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September 2006 - Our first meeting

September article in The Polk Voice..

September Workshop Recap:

Here's our first mini workshop condensed -- just the basics, ma'am.

In seven words here it is: throw stuff on the ground, cover, repeat. That's it down to a science beyond art. If directions are followed exactly you will have finished black gold within two to three weeks of your last covering. Your return is well over 90%, a great improvement on other methods of composting. This is what works for me here in central Florida.

CONTAINER: For the "ground" place directly on open dirt/ground the largest container you can find that already has holes in the bottom (or make some holes) then cover the bottom of the container with a layer of dirt. The worms will enter through the holes; water will drain out the same way. In my experience a black container seems to produce compost somewhat faster than any color, but any will work. The hard sides of the container make retrieval of the finished product easier, less likely to be filled with roots of neighboring plants, which tends to happen without the use of a container.

COMPOSTING STUFF: All your kitchen scraps -- veggie and/or fruit peels and trimmings, egg shells (dried and crushed), coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, etc. Save hair from hair cuts. Try your salon or barber shop? Barefoot Gardener David haunts Starbucks for their coffee grounds, and his school lunchroom for their lunch trash. If you have access to birds, feathers are great to compost, as is their poo. The list is almost endless. So long as the stuff is carbon based. When my big dog brings me a "present" such as the body of a 'possum, it is added, covered deeply until there is no odor and no flies. But only one per compost container. I start another container when another critter is donated. After the worm factory has been at it for 2-3 weeks, I don't even find any bones. Suggested also -- the leftovers from cleaning fish, you fishermen. Just cover them WELL. I recycle my potting soil in this fashion.

Two or three days is about long enough to store your scraps before adding them to the container. Much longer and they will develop a sharp smell that seems to be offensive to the worms.

So, to reiterate, layers of DIRT -- STUFF -- DIRT repeating until container is full, or until you have a definite need for finished compost by a calendar date, just stop adding layers at least two weeks prior to this date.

If your yard is so dry you must water (like now), be sure to sprinkle your compost too. Other than that there is no more work to be done. The worms will be busily chomping away at all that good food and aerating the container out of your vision. There will be a gradual visible change, and if you just poke lightly into a spot of your compost factory, you will find worms wiggling all over the place. They are doing the work for you of turning just plain old dirt and scraps into black gold in jig time.

Save most of your weeds and yard trimmings for the other, or hot compost bin, another thing entirely. Too much green stuff heats up the container and cooks your worms or at least runs them off. The dirt and scraps are known as "browns" and do not heat up as the "greens" do, making them perfect for vermicomposting, a technical name for cold composting, thanks to Anne's article.

Hope this helps. Now get busy, recycle your scraps into black gold!

Luv, Pat

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