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On the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, 20 million citizens participated in demonstrations across the Unites States to show their support for cleaning up the environment, making it the largest demonstration in history. The same year the Environmental Protection Agency was formed and Congress passed the Clean Air & Water Act. Since then we have all been encouraged to do our part to protect our earth and all her resources. We have been cajoled with slogans such as "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" and threatened with catastrophe if we did not change our wasteful ways.

How many of us have done that? Do we reuse or recycle? How many of us compost? And why should we? Does it make a difference? More and more pessimistic reports continue to bombard us daily.

Do not despair. One of the ways by which you can make a difference is by composting. First, you will be keeping your food scraps and yard trimmings out of landfills. These materials are often called organic wastes but are more appropriately "organic resource materials." Some believe that anywhere from 20-49 percent of materials in landfills is organic and could be composted. There are over 6,000 landfills in the United States. Not all have been found to be safe and are leaking into the ground water and all produce methane gas, a cause of global warming.

Secondly, organic material is the primary means to improve your soil. Gardeners called it "Black Gold." Of course, you can buy organic material or commercially produced compost, but why not make your own using food scraps and yard trimmings?

Composting is doing what Mother Nature has always done. In nature, everything that lives, dies and then decomposes. We would be drowning in dead plant and animal life if not for decomposition. In backyard composting we attempt to make it happen faster.

There are a variety of methods and containers used in composting. All lead to compost. Compost happens. You cannot do it wrong. It will just take more or less time. A well-managed compost pile requires at least 4-9 months to form compost ready for use. Grasscycling, leaving your grass clippings on your lawn is probably the easiest method of composting. Compost can also be created by laying organic materials on the surface of the ground; there it also serves as a mulch to retain moisture and control weeds. You can always bury your organic material, on a daily basis if you wish. (Bury at least one foot deep.) Or you can use a bin made from a variety of materials such as chicken wire, wood, an old barrel or cinder blocks or just make a pile, layering the materials. You can continue to compost your food waste in the winter by burying them in your pile. Obviously no decomposition is occurring in our low temperatures, but resumes as temperatures increase.

You will need both green/wet (nitrogen) and brown/dry (carbon materials. Examples of green are food wastes, especially fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, grass clippings, green leaves, weeds, hair, blood meal, and bone meal. Brown or carbon materials include dry leaves, paper (including newspaper), cardboard, straw, sawdust, small twigs.

For backyard composting, we only use dead plant materials and food waste that comes from plants. One exception is manure from animals. But only use manure of animals that eat plants (herbivores), for examples, chicken, sheep and cows. Anything that was once alive can be composted. Do Not compost dairy products, meat, fats, pet litter, barbecue ashes, diseased plants, human wastes, or chemically treated wood.

For composting to occur organic materials need the same things that plants need: air, water and food. The organic materials are the food. The speed of composting is affected by the number of variables: the balance of food, air and water as well as temperature, surface area and volume. The pile should have 50-60 percent moisture; it should feel wet like a sponge, but not soggy. The pile should allow for air (oxygen) spaces. Smaller particles provide more surface area for microbes to eat-but if too small, they will compact and you will have too little air. It is best to have at least a 4x4x4 pile to keep the pile from drying and cooling. Each organism lives at different temperatures. Most backyard compost piles do not reach 55 degrees C which is required to kill microorganisms that cause human and plant disease. Mixing or turning to bring materials from the outside of the pile into the center will raise the temperature. The temperature increases because the mixing causes further decomposition and decomposition produces heat. Concentrating the activity in one place and balancing food, air and water, makes compost happen faster.

It is the microorganism and macroorganisms that do the work to make compost. Bacteria is the primary decomposing microorganism (an organism too small to see without a magnification). With bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes are the first-level decomposers. There are about 10 trillion of these in a square meter. Second-level decomposers (springtails, mould or fermentation mites, feather-winged beetles, protozoa and rotifers) eat the first-level decomposers. Third-level decomposers are macroorganisms and eat both first and second-level decomposers. Macroorganisms are visible, that is they can be seen without magnification. Macroorganisms include ants, millipedes, snails, slugs, fermentation mites, spiders, flies, white worms, and earthworms.

Plants could not grow without the nourishment provided by dead plants. But plants cannot access the nourishment from dead plants until they are decomposed. Compost provides a sticky substance so that soil particles clump together making room for air and water. (Ideal solid is 45 percent rock particles (sand, loam or clay), 25 percent air, 25 percent water and 5 percent organic material.) Compost helps sandy soil hold water and helps clay soil drain. Compost makes your soil easier to work. Compost helps maintain a more even temperature for plants. Compost provides a friendly environment for the beneficial biological organisms needed for healthy plants. Finished compost has a sweet, earthy smell. Compost particles are dark and crumbly; you cannot identify the original organic material in finished compost.

To learn more, register for the Composting and Soil Improvement class Monday, April 14 at the North Branch Senior Center. This class is part of the Master Gardener Spring Series. Call 651-213-5430 to register.

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