MAKING A DIFFERENCE Composting Workshops : A Gift to the Earth
Why compost? “We’re all fed by the Earth, and composting is a direct way of putting back into the Earth the things that keep it healthy and alive”--that’s the explanation of Roland Silva, master composter and public education spokesman for Los Angeles’ Solid Resources Recycling and Planning Division. What better way to celebrate Earth Day, today, than by beginning a compost pile? A less lyrical view is that 1989 state law requires cities to reduce their landfill trash by 50% by Jan. 1, 2000.
More than 20% of the waste that Angelenos send to landfills each year is readily compostable material such as leaves, grass clippings and vegetable matter. The city launched workshops in 1992 to help residents keep these nutrient-rich trimmings and waste from landfills while conditioning the soil in their back yards. A compost pile is forgiving. Says Silva, “You can baby the pile and visit it every day, you can work it once a week or once a month or you can forget about it except from season to season and you’ll still end up with compost.”
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Getting Started
Select a Site
Pick an inconspicuous yard area that receives roughly equal amounts of sunlight and shade during the day.
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Decide on a system
* Pile--Materials heaped directly on the ground and covered with a tarp or straw
* Commercially made bin--prices range from $12 to more than $150
* Homemade Bin--Old plastic trash can with drilled air holes, a wooden bin built from used lumber or a wire bin made from fencing
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Gather and mix materials
Recipe, right, adapted from “Backyard Composting” (Harmonious Press, Ojai) *
C: CLASSIC LAYERED HOT COMPOST
Compost is an aged mixture of “brown” materials rich in carbon such as dry leaves and straw and “green” materials rich in nitrogen such as grass clippings and manure (though not pet wastes, because they can contain organisms harmful to humans).
Ingredients
three parts dry leaves
one part garden waste (leaves, twigs, spent flowers)
one part fresh grass clippings
one part food scraps (vegetable matter only)
water
optional:
no more than 1/2 shovelful each of garden soil, finished compost, bone meal and blood meal
one shovelful of fireplace wood ashes
a sprinkling of cayenne pepper
* Gather and store materials separately until enough is accumulated for a stack at least four feet high.
* Place a base of leaves 3 to 6 inches deep on the ground. Add equal layer of weeds, clippings and food scraps. Other amendments can go in with these layers. Keep kitchen scraps towards the center of the layer. Alternate until all materials are used. Sprinkle enough water over each layer to moisten materials and cayenne pepper around the pile to discourage rodents.
* Let materials decompose and generate heat to at least 120 degrees. Hot compost won’t ignite, although it can reach temperatures between 140 and 160 degrees.
* Aerate compost, speed decomposition and prevent matting of layers by turning at least once a week. Keep pile moist until volume reduces by 1/3 to 1/2. Spread finished compost, called humus, on gardens plants, trees and lawns as a soil conditioner.
TO GET INVOLVED
Call (800) 773-2489 for Los Angeles composting classes; (800) 552-5218 for county-sponsored classes.
Researched by CATHERINE GOTTLIEB / Los Angeles Times
