My compost heap January 2014
In January 2014, I wrote a blog post “Go Green with Composting” . I still have my compost heap, under a mango tree. Since I wrote that post it has
digested more than 5,200 banana skins, and thousands of leaves in addition to
the peelings of many breadfruits, yams, irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, mangoes
and pineapples. My method of composting remains the same - layering wet organic waste, which provides
moisture and nitrogen, with dry leaves which allow oxygen to permeate the pile. What
I hadn’t mentioned in that post was the need to turn the pile every 2 months or
so. Using a garden fork, I lift the layers and put them, with the most recent
addition at the bottom and the lower layers at the top, in a second pile. This second
pile is left undisturbed while the first one becomes the active pile again.
Turning the pile speeds up the composting process by ensuring adequate aeration.
After another 2 months, if the second pile hasn’t broken down completely, what
is left can be put on a third pile.
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| My compost heap a few days ago |
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| After turning, the pile is now on the right, leaving the space on the left for a new pile. |
In about 6 months, the compost can be sifted to remove
pieces of stick, ackee seeds, mango stones and such like, and mixed with soil
in pots or garden beds for growing whatever you want. Where I live, the ground
is rocky without much soil, and we have so many trees we can’t grow much else
in the yard.
Another fact about composting I hadn’t known when I wrote
the previous blog, was the importance of the carbon to nitrogen ratio. As
stated by the Cornell Waste Management Institute, the ideal C/N ratio for composting is
generally considered to be around 30:1, or 30 parts carbon for each part
nitrogen by weight. Why 30:1? At lower ratios, nitrogen will be supplied in
excess and will be lost as ammonia gas, causing undesirable odors. Higher
ratios mean that there is not sufficient nitrogen for optimal growth of the
microbial populations.
So, a pile of dry leaves will take a
long time to break down. However, if it’s mixed with some green stuff, like
grass cuttings, and kept moist it will break down more quickly. If the compost
pile is too dry, you can water it, (with water from laundry or washing up.)
Composting provides a viable alternative
to burning garden waste, a practice which is detrimental to health because
smoke contains many harmful chemicals, including benzene, which cause
respiratory illnesses including cancers. If more households were to compost
their kitchen waste such as banana skins and vegetable peelings, there would be
less to be collected by garbage trucks, freeing them to pick up more of other
types of garbage.
If you have a yard with even one tree,
and you don’t have a compost heap, start one today. It's best to put it in a shady spot, for example under a tree. If you have a compost heap,
try to persuade your friends and neighbours to start their own.
My compost bucket lives in a cupboard under the sink.
I put the contents on the compost heap twice a week.
