Garbage to Gold

Winter composting turns over rich rewards

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In the Tetons, there’s no mistaking the changing of the seasons. It’s quite clear when the grass, struggling to stand up to the evening chill, no longer demands its weekly mowing. Hanging their heads, the flowers beg to be put to bed, abandoned by the fleeting sunlight. The vegetable garden, too, lies limp and matted, greens replaced by grays and the furry white of frost.

But even as the plants retire, one activity can sustain the wistful gardener: composting. Autumn is the perfect season to begin this age-old cycle of renewal. The abundance of dead vegetation, including grass clippings and raked leaves, provides an excellent source of the carbon nutrients necessary to nourish a new compost pile. Or, rather, a compost can or worm bin. Even though cold temperatures will dampen the processing time, it’s easy to give the garden’s black gold a good start, in the basement or garage or outside the back door, just a snow shovel away.

According to Rodale’s All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, as much as 75 percent of a household’s waste is compostable, including such overlooked items as coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, hair or fur, and some paper products. The process may prove especially fun and educational for children. In addition to offering the most green means of recycling, composting provides the organic matter, namely humus, that keeps vegetable and flower gardens, trees, bushes, and grass healthy.

Compost, as a soil amendment, or additive, contains the macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, plus micronutrients such as iron, cobalt, manganese, boron, and zinc, depending on what materials have been composted. It improves soil structure, buffers pH changes in soil, aids the soil in water retention, controls pathogens, and attracts beneficial soil organisms (such as the much-desired earthworm), and can be used to mulch. Cultivating organic matter in home compost bins, with household refuse, creates a feeling of accomplishment. It is awesome in the truer sense of the word to lift the top layers off a pile of compost and uncover the sweet smelling, crumbly, umber-colored heart of a successful growing season.

But composting in the winter can seem daunting. The trick is to avoid traipsing through three feet of snow, offending neighbors, and attracting unwelcome animals (of either the wild or domestic varieties).

A convenient solution lies in the common garbage can. Judy Allen, an accomplished gardener and gardening instructor living in Driggs, advocates trash-can composting. The simple design calls for a dark-colored plastic, or polyethylene, container placed in a convenient sunny location. The solar exposure and dark color work to heat the can’s contents, enabling decomposition to take place. Erin Carter, owner of Paradise City Bakery [ no longer extant–Ed.] in Victor, uses a galvanized metal trash can. The metal helps conduct the winter rays, she says.

Like a living creature, the compost mixture needs air. Drill at least three bands of 3⁄4-inch holes around the circumference of the can. Additional holes should be drilled in the can’s bottom. If the preferred location is a deck, elevate the compost can on bricks and use a catch pan, like those used for water heaters.

If garbage accumulates faster than one container can process it, prepare two or even three trash cans. As one fills, move on to the next, allowing the full one to decompose over the winter. Decomposition will take place if the can is left alone; however, some turning with a garden fork or three-tined cultivator might speed up the process and cut down on odor. If the compost receptacle has a locking lid, it may be possible to gently roll it like a snowball. Just warn the kids that the lid could pop off and liquid may seep out of the air holes. By mid- or late summer, the first can of compost should be ready to use in the garden. Or the contents can be moved to a larger outdoor pile.

Certain ingredients lend themselves more successfully to composting. Most composters collect produce waste, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea bags, grass clippings, leaves, pine needles and cones, hay and straw, brewery wastes, and rotted manure. Some add fireplace ashes, while others warn against them. (Wood ash increases the already-high pH of soils in the Rocky Mountain region, inhibiting microorganism activity and limiting nutrient uptake by certain plants.) Never add bones, meat scraps, or oily or greasy materials, as they break down slowly and may attract vermin or domestic critters. Also avoid weeds containing seeds and any pet feces, which may carry disease organisms. Most effectively, layer the green, or nitrogen ingredients, alternately with the brown, or carbon ingredients, starting with brown. The carbon (brown) portion consists of dry leaves, straw, shredded paper, and sawdust, ingredients typically brown, yellow, dry, coarse, and bulky. The nitrogen (green) addition includes grass clippings, kitchen scraps, and manure, materials that are green, succulent, gooey, and dense.

Since carbon ingredients may not be readily available deeper into the winter, store leaves or other dried compostable debris. Local farmers will always be a source of straw. A handy paper shredder can recycle some of that carbon-packed unwanted mail, especially as it accumulates during the holiday season. Rodale’s Book of Composting even suggests that a limited amount of shredded glossy paper can be added. The heavy metal from dyes seems negligible if incorporated with mostly undyed paper or newsprint. Newspaper is a great source of cellulose, but it must be shredded or torn into small pieces, as large sections of newsprint mat down and do not decompose easily. Adding a concentrated source of nitrogen, such as manure or a purchased compost activator, will hasten decomposition.

Compost must remain moist, but not sopping. Gardening books suggest wetness to the degree of a moist sponge. One way to regulate moisture, if the compost isn’t frozen altogether, is to monitor the ratio of carbon to nitrogen. The microbial decomposers that move in use carbon as a source of energy and nitrogen for protein, producing carbon dioxide, water vapor, and heat. The heat raises the temperature of the organic materials.
 

Naturally occurring microorganisms, like bacteria, fungi (yeasts and molds), and actinomycetes (a branching type of bacteria), are the primary decomposers, which function at ambient air temperatures of about fifty degrees and produce enough heat to raise the temperature to 155 degrees. As the compost matures, temperatures drop and secondary (macroscopic) decomposers, like earthworms, move in.