An adventure in composting...

Sunday we were very lucky to have an expert on composting come and share come valuable information with us. In essence lifting us out of the inactive compost club (basically we were piling up garden waste with nothing happening) and ushering us into the composting elite (or at least capable, in theory). Bert, with a varied resume of composting experience from a multitude of community gardens and other sources cannot be thanked enough. I have a feeling that if one was to map out all the composting done in Calgary he would have had a hand in most of it at some stage.

In all we spent an hour or so delving into the magic of bacteria and other critters recycling our organic wastes. It really is quite amazing what microorganisms can do. Here are some tidbits that I can remember (sorry I'm not one for taking notes):

• try and mix equal parts browns and greens by weight (browns are dried leaves, newspaper, paper egg cartons; greens are your grass and veggies)
• because greens are mostly water when you add them to compost the final mixture ends up being 20 parts browns to 1 part greens once everything has dried and started to mix
• if your compost is starting to smell it is probably too wet and needs to be turned, also add some browns
• if nothing is happening and you are getting pest infestation (ants, wasps, mice) your pile is probably too dry; add water and turn
• if you have a large enough compost pile and it is working properly it will cook some bad things out of the soil (like seeds from weeds); but to be sure you can put your weeds and their seeds in a sealed black garbage bag out in direct sun for 3 days (driveway works well) this will definitely cook those nasty weed seeds
• if you don't get oxygen to the microorganisms that are doing all the work by turning your compost and not over watering the process turns anaerobic and starts producing greenhouse gas bi-products, much like a landfill (best to keep it aerobic and turn your compost when it needs it
• a working compost pile will create temperatures from 30-50 degrees Celsius (I'd recommend gloves)

And of course what would a day at the garden be without a lovely picture (thanks Paul for being our photographer). Ohhhhhh...and also it rained just as we were finishing up so we didn't have a chance to implement any of our new tricks on our pile in waiting, however next weekend our compost pile will be propelled into action by all of us new compost apprentices.

Bert Einsiedel imparting compost wisdom