Permaculture Gardening on a Shoestring Budget

Chapter 4: Man's Compost versus Nature's Compost

         Compost bins, one of the most common ways to create fresh organic compost for the soil. How do you create compost in a compost bin? Simple, get a schematic and create a bin that is strong enough to hold all odors from rotting foods and grass clippings. There are a variable of food scraps that take either a little bit of time or a lot of time. While they will give you a good product in the end, it can take up to 6 months for the materials to break down. This means you need to start putting in the scraps for the composting process as early as late September or early October. Once the compost bin is full, then you have to figure out where to find earthworms to break down the material.

         I'm not saying compost bins are bad in general but it just takes a long time to create quality compost. Is there an easier way to create compost? If you want to take the man approach to composting, there is something called "Compost tea." What is compost tea? It is a combination of compost material, mixed with water, fermented, and filtered. An air stone is used to provide the "compost tea" with oxygen to benefit the bacteria. I will provide an internet link in the citations so you can see for yourself.

         Due to the amount of work it takes to produce "compost tea," the liquefied compost will cost you money if you choose to purchase. I'm not saying that the compost will not work. I believe "compost tea" is the best compost out there, but it's very pricey and you run the risk to having to increase the price of your crops before going to the market to sell.

         Another form of compost that man makes are from animal manure. Most people will let manure sit for a while and break down. While that is common sense that you let animal manure sit for a while, there are ways to speed up the composting process. One of the ways to do this is shred leaves and gather the animal manure. Chipped up wood might help. But the best way to speed up the manure compost is to use wood shavings. Why? Because wood shavings are the smallest wood particles. Those wood particles send out a message to the worms to come up and break down the materials.

         Usually animal manure takes 8 months to 1 year, but the results of decomposed manure with wood shavings means that the compost will provide the soil with quality nutrients. Once a year for a couple of years, put some compost in the garden. One of the rules about accessing manure compost is to screen the compost so you can evenly spread the compost in the garden with a rake. After those first couple of years, the soil will be rich enough to sustain itself.

         Here's how can you sustain a garden for many years to come. Once a year for three years, if you need compost, get some compost. After the first three years, you can get compost once every two years. After four years, you won't need to compost constantly because as long as you provide variables to protect your garden, compost could become a rarity as you get older. The purpose of compost is to replenish and protect the soil. When the soil is nutrient dense after a while, the soil is sustained, thus you do not need a lot of compost as you get older.

         What is the most economical man made compost? Well, it depends on your level of patience. If you go to a dirt center to access compost, that could be your best option. Compost tea is perhaps the most expensive compost to access. If you want to compost food scraps, grass clippings, and other natural materials in a compost bin, it will take tremendous time. Making compost is not easy compared to the natural composting method. Manure composting may be expensive as well. If there is a horse farm around your area, contact the horse farmer and ask if they sell horse manure. Ask if the horse manure was covered with wood shavings. If the manure is covered and broken down with wood shavings, ask what the price is for a truck load (not dump truck, but standard) of manure. I personally believe that if you need compost before planting season, go to your local dirt place and ask for compost. It is not cheap, but it could be less expensive than horse manure or "compost tea."