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Tomato Invasion Newsletter #5
The type of composting that works best when you live in town on a small or normal sized lot must be adapted for your circumstances. If you live on a farm or have a very large area devoted to your garden and your compost pile, then you have a lot more options available to you.
When you live on a quarter acre or smaller, efficient use of space becomes paramount. Through the years I’ve adapted and improved my methods specifically for backyard gardening. Not only that, my garden has typically been confined to a few small beds along with other more traditional planting beds most people would plant flowers or small shrubs in.
We love the fresh produce straight out of the garden. However we also have three dogs that need space to play and our current house has a swimming pool as well. So my garden shares the yard, it doesn’t take up the whole place.
So when it comes time to collect enough material to build a new compost pile, I’ve learned to plan ahead and make good use of all the plant material my yard provides.
Plan your composting year
Why would you need to plan your composting year? Because when you garden in town and don’t have a great deal of material to work with much of the year, you need to plan ahead.
I typically build two compost piles a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Depending on my compost needs I’ll add another one into the mix, usually in the fall.
Build a pile in the fall for your spring planting
The easiest time to get plenty of free compost material is the fall. Our town has lots of trees and piles of leaves appear everywhere in the fall. The city comes around once a week and collects them.
As long as you get there first, they’re free for the taking. In years past, I’ve taken whole pickup truck loads of leaves in front of houses of complete strangers and never once has anyone stop me or even asked why I want the leaves. They obviously don’t know how valuable their leaves are or they would use them to build their own compost pile.
My own tree in the front yard supplies enough leaves for about half a compost pile in the fall. Unfortunately the second tree is a eucalyptus and the leaves aren’t appropriate to compost. Not only that, eucalyptus leaves fall in small amounts all year round instead of all at once like a typical deciduous tree.
No eucalyptus or walnut leaves please!
Eucalyptus contains oils not compatible with most plants. Walnut leaves are another type you don’t want in your pile. Walnut leaves contain juglone and are toxic to many types of plants although some plants don’t seem to have any problem growing under or near walnut trees.
There’s a good article found here, http://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/430/430-021/430-021.html from the Virginia Cooperative Extension including information on plants that tolerate juglone as well as plants that can be stunted or even killed by it.
I also prune my shiny xylosma bushes in the fall and shred the branches with the leaves still attached. This gives me quite a bit of green material to add to the pile along with the fallen leaves.
The fall pile is now built. And the compost should be ready to use in the spring.
Build a spring pile for your winter garden
Because I live in California in zone 8, I grow a winter garden. My wife likes the winter garden better than the summer garden. It’s easier to take care of and we grow lots of fun stuff like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, onions, and my favorite, brussels sprouts.
So in the spring, I’m planning for the late summer/fall planting season. For that, I need compost.
So I prune my xylosma again, collect the leaves that have accumulated underneath, and prune the potato bush. I get enough material from three xylosma and one potato bush to build a decent sized compost pile twice a year. That along with the leaves they drop through the year along with a large arbor covered with star jasmine that also gets pruned twice a year, I get a great deal of compost material from my own yard.
As I rotate flowers through the planting beds I compost the ones I’ve pulled out as well.
As you can see, a few mature bushes can really give you almost all the compost material you need.
In mid-winter, at least what we call mid-winter, which is late December or early January, I trim the trees and the grapes. I shred all this material too, layering it into the fall pile as I turn it. Winter is a good time for me to add grass clippings into the pile too.
In the summer, my lawn has bermuda, crab grass, weeds, and all kinds of undesirable elements I don’t like to put in my compost pile. My lawn was already in this condition when we bought the house and I haven’t applied much effort to fix it. I’m not interested in re-sodding the yard so we live with it for now.
But in the winter, the only grass that grows is the dwarf tall fescue which is a perfect addition to the compost pile. High in nitrogen, no seeds, and decomposes quickly too.
Build another pile if you need it
Because I have a three-bin compost system in my backyard, I can have two piles going at once if I really need it. If you really need more compost then go ahead and build another pile.
Here’s where getting creative may not be enough. You may need to buy some material to build your pile if you don’t have access to enough free materials from friends and neighbors.
Quick and dirty way to build a compost pile for around $10
Typically, I don’t like to pay for compost material and I don’t usually recommend it either. However, if you just plain run out of options, there is a cheap and reliable way to get enough material to build a pile.
Locate your local feed store and buy a bale of hay and a bale of straw. Around here, hay is alfalfa and a good source of green material high in nitrogen. Straw is a good brown or carbon material. I would recommend shredding the straw somewhat as it can be a little too coarse for easy decomposition in the pile.
Hay usually costs $8 to $15 a bale, and straw is typically less. So for around $10 to $20 you can build a nice compost pile. I would recommend only using about half the bale of hay or your pile may have too much nitrogen and get out of balance.
Go to Starbucks and fill’er up
What? You read right. Go down to your local Starbucks or other local coffee vendor and ask for the spent coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen and break down fast in your pile. Other restaurants may be willing to save their vegetable scraps for you, but you better be ready, because they may give you so much material, you can’t utilize it all.
Good planning means compost available when you need it
By planning your composting activities for the whole year, you should be more than able to take care of all your compost needs. You really don’t need to write it down on the calendar, just remember to build a pile when the leaves fall in the autumn, and another one in the spring. Simple and effective.
You may have to adapt to a colder climate than I do so you will need to adjust the timing to suit your area. As a last resort, you can probably find organic compost at your local nursery. The nursery I go to carries it. I’ve used it in the past when planting shrubs and trees. I probably wouldn’t use it in my food garden though. I’m not a trusting soul when it comes to “organic” compost. I like to make my own.
This system helps me adapt to a small yard without having to resort to buying materials for my own composting needs.