the master composter has spoken

auntie k reports that she is dumping her kitchen scraps in a pile in her backyard and wonders whether worms will crawl in to have a feast and make compost. the answer? um, no, not really. i mean, they might wiggle up into the pile and eat some food, but more likely the pile, if not covered with a layer of dirt or leaves or something, will become home to maggots and other creepy crawly things you don't want in your backyard. that is, IF the pile is ONLY food scraps and no leaves or grass, etc. if it does have those materials then the compost pile should be getting too hot inside to host worms.

but what is shley doing with worms in her kitchen, and why isn't she growing flies?

let's have a compsot lesson to find the answer.

there are two different compost systems that are going on in shleydom: one, the compost pile compost, and two: vermicompost. in the first you rely on microbes and nematodes and roly polys and such to break down the material. in this case, you will ideally have a pile the size of a cubic yard, and it will be comprised mostly of BROWNs and GREENs. browns are carbon-rich materials, think OLDER material, like autumn leaves, perennial prunings, thatch from your yard (the dried-up grass from winter or drought), and such. greens are younger and 'greener'- grass clippings that have dried for a day or two, weeds that have also dried out and are without mature seed heads, alfalfa, straw, and food scraps. when you designate a site for your pile you scratch around in the ground below to make it easy for the dirt creatures to crawl up into the stuff you're going to put there, then you put stuff there. in a 3:1 ratio of browns to greens, pile about 8 inches of material, water it with your hose and stir it up with a pitchfork. the reenactor has one of those, doesn't he? it should be the consistency of a wrung out sponge. so at this point you've got a layer of damp leaves, grass and whatever. now do the same thing on top of that layer- put browns and greens in a 3:1 ratio, water it, stir it up, feel it for sponge-like dampness, and repeat! after a lot of sweating you'll have a cubic yard of damp yard waste. it has the proper ratio of carbon and nitrogen, the proper volume and proper aeration/moisture level to be an inviting place for microbes to get in there and do their work. cover the pile with a tarp or old blanket or something and let it sit there for a week. after a week, uncover it and WHOA the thing should be steaming and hot hot hot inside. it should be about 120-140 degrees. this is great! the pile is heating up like a haystack about to spontaneously combust (but don't worry, it won't catch fire). things are breaking down inside because of the microbial activity and heat, so what you'll want to do is TURN THE PILE. get the pitchfork back out or get a mattock or whatever tool you feel like using and get all the stuff that was on the inside on the outside. mix it up!

what a load of work, huh. you can add food scraps to the pile at any point, but it's a good idea to dig a little hole at the top to place them in and then cover them up so they won't stink or attrack racoons or other varmits. keep turning every week and in a couple of months the material will have decreased in volume by at least half and will be ready to use as compost amendment. yay!

now, vermicomposting. this is ideal for apartment dwellers or people that like worms. i have a storage box in my pantry that i drilled holes in the bottom and sides of. inside i put "bedding", which is shredded newspaper and a handful of leaves i got from outside moistened to be like a wrung-out sponge. i plopped the pound of worms in there and they wriggled to underneath the bedding and made themselves at home, then i fed them my kitchen scraps. i buried the scraps below the surface for the same reason as above: to deter fruti flies and real flies and such. the box stays covered in the pantry and smells like dirt. it doesn't get hot inside like the compost pile because it's not big enough and there isn't enough nitrogenous material to activate the little microbes.

so there's a basic run-down of compost methods. hope i explained it well enough.