually reach suitable mass. As it grows it will begin decomposing, but it really starts to cook when it reaches about three feet in size. And cook is a literal term. The temperature in a compost pile can easily reach 120F to 150F degrees. The bigger the pile and the better the blend of green and brown, the hotter it gets. At those temperatures the microorganisms are incredibly efficient. They're like college students on spring break in Mexico; they can't stop eating and multiplying in the heat. By the time your pile reaches four-feet in size, everything is in place for the creation of rich, black compost.

It's at that point that I stop adding to the pile. The whole point of the pile is to create compost and if you're always adding to it it is never fully decomposed. When it reaches optimum mass, let the organisms do what they do best, eat. The pile will decrease in size; the volume of the material is reduced by 50 to 75 percent. What used to be grass, and leaves, and vegetable peels will no longer be identifiable as it all begins to look dark brown and crumbly.

Because you've added material to the pile over time, some of it will be more decomposed than the rest. You'll have a mix of small, fully decomposed pieces along with partially decomposed, bigger pieces. Eventually all of the material will decompose into small particles that resemble a fluffy soil.

When it has decomposed to a point that you're ready to use it, use it. I will take some of the partially decomposed compost, when the pieces are still chunky and big, and use it as mulch in my vegetable garden. It does all of the good things that mulch does and when I turn over the soil in fall or early spring it becomes a soil amendment. I'll use fully decomposed compost to amend the soil at planting time.

Of course, I have more than one compost pile. When I stop adding to one because it reaches appropriate size, I begin a new pile. Just about the time the second pile is full, the first pile is fully decomposed and ready to use. I use this two-pile system to deal with the amount of organic waste my household and garden produces. More waste can support more and bigger piles.

My two-pile system

If you do nothing but add organic material to your pile, it will turn into compost in about a year. If you take action to create a highly efficient pile, you'll have compost in about a month. In my next article I'll discuss what you need to do to manage your pile.

Compost is just about the best thing you can do for and have in your garden. Both a verb and a noun, compost should be a part of your gardening vocabulary. Creating compost is easy to do, is good for the environment, and saves money. Today I'll provide some basic information about composting and how it works.

One of my compost piles

So what is composting? All organic matter will decompose due to bacteria and other microorganisms that naturally occur all around us. The basic concept behind composting is that you control the natural decomposition process. By giving the bacteria food, water, and oxygen you provide an environment for them to become little factories that turn yard, garden, and kitchen waste into a rich dark compost. And compost is the perfect material for improving garden soil and supporting better plant growth.

For composting to be most effective you need to start with a large mass of organic material. The larger the mass, the more effective the composting. Typically, this mass is called a compost pile. A minimum pile size of three feet by three feet by three feet is recommended, though I suggest a pile with dimensions of four feet by four feet by four feet. When the microorganisms begin decomposing organic matter they generate heat and that heat helps the organisms to multiply and accelerate the decomposition. The bigger the pile, the faster it turns into compost.

The compost pile can be literally a pile that you place in a corner of your yard or garden. It can also be contained in a structure of wood or plastic. There are many products on the market for holding the organic material while it turns into compost. They fall into two basic categories: those that are open and those that are closed. The container or structure isn't nearly as important as the material and the size of the mass.

A fellow gardener's pile

While all organic matter will eventually decompose, an effective compost pile should have a blend of material. In composting parlance we're talking about "green" and "brown" organic material. The decomposition process requires nitrogen and green plant material is high in nitrogen. Too much nitrogen, or green matter, is inefficient so it needs to be balanced with brown material that is high in carbon, the basic building block of living organisms. With a mix of greens and browns, nitrogen and carbon, decomposing microorganisms have the perfect smorgasbord and can turn waste material into compost.

The only other things they need are water and air. Food, water, and oxygen are the basics of life. The organic material is the food, rain and water from your hose supplies the second component, and the air all around us provides oxygen. You don't need to buy anything to make a compost pile and start the little buggers working; everything needed is already prevalent in nature.

Be aware of the concept of greens and browns and always try to have more browns than greens, but there should always be a blend. If your pile seems to have a lot of greens, add some brown; if it has a lot of browns, add a little green. What does this really mean?

Greens that you would compost are fresh-cut grass, weeds that you just pulled, banana peels and vegetable scraps from your kitchen, and any other plant material that is fresh. Browns that you would compost are dried leaves, straw, shredded newspaper, pruned branches, and any other plant-based material that is old and dried out. On the surface, if the material is green, orange, yellow, or red, it should probably be considered a green/nitrogen component. If it is brown, black, or tan, it should be considered a brown/carbon component.

As you create your compost pile the ratio of greens to browns is important, but you'll see many different recommendations for what is best. Colorado State University suggests starting a compost pile with alternating six to eight-inch layers of green and brown, a 1:1 mix. I've seen one reputable source that suggests 30 parts carbon to one part nitrogen, a 30:1 mix. Another recommends four parts brown to one part green, a 4:1 mix. If it seems confusing it is, because everyone seems to have a different formula. What is consistent in all recommendations is that nitrogen, the green, should not be the dominant material; too much green material can become smelly and not decompose well. Conversely, too much brown material will take a very long time to break down.


I propose that you not worry too much about what ratio you use in your pile. Just start composting. Take your yard and kitchen waste and throw it in a heap in a spot that you designate as your compost pile. It should be near your garden so you don't have to travel far to add to it and take from it. The space should be large enough to contain a pile that is four feet high, wide, and deep. Throw some twigs on the ground, add some dried leaves, toss in some fresh grass, and dump on the scraps from last night's dinner salad. You now have the beginnings of a compost pile.

Layers of green and brown

Unless you've planned well in advance, you won't have enough material to create a pile that starts out with the four-feet dimensions I recommend. So start with what you have. Throw your yard and kitchen waste on the pile. As you build it be aware of the green-brown mix and modify your additions appropriately. When I mow my lawn I use a mulching mower and leave the clippings on the grass; it's good for your lawn to do that. If I find that most of what I have in my pile is brown material, I'll put the bag on the mower to catch some of the clippings and add them to the pile. If I find that I've added a lot of green material recently, I'll make a point to throw in some straw or dried leaves that I saved from fall clean up.

Keep adding to the pile and it will eventually reach suitable mass. As it grows it will begin decomposing, but it really starts to cook when it reaches about three feet in size. And cook is a literal term. The temperature in a compost pile can easily reach 120F to 150F degrees. The bigger the pile and the better the blend of green and brown, the hotter it gets. At those temperatures the microorganisms are incredibly efficient. They're like college students on spring break in Mexico; they can't stop eating and multiplying in the heat. By the time your pile reaches four-feet in size, everything is in place for the creation of rich, black compost.

It's at that point that I stop adding to the pile. The whole point of the pile is to create compost and if you're always adding to it it is never fully decomposed. When it reaches optimum mass, let the organisms do what they do best, eat. The pile will decrease in size; the volume of the material is reduced by 50 to 75 percent. What used to be grass, and leaves, and vegetable peels will no longer be identifiable as it all begins to look dark brown and crumbly.

Because you've added material to the pile over time, some of it will be more decomposed than the rest. You'll have a mix of small, fully decomposed pieces along with partially decomposed, bigger pieces. Eventually all of the material will decompose into small particles that resemble a fluffy soil.

When it has decomposed to a point that you're ready to use it, use it. I will take some of the partially decomposed compost, when the pieces are still chunky and big, and use it as mulch in my vegetable garden. It does all of the good things that mulch does and when I turn over the soil in fall or early spring it becomes a soil amendment. I'll use fully decomposed compost to amend the soil at planting time.

Of course, I have more than one compost pile. When I stop adding to one because it reaches appropriate size, I begin a new pile. Just about the time the second pile is full, the first pile is fully decomposed and ready to use. I use this two-pile system to deal with the amount of organic waste my household and garden produces. More waste can support more and bigger piles.

My two-pile system

If you do nothing but add organic material to your pile, it will turn into compost in about a year. If you take action to create a highly efficient pile, you'll have compost in about a month. In my next article I'll discuss what you need to do to manage your pile.

Soil Amendments in the Garden

Almost every garden can benefit from soil amendments. I'd say every garden, but I once lived in California's famous San Joaquin Valley and the soil would grow just about anything with very little help from me; spit out a watermelon seed and in a few months you'd have a watermelon plant. But Colorado and most regions of the world aren't so blessed. Your garden and mine will benefit from soil amendments.

Amending made my garden better

Amending your soil is simply adding a material to improve the soil's physical properties. The soil amendment can be organic or inorganic. Organic amendments are alive, were once living, or come from a living creature. We typically think of peat, compost, and manure when talking about organic amendments. Inorganic amendments are mined or manufactured. Perlite, vermiculite, sand, and gravel are typical inorganic amendments.

The purpose of adding amendments is to make your soil better by improving the tilth. Soil tilth is important for good plant growth (see my blog "The Dirt on Soil" for a more thorough explanation). It is the combination of a soil's texture, structure, and fertility. When it's deficient or downright terrible, you have to intervene to improve it.

Soil structure is how the individual soil particles fit together. In sandy soil the particles are large and loose with lots of air pockets, or pore space, in between them. That's why water drains so quickly through sand; it travels easily through the pore space. In clay soil the particles are very close together and the pore space is very small. That's why water is absorbed in clay and it stays wet for so long; the water fills the pore space and has nowhere to go.

Soil amendments will change the structure. While inorganic amendments are a definite option, they tend to be more expensive for a home gardener and don't improve the third component of tilth, soil fertility. Soil fertility is what enables roots to absorb the nutrients in the soil. Because organic amendments improve both structure and fertility, they will be my primary focus.

Organic soil amendments increase the organic matter within the soil. That sounds obvious, but it takes decades or centuries for nature to increase soil organic matter naturally. Organic matter is important because it's the fuel for the billions of microorganisms that live in your garden bed. Microorganisms make plant growth possible. They convert the nutrients in the soil into the ions that plant roots can absorb. Increased soil organic matter means increased root growth.

Organic amendments can be small or large. Small amendments include peat, compost, crushed leaves, aged manure, sawdust, and dried grass clippings. Large amendments include bark, wood chunks, and straw. Generally, small amendments are best for sandy soil and large amendments are best for clay soil. In sandy soil the smaller pieces act as little sponges to fill the pore space and soak up water and nutrients. In clay soil the larger pieces act to push aside the small soil particles and make space for water and air.

You can buy organic amendments or make your own. Nurseries, garden centers, and big box stores will all sell bags of compost, manure, and soil blends. You can buy compost and decomposed manures in bulk from many landscape or sand and stone companies. Depending on how much you need, it may be worth filling your truck or paying for the delivery of a large quantity of amendments. Starting your own compost pile, bagging fallen leaves, and saving some grass clippings are free ways to accumulate good soil amendments. If you have or know someone with horses, use the manure.

Dumping compost

For amendments to do their work they need to be thoroughly mixed into the soil. Spreading a bag of compost on top of the soil won't work. You need to get a spade and dig it in. Buy or rent a tiller to make the work a little easier. Regardless of the method, the organic matter needs to be completely blended with soil. In the beginning of amending your garden's soil it will be more difficult to change the soil structure, particularly in clay soil. It may be hard to dig and hard to break up, but over time the soil becomes looser and more able to accept the gift you give it.

Tilling in compost

Avoid just digging a hole and dumping the amendment in. Yes, eventually earthworms and other soil organisms will incorporate it, but that will take a long time. You're not benefiting the overall soil, just the area of the hole. Make your entire garden soil better by amending all of it.

The amendment will eventually decompose in the soil. That's the result of microorganisms at work. Bigger pieces will decompose slower than small. If you're amending sandy soil with compost you probably won't see any indication of the organic matter in the next year; it's there in small amounts, but hard to see. On the other hand if you're amending clay soil with wood chunks, you may see the wood pieces still evident in the soil for years.

For your initial application, spread the amendment over the top of the soil to a depth of two or three inches. This may seem like a lot, but for poor soil or soil that has never been amended it is necessary. In subsequent years you can use less. In well-amended soil you may only need to add an inch of amendment each spring when you get the beds ready.

The quantity of amendment will be printed on the bag, usually in cubic feet. Determine how big your garden bed is and buy enough to cover it. One cubic foot of compost will cover an area of six square feet with two inches of compost. You can buy in bulk by the yard; a yard of amendment is 27 cubic feet. One yard of compost is enough for about five average four feet by eight feet raised beds. Three yards of compost will cover an area of about 500 square feet with two inches of compost.

Two yards of compost ready to spread

After spreading it, dig it in as deep as possible. You want the amendment to get down to root level. I like to make two applications of amendments when I first amend a garden. I dig deep and turn over the soil so that the amendment falls to the bottom of the hole. After digging up the entire bed, I spread more amendment and then use a tiller to incorporate it. Tillers don't usually get as deep as a spade can so I use both tools to get more amendment into the soil.

Digging in compost

Adding organic soil amendments is different than adding fertilizer. Fertilizer is a specific nutrient for plants. Organic amendments will improve the fertility of the soil and the ability of microorganisms to make nutrients available to plant roots. Once the organic level of the soil exceeds five percent, you'll be able to use less fertilizer. A well-amended garden may not need fertilizer at all, except for a few plants that are heavy feeders and may need more nitrogen.

Also, adding "topsoil" is not the same as amending the soil. Topsoil is rarely regulated by states, while amendments often are. That means when you're buying compost you know you're buying compost, but when you buy topsoil you may not know what you're buying. Topsoil from bag to bag or truckload to truckload can be drastically different and it's possible that the soil you're buying is worse than what you have in your garden. Except for filling large holes outside the garden, stay away from topsoil.

The finished job, hours later

It takes a lot of labor to add organic amendments to your garden soil. The initial application as I described is hard work, but it usually only needs to be done once. Annual amendment application is easier, but still time-consuming. Don't avoid doing it just because it's hard. Your plants will grow better and in the long run you'll save time that would be spent weeding and fertilizing. Make the effort and your garden will be better for it.

Almost every garden can benefit from soil amendments. I'd say every garden, but I once lived in California's famous San Joaquin Valley and the soil would grow just about anything with very little help from me; spit out a watermelon seed and in a few months you'd have a watermelon plant. But Colorado and most regions of the world aren't so blessed. Your garden and mine will benefit from soil amendments.

Amending made my garden better

Amending your soil is simply adding a material to improve the soil's physical properties. The soil amendment can be organic or inorganic. Organic amendments are alive, were once living, or come from a living creature. We typically think of peat, compost, and manure when talking about organic amendments. Inorganic amendments are mined or manufactured. Perlite, vermiculite, sand, and gravel are typical inorganic amendments.

The purpose of adding amendments is to make your soil better by improving the tilth. Soil tilth is important for good plant growth (see my blog "The Dirt on Soil" for a more thorough explanation). It is the combination of a soil's texture, structure, and fertility. When it's deficient or downright terrible, you have to intervene to improve it.

Soil structure is how the individual soil particles fit together. In sandy soil the particles are large and loose with lots of air pockets, or pore space, in between them. That's why water drains so quickly through sand; it travels easily through the pore space. In clay soil the particles are very close together and the pore space is very small. That's why water is absorbed in clay and it stays wet for so long; the water fills the pore space and has nowhere to go.

Soil amendments will change the structure. While inorganic amendments are a definite option, they tend to be more expensive for a home gardener and don't improve the third component of tilth, soil fertility. Soil fertility is what enables roots to absorb the nutrients in the soil. Because organic amendments improve both structure and fertility, they will be my primary focus.

Organic soil amendments increase the organic matter within the soil. That sounds obvious, but it takes decades or centuries for nature to increase soil organic matter naturally. Organic matter is important because it's the fuel for the billions of microorganisms that live in your garden bed. Microorganisms make plant growth possible. They convert the nutrients in the soil into the ions that plant roots can absorb. Increased soil organic matter means increased root growth.

Organic amendments can be small or large. Small amendments include peat, compost, crushed leaves, aged manure, sawdust, and dried grass clippings. Large amendments include bark, wood chunks, and straw. Generally, small amendments are best for sandy soil and large amendments are best for clay soil. In sandy soil the smaller pieces act as little sponges to fill the pore space and soak up water and nutrients. In clay soil the larger pieces act to push aside the small soil particles and make space for water and air.

You can buy organic amendments or make your own. Nurseries, garden centers, and big box stores will all sell bags of compost, manure, and soil blends. You can buy compost and decomposed manures in bulk from many landscape or sand and stone companies. Depending on how much you need, it may be worth filling your truck or paying for the delivery of a large quantity of amendments. Starting your own compost pile, bagging fallen leaves, and saving some grass clippings are free ways to accumulate good soil amendments. If you have or know someone with horses, use the manure.

Dumping compost

For amendments to do their work they need to be thoroughly mixed into the soil. Spreading a bag of compost on top of the soil won't work. You need to get a spade and dig it in. Buy or rent a tiller to make the work a little easier. Regardless of the method, the organic matter needs to be completely blended with soil. In the beginning of amending your garden's soil it will be more difficult to change the soil structure, particularly in clay soil. It may be hard to dig and hard to break up, but over time the soil becomes looser and more able to accept the gift you give it.

Tilling in compost

Avoid just digging a hole and dumping the amendment in. Yes, eventually earthworms and other soil organisms will incorporate it, but that will take a long time. You're not benefiting the overall soil, just the area of the hole. Make your entire garden soil better by amending all of it.

The amendment will eventually decompose in the soil. That's the result of microorganisms at work. Bigger pieces will decompose slower than small. If you're amending sandy soil with compost you probably won't see any indication of the organic matter in the next year; it's there in small amounts, but hard to see. On the other hand if you're amending clay soil with wood chunks, you may see the wood pieces still evident in the soil for years.

For your initial application, spread the amendment over the top of the soil to a depth of two or three inches. This may seem like a lot, but for poor soil or soil that has never been amended it is necessary. In subsequent years you can use less. In well-amended soil you may only need to add an inch of amendment each spring when you get the beds ready.

The quantity of amendment will be printed on the bag, usually in cubic feet. Determine how big your garden bed is and buy enough to cover it. One cubic foot of compost will cover an area of six square feet with two inches of compost. You can buy in bulk by the yard; a yard of amendment is 27 cubic feet. One yard of compost is enough for about five average four feet by eight feet raised beds. Three yards of compost will cover an area of about 500 square feet with two inches of compost.

Two yards of compost ready to spread

After spreading it, dig it in as deep as possible. You want the amendment to get down to root level. I like to make two applications of amendments when I first amend a garden. I dig deep and turn over the soil so that the amendment falls to the bottom of the hole. After digging up the entire bed, I spread more amendment and then use a tiller to incorporate it. Tillers don't usually get as deep as a spade can so I use both tools to get more amendment into the soil.

Digging in compost

Adding organic soil amendments is different than adding fertilizer. Fertilizer is a specific nutrient for plants. Organic amendments will improve the fertility of the soil and the ability of microorganisms to make nutrients available to plant roots. Once the organic level of the soil exceeds five percent, you'll be able to use less fertilizer. A well-amended garden may not need fertilizer at all, except for a few plants that are heavy feeders and may need more nitrogen.

Also, adding "topsoil" is not the same as amending the soil. Topsoil is rarely regulated by states, while amendments often are. That means when you're buying compost you know you're buying compost, but when you buy topsoil you may not know what you're buying. Topsoil from bag to bag or truckload to truckload can be drastically different and it's possible that the soil you're buying is worse than what you have in your garden. Except for filling large holes outside the garden, stay away from topsoil.

The finished job, hours later

It takes a lot of labor to add organic amendments to your garden soil. The initial application as I described is hard work, but it usually only needs to be done once. Annual amendment application is easier, but still time-consuming. Don't avoid doing it just because it's hard. Your plants will grow better and in the long run you'll save time that would be spent weeding and fertilizing. Make the effort and your garden will be better for it.

Fishing for Coffee

Compost is one of my favorite things about gardening. As an amendment, it works wonders as it improves soil and benefits plants. As a mulch, it benefits soil, plants, and insects. As a free factory sitting in a corner of your yard, it processes and recycles yard and kitchen waste, reducing the amount of trash you send to an already overcrowded landfill.

Almost anything organic can be composted. That's why I have a plastic bucket sitting on my kitchen counter to capture orange rinds, banana peels, egg shells, wilted lettuce, and all the other typical household refuse from breakfasts and dinners. When the bucket is full we dump it on the compost pile. As you might guess, it fills faster in the summer when we eat more fresh produce from the garden, grocery store, or farmers market, but that isn't the limit.

Composting can take place throughout the year. Though temperatures below 40 degrees will put the microorganisms responsible for decomposing to sleep, you can still put your organic collection on your pile. Mixed with leaves and other garden material from fall cleanup it's ready for the micro critters to eat when spring temperatures warm them up. With lots of work and attention you can keep your compost pile warm enough to maintain decomposition throughout the winter, but most of us don't want to take that effort when it's cold outside.

I try to keep the composting spirit alive through the cold months by maintaining the habit of putting scraps in the bucket and traipsing through the snow to dump it on the pile when it's full. During the colder months it may take two or three days to fill our bucket; we just don't eat as many fresh vegetables. I do know that it will contain some items that we use regularly: cucumber skins, lettuce heels, coffee grounds, my tea, banana peels.

Imagine my chagrin when I began to notice that the bucket was remaining nearly empty for days. Upon investigating I noticed an obvious absence of the morning coffee filter and grounds. It didn't take long to find the misplaced organics as I fished through the trash can beneath the sink. Oh, the horror of it.

The crime

It's true that composting and gardening are more important to me than to other members of my household. I know they humor me when I spend as much time as I do in the gardens. I do what I can to educate them about simple gardening activities, particularly composting. And I assume they understand it and have a similar sense of environmental awareness. But you know what happens when you "assume" that others will act a certain way.

Are coffee grounds in the trash truely a crime? Of course not. But imagine if all the coffee filters and grounds in your city, or state, or country were placed in a compost pile. Millions of pounds of coffee could become millions of pounds of compost. Starbucks gives their used grounds away for free because they know gardeners everywhere can benefit from them.

Now think about all of the banana peels and orange rinds and vegetable leftovers that get dumped in trashcans beneath kitchen sinks. Multiply the amount of organic material you dump by the millions of households that do the same and we're talking about a serious issue. San Francisco has a mandatory recycling and composting ordinance that is trying to reach zero waste by the year 2020. That's an amazing goal by a major U.S. city.

For now you can play a small yet important role in protecting our environment by composting waste that would otherwise find it's way into landfills or waterways. Be aware of materials that can be recycled naturally. Throw a bucket of kitchen scraps on a compost pile. And above all, don't discard those coffee grounds.

Compost is one of my favorite things about gardening. As an amendment, it works wonders as it improves soil and benefits plants. As a mulch, it benefits soil, plants, and insects. As a free factory sitting in a corner of your yard, it processes and recycles yard and kitchen waste, reducing the amount of trash you send to an already overcrowded landfill.

Almost anything organic can be composted. That's why I have a plastic bucket sitting on my kitchen counter to capture orange rinds, banana peels, egg shells, wilted lettuce, and all the other typical household refuse from breakfasts and dinners. When the bucket is full we dump it on the compost pile. As you might guess, it fills faster in the summer when we eat more fresh produce from the garden, grocery store, or farmers market, but that isn't the limit.

Composting can take place throughout the year. Though temperatures below 40 degrees will put the microorganisms responsible for decomposing to sleep, you can still put your organic collection on your pile. Mixed with leaves and other garden material from fall cleanup it's ready for the micro critters to eat when spring temperatures warm them up. With lots of work and attention you can keep your compost pile warm enough to maintain decomposition throughout the winter, but most of us don't want to take that effort when it's cold outside.

I try to keep the composting spirit alive through the cold months by maintaining the habit of putting scraps in the bucket and traipsing through the snow to dump it on the pile when it's full. During the colder months it may take two or three days to fill our bucket; we just don't eat as many fresh vegetables. I do know that it will contain some items that we use regularly: cucumber skins, lettuce heels, coffee grounds, my tea, banana peels.

Imagine my chagrin when I began to notice that the bucket was remaining nearly empty for days. Upon investigating I noticed an obvious absence of the morning coffee filter and grounds. It didn't take long to find the misplaced organics as I fished through the trash can beneath the sink. Oh, the horror of it.

The crime

It's true that composting and gardening are more important to me than to other members of my household. I know they humor me when I spend as much time as I do in the gardens. I do what I can to educate them about simple gardening activities, particularly composting. And I assume they understand it and have a similar sense of environmental awareness. But you know what happens when you "assume" that others will act a certain way.

Are coffee grounds in the trash truely a crime? Of course not. But imagine if all the coffee filters and grounds in your city, or state, or country were placed in a compost pile. Millions of pounds of coffee could become millions of pounds of compost. Starbucks gives their used grounds away for free because they know gardeners everywhere can benefit from them.

Now think about all of the banana peels and orange rinds and vegetable leftovers that get dumped in trashcans beneath kitchen sinks. Multiply the amount of organic material you dump by the millions of households that do the same and we're talking about a serious issue. San Francisco has a mandatory recycling and composting ordinance that is trying to reach zero waste by the year 2020. That's an amazing goal by a major U.S. city.

For now you can play a small yet important role in protecting our environment by composting waste that would otherwise find it's way into landfills or waterways. Be aware of materials that can be recycled naturally. Throw a bucket of kitchen scraps on a compost pile. And above all, don't discard those coffee grounds.

Leave Leaves in Your Garden

It's beginning to happen everywhere. As my wife and I traveled through Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado last weekend, we noticed trees changing color and leaves beginning to fall. At our home some of the aspens are nearing nakedness. Even the pine trees are getting into the action by dropping their needles. Setting aside the beautiful aspects of the seasonal change, this is nature's gift to you of free compost and mulch.

Many of us have memories of raking leaves from our lawns. For some it's a pleasurable memory accompanied by visions of leaping into the crackling brown and yellow piles as a child. For others it rekindles thoughts of back pains and blistered hands from repeatedly pushing the torturous rake forward and drawing it back. Almost all of the memories end with the leaves being burned or bagged up for the trash service to haul away.

In recent years I've created new memories by rescuing the vagabond leaves and offering a new home in my gardens. Completely organic, they offer great benefits at great cost savings.

Compost piles require a mix of nitrogen sources and carbon sources to decompose efficiently. The greens and browns of plant materials blend and provide an environment perfect for microorganisms to consume, resulting in dark, rich compost. Too much green nitrogen material and your pile gets too hot and even stinky. To moderate that possibility I periodically add dried leaves, a brown carbon source, to my pile after I've piled on excessive green material. The leaves are the same ones I rake in the fall and place into plastic bags or bins for future use. I've even been known to wander the neighborhood kidnapping the bags of leaves that my neighbors placed on the curb for disposal.

Most soil can benefit from an infusion of organic matter in the fall. As I clean up my garden, I turn into the soil heaps of crumbled leaves to decompose over the winter. Excessively cold soil temperatures will limit decompostion, but as soon as the soil begins to warm in the spring sun, the decomposition begins anew. I only do this with crumbled, dried leaves because full-size leaves won't break down as quickly.

For many of my perennial beds I let the leaves become mulch. In some cases this is a great energy saver because the leaves blow into the bushes and flowers naturally, saving me from either raking them away or intentionally adding them. The leaves that pile up around the plants become a natural blanket that helps protect them from severe cold and drastic temperature changes in winter. And like the bits that I add to soil, they'll break down over the cold months and early spring to benefit the microorganisms and your garden beds. Next year I just pull back excessive leaves that surround trunks and stalks to prevent the possibility of rot or fungus. If need be, I add more mulch, typically bark, on top of the leaves. There's no reason to remove the leaves unless it annoys you aesthetically.

To minimize weed seeds blowing in from the dried grasses and prairie flowers that surround my vegetable garden, I'll pile clumps of leaves on top of my raised beds. It helps moderate the soil, adds organic matter, even offers some beneficial insects a place to overwinter. In the spring I'll remove the larger clumps that haven't begun to decompose and add them to the compost pile.

Even the pine needles are raked and moved to become walkways between the raised beds. They do a great job cutting down on weed growth in an area where I really don't want anything growing. Some of them surround my strawberries to keep the young fruit from being in contact with the soil.

Recycling the natural refuse in your garden is a great way to improve it while cutting cost. If you're going to rake leaves anyway, why not put them to beneficial use rather than adding to an overfull landfill. It's easy to do and a great way to make memories for future season changes.

It's beginning to happen everywhere. As my wife and I traveled through Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado last weekend, we noticed trees changing color and leaves beginning to fall. At our home some of the aspens are nearing nakedness. Even the pine trees are getting into the action by dropping their needles. Setting aside the beautiful aspects of the seasonal change, this is nature's gift to you of free compost and mulch.

Many of us have memories of raking leaves from our lawns. For some it's a pleasurable memory accompanied by visions of leaping into the crackling brown and yellow piles as a child. For others it rekindles thoughts of back pains and blistered hands from repeatedly pushing the torturous rake forward and drawing it back. Almost all of the memories end with the leaves being burned or bagged up for the trash service to haul away.

In recent years I've created new memories by rescuing the vagabond leaves and offering a new home in my gardens. Completely organic, they offer great benefits at great cost savings.

Compost piles require a mix of nitrogen sources and carbon sources to decompose efficiently. The greens and browns of plant materials blend and provide an environment perfect for microorganisms to consume, resulting in dark, rich compost. Too much green nitrogen material and your pile gets too hot and even stinky. To moderate that possibility I periodically add dried leaves, a brown carbon source, to my pile after I've piled on excessive green material. The leaves are the same ones I rake in the fall and place into plastic bags or bins for future use. I've even been known to wander the neighborhood kidnapping the bags of leaves that my neighbors placed on the curb for disposal.

Most soil can benefit from an infusion of organic matter in the fall. As I clean up my garden, I turn into the soil heaps of crumbled leaves to decompose over the winter. Excessively cold soil temperatures will limit decompostion, but as soon as the soil begins to warm in the spring sun, the decomposition begins anew. I only do this with crumbled, dried leaves because full-size leaves won't break down as quickly.

For many of my perennial beds I let the leaves become mulch. In some cases this is a great energy saver because the leaves blow into the bushes and flowers naturally, saving me from either raking them away or intentionally adding them. The leaves that pile up around the plants become a natural blanket that helps protect them from severe cold and drastic temperature changes in winter. And like the bits that I add to soil, they'll break down over the cold months and early spring to benefit the microorganisms and your garden beds. Next year I just pull back excessive leaves that surround trunks and stalks to prevent the possibility of rot or fungus. If need be, I add more mulch, typically bark, on top of the leaves. There's no reason to remove the leaves unless it annoys you aesthetically.

To minimize weed seeds blowing in from the dried grasses and prairie flowers that surround my vegetable garden, I'll pile clumps of leaves on top of my raised beds. It helps moderate the soil, adds organic matter, even offers some beneficial insects a place to overwinter. In the spring I'll remove the larger clumps that haven't begun to decompose and add them to the compost pile.

Even the pine needles are raked and moved to become walkways between the raised beds. They do a great job cutting down on weed growth in an area where I really don't want anything growing. Some of them surround my strawberries to keep the young fruit from being in contact with the soil.

Recycling the natural refuse in your garden is a great way to improve it while cutting cost. If you're going to rake leaves anyway, why not put them to beneficial use rather than adding to an overfull landfill. It's easy to do and a great way to make memories for future season changes.

Coffee in the Garden

Enjoy your morning cup of coffee and let your garden enjoy it too. On warm summer mornings my wife likes to take her early cup of brew and sit outside with the dogs, listening to the birds and basking in the glow of her sunflowers. It's a nice way to welcome the day. On most of those mornings I arise to find the coffee filter and coffee grounds in the kitchen trash. My enjoyment of the coffee is different as I remove the filter and add it to my compost bucket.

Just about everything you use to start your day can become compost if you begin by throwing it all in a kitchen bucket. The filter and grounds are just the first daily addition. If you have eggs in the morning, add the shells. Didn't eat all of your oatmeal? Don't throw it down the drain; add it to the compost pile. If you have fresh fruit in the morning, add the skins, peelings, seeds, and stems to your bucket. Even the morning newspaper and egg carton can be added. Almost anything organic is ripe (pun intended) for composting.

A typical day for my compost pile

Stay away from bones, meat, fat and raw eggs because those might cause animals to forage in your pile. They'll also add a stink factor that isn't present in compost that is primarily plant and vegetable material.

When your kitchen bucket fills, walk it out to your compost pile and toss it on. At some point you'll want to turn over or fluff up your pile and all the new material will be incorporated to the inside. In time it will all decompose and become beautiful, dark compost that you can work into your soil. Your daily breakfasts will help feed your tomatoes and beans and cucumbers too.

I know you're questioning the suggestion about eggshells. It will take awhile, but they'll break down too. The calcium they'll add to the soil will help prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes. The jagged edges of the broken shells will help keep slugs from destroying new seedlings. The white specks can even be useful in seeing how evenly you spread the compost on the soil.

Of course don't stop with breakfast. Add the remnants of your lunch and dinner too. A small bucket under the sink or on the counter can hold moldy bread, salad fixings, watermelon rind, tea bags, and any other organic material you might otherwise throw away. On your compost pile it will all be recycled and will amend your soil, making it much better.

This is something you can do year round. As the season changes to winter, you'll have less and less plant material to compost. The cold will eventually cause your pile to go dormant and maybe even freeze. Keep dumping your kitchen waste, even on the snow-covered pile. The compost will be jumpstarted and already fed with organic material when spring comes and warms everything up.

It's all very easy to do and will help your kitchen trash can from filling up too soon. Fewer full trash cans means fewer plastic trash bags, which means less waste in your city landfill. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. And it all starts with a little coffee for your garden.

Enjoy your morning cup of coffee and let your garden enjoy it too. On warm summer mornings my wife likes to take her early cup of brew and sit outside with the dogs, listening to the birds and basking in the glow of her sunflowers. It's a nice way to welcome the day. On most of those mornings I arise to find the coffee filter and coffee grounds in the kitchen trash. My enjoyment of the coffee is different as I remove the filter and add it to my compost bucket.

Just about everything you use to start your day can become compost if you begin by throwing it all in a kitchen bucket. The filter and grounds are just the first daily addition. If you have eggs in the morning, add the shells. Didn't eat all of your oatmeal? Don't throw it down the drain; add it to the compost pile. If you have fresh fruit in the morning, add the skins, peelings, seeds, and stems to your bucket. Even the morning newspaper and egg carton can be added. Almost anything organic is ripe (pun intended) for composting.

A typical day for my compost pile

Stay away from bones, meat, fat and raw eggs because those might cause animals to forage in your pile. They'll also add a stink factor that isn't present in compost that is primarily plant and vegetable material.

When your kitchen bucket fills, walk it out to your compost pile and toss it on. At some point you'll want to turn over or fluff up your pile and all the new material will be incorporated to the inside. In time it will all decompose and become beautiful, dark compost that you can work into your soil. Your daily breakfasts will help feed your tomatoes and beans and cucumbers too.

I know you're questioning the suggestion about eggshells. It will take awhile, but they'll break down too. The calcium they'll add to the soil will help prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes. The jagged edges of the broken shells will help keep slugs from destroying new seedlings. The white specks can even be useful in seeing how evenly you spread the compost on the soil.

Of course don't stop with breakfast. Add the remnants of your lunch and dinner too. A small bucket under the sink or on the counter can hold moldy bread, salad fixings, watermelon rind, tea bags, and any other organic material you might otherwise throw away. On your compost pile it will all be recycled and will amend your soil, making it much better.

This is something you can do year round. As the season changes to winter, you'll have less and less plant material to compost. The cold will eventually cause your pile to go dormant and maybe even freeze. Keep dumping your kitchen waste, even on the snow-covered pile. The compost will be jumpstarted and already fed with organic material when spring comes and warms everything up.

It's all very easy to do and will help your kitchen trash can from filling up too soon. Fewer full trash cans means fewer plastic trash bags, which means less waste in your city landfill. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. And it all starts with a little coffee for your garden.

Tea in the Garden

I'm a creature of habit, though I try to add at least one thing new to my activities each day. For more than 40 years, I've started the day with a nice cup of hot tea, preferably Earl Grey. It's usually accompanied by a light breakfast of homemade banana bread, an apple fritter, or a bowl of oatmeal if it's a cold morning. Always frugal, I abandoned tea bags years ago and now make my cup with Indian looseleaf tea that I buy at a local Greek market.

As the water heats, I fill my tea ball half full with the tea leaves. It begins to steep as I head out to fetch the morning paper, always accompanied by my faithful Chocolate Lab, Shaca. When we return, my morning beverage is ready; of course on snowy mornings the brew is a little stronger, in accordance with the time it takes to put on my boots and jacket and trek to the end of the driveway. A few too many scoops of sugar, sans milk, and the brew is complete. The final step in the process is to remove the tea ball from the hot, tea-infused water and dump the saturated leaves.

This is where I tend to veer away from the habits of most people who start their days similarly. I don't dump my tea leaves in the trash, I dump them in my compost bucket sitting next to the sink. It's not one of those fancy, charcoal-impregnated buckets you can pay too much for from a catalog or website. It's an empty plastic bucket that used to hold a margarita concoction to which you just add tequila. It now holds wilting lettuce leaves, the skins of cucumbers, gnawed corn cobs, tea leaves, and any other organic kitchen waste we throw in it.

I believe in compost. I believe compost can make any garden better. In our Rocky Mountain region with terrible natural soil, compost is imperative in improving growing conditions. Gardeners can buy bagged compost at garden centers or home improvement stores and they can buy bulk compost at rock yards or sand companies; I've done both.

But I prefer to make my own compost. It's much cheaper, it's easy, and it gives me the opportunity to recycle my yard and kitchen waste, rather than sending it to some landfill that's already overloaded. When my margarita bucket is full, I dump it on my compost pile. When I have a handful or more of weeds I've plucked from my gardening beds, I throw them on my compost pile. When I clean up the spent plants in the fall, I throw it all on my compost pile. I even go around the neighborhood and collect bags of leaves from my neighbors to throw on my compost pile.

You can compost almost anything organic. Eggshells and egg cartons, overripe peaches and the cardboard box they came in, bird-pecked apples and pruned apple tree branches can all go into a compost pile. The black peels from the bananas in my bread are always visible in my bucket and on my pile.

The concept is quite simple: find a area near your garden and start dumping organic stuff. The science of composting is more complex and I'll cover that in another blog, but the basics make it easy for anyone to do. And I encourage you to do it, if you aren't already a composter. You don't need to buy expensive activators and you don't need to buy expensive plastic systems; you can, but a pile in a corner of your yard will work just fine for starters.

Mix "browns" and "greens" as you do it. The "browns" are organic pieces high in carbon, typically dried leaves or sticks or newspaper or brown grass. The "greens" are fresh organic pieces high in nitrogen, typically freshcut grass or rotting fruit or most kitchen waste. The mix of carbon and nitrogen creates a vacation themepark for microorganisms that naturally live in the soil and on the plants. The microrganisms begin the process of decomposing the organic matter and in time will produce a beautiful dark brown, almost black, product that works wonders for your garden.

Compost doesn't smell bad, in fact it has an earthy smell that reminds me of a meadow deep in a forest. The leaves and needles in a forest are decomposing naturally in the same basic way as a compost pile. You take this natural process and control what decomposes in the shelter of your yard. With a little effort, you're rewarded with a remarkable substance that improves soil quality, water retention, pH, biodiversity, nutrient values, plant growth, and much more.

I'm not completely fanatical in how I process my compost. For the most part I throw things on the pile, add water when it gets a little dry, mix it up every now and then to introduce oxygen to the microbes, and wait for it to turn dark and lovely. It's pretty simple.

By composting, I feel I'm doing my part in reducing neighborhood waste, I'm improving the conditions in my garden, and I'm giving a place for delinquent microorganisms to spent their summer.

Think about it and join me with tea in the garden.

I'm a creature of habit, though I try to add at least one thing new to my activities each day. For more than 40 years, I've started the day with a nice cup of hot tea, preferably Earl Grey. It's usually accompanied by a light breakfast of homemade banana bread, an apple fritter, or a bowl of oatmeal if it's a cold morning. Always frugal, I abandoned tea bags years ago and now make my cup with Indian looseleaf tea that I buy at a local Greek market.

As the water heats, I fill my tea ball half full with the tea leaves. It begins to steep as I head out to fetch the morning paper, always accompanied by my faithful Chocolate Lab, Shaca. When we return, my morning beverage is ready; of course on snowy mornings the brew is a little stronger, in accordance with the time it takes to put on my boots and jacket and trek to the end of the driveway. A few too many scoops of sugar, sans milk, and the brew is complete. The final step in the process is to remove the tea ball from the hot, tea-infused water and dump the saturated leaves.

This is where I tend to veer away from the habits of most people who start their days similarly. I don't dump my tea leaves in the trash, I dump them in my compost bucket sitting next to the sink. It's not one of those fancy, charcoal-impregnated buckets you can pay too much for from a catalog or website. It's an empty plastic bucket that used to hold a margarita concoction to which you just add tequila. It now holds wilting lettuce leaves, the skins of cucumbers, gnawed corn cobs, tea leaves, and any other organic kitchen waste we throw in it.

I believe in compost. I believe compost can make any garden better. In our Rocky Mountain region with terrible natural soil, compost is imperative in improving growing conditions. Gardeners can buy bagged compost at garden centers or home improvement stores and they can buy bulk compost at rock yards or sand companies; I've done both.

But I prefer to make my own compost. It's much cheaper, it's easy, and it gives me the opportunity to recycle my yard and kitchen waste, rather than sending it to some landfill that's already overloaded. When my margarita bucket is full, I dump it on my compost pile. When I have a handful or more of weeds I've plucked from my gardening beds, I throw them on my compost pile. When I clean up the spent plants in the fall, I throw it all on my compost pile. I even go around the neighborhood and collect bags of leaves from my neighbors to throw on my compost pile.

You can compost almost anything organic. Eggshells and egg cartons, overripe peaches and the cardboard box they came in, bird-pecked apples and pruned apple tree branches can all go into a compost pile. The black peels from the bananas in my bread are always visible in my bucket and on my pile.

The concept is quite simple: find a area near your garden and start dumping organic stuff. The science of composting is more complex and I'll cover that in another blog, but the basics make it easy for anyone to do. And I encourage you to do it, if you aren't already a composter. You don't need to buy expensive activators and you don't need to buy expensive plastic systems; you can, but a pile in a corner of your yard will work just fine for starters.

Mix "browns" and "greens" as you do it. The "browns" are organic pieces high in carbon, typically dried leaves or sticks or newspaper or brown grass. The "greens" are fresh organic pieces high in nitrogen, typically freshcut grass or rotting fruit or most kitchen waste. The mix of carbon and nitrogen creates a vacation themepark for microorganisms that naturally live in the soil and on the plants. The microrganisms begin the process of decomposing the organic matter and in time will produce a beautiful dark brown, almost black, product that works wonders for your garden.

Compost doesn't smell bad, in fact it has an earthy smell that reminds me of a meadow deep in a forest. The leaves and needles in a forest are decomposing naturally in the same basic way as a compost pile. You take this natural process and control what decomposes in the shelter of your yard. With a little effort, you're rewarded with a remarkable substance that improves soil quality, water retention, pH, biodiversity, nutrient values, plant growth, and much more.

I'm not completely fanatical in how I process my compost. For the most part I throw things on the pile, add water when it gets a little dry, mix it up every now and then to introduce oxygen to the microbes, and wait for it to turn dark and lovely. It's pretty simple.

By composting, I feel I'm doing my part in reducing neighborhood waste, I'm improving the conditions in my garden, and I'm giving a place for delinquent microorganisms to spent their summer.

Think about it and join me with tea in the garden.