Compost is gardener's 'black gold'

Good dirt is something I lust over — not diamonds, not frills — just good dirt. The gardener in me slows down when I pass open fields and home gardens while driving local roads, straining to see how black the dirt is and what's in bloom.

Seeing as Earth Day was Wednesday, I am still in the environmental mood, celebrating the gorgeous flowering trees and blossoms in this beautiful Hudson Valley of ours.
To celebrate Earth Day, and the beginning of another gardening season, I thought I'd share the results of the first season of my homemade compost bin. (Thanks to brother John and Michael for making this great specimen!)

Composting is something we can all do on one level or another. A backyard compost heap helps reduce waste and enriches everything that grows.
No matter where we lived over the many years we've been together, M and I always had a compost pile going, but it was not until M got a bag for the riding mower to catch grass clippings that we really started to crank out "black gold."
I have been carting wheelbarrow loads of this rich result into the garden and flower beds over the past few weeks.

Compost works well when you have large bins into which you can toss vegetable scraps, leaves and grass clippings. You can also use wire cages. There is a science to this, but we found a large amount of leaves and smaller amounts of grass clippings really work to help the scraps decompose and turn into compost. Water is also needed, but we tend to leave that to Mother Nature. Add a little muscle (you have to turn the piles), and voila! — you've got a mother lode of organic matter to recycle into the garden and start the process all over again.

There are plenty of plans out there for compost bins on the Internet, and you can always check in with your local cooperative extension for more information.

Michael and my brother, John, prepare the lumber for the compost bin last September. All those fallen leaves ended up in the compost heap.

When we first moved into our home nearly nine years ago, one of the first projects was to till the backyard for a garden. We could not believe our eyes when the tiller ran through the first time — there literally was no soil — just a lot of slate and dust.

That did not deter the gardeners in us, so we carted in compost and mulch from local recycling centers and farms and built the dirt up over the years. Raised beds helped a lot, too, along with the many bags of topsoil I purchased.
Now the garden and flower beds are happy, enriched with the compost that is the result of our efforts.

Composting is a good feeling, just like growing a garden and knowing the source of your food. That old saying, "you are what you eat," also applies to the compost heap — "what you toss, is what you get."

Think about what you eat and what you throw away. Recycle and reuse as much as you can. Why fill paper bags with leaves for the highway department to cart away — use them to start your own compost pile. Small efforts can go a long way in helping repair our precious planet and giving you the satisfaction of growing food for your family.

It might sound like a cliche, but seriously, make Earth Day every day of the year.

Happy composting!

Carlos the Cat was the first one to test out the view from the top of the compost bins.

When Giacomo the Copycat hopped up, Carlos got disgusted and left the perch.

Vegetable scraps mingle with the leaves and start their decomposing dance.

The compost in the fourth bin is ready to use this spring.

Compost bins are also good for "volunteers," seeds that pop up with no effort. Pictured above is a kale plant that emerged this week. I'm always amazed when the volunteer tomato plants erupt in the compost; they seem to catch up in no time to the ones I have nurtured from seed indoors and lovingly transplanted and babied in the garden. Same for squash — some of the more vigorous pumpkins and gourds have come from the side of the compost heap.


The cycle continues as the compost is mixed into the garden beds (you can just make out the green shoots of onions and shallots popping through the ground). Plants grow, become dinner, scraps are tossed back into the compost pile and on it goes.

This weekend is going to be a hot one in the valley, so it's probably wise to do your gardening in the morning before the heat of the afternoon sets in. That's my plan for now.

Have a wonderful weekend working in the dirt!