What the world needs now

What the World Needs Now? Compost, Sweet Compost

Compost is decomposed organic matter from plant or animal sources.  It’s the stuff of magic, both loosening the soil and increasing drainage while simultaneously increasing water retention.  It feeds micro-organisms – those billions of fungi, bacteria, and unknown critters found in each teaspoon of soil – as well as provides nutrients to plants.  Most soils are severely deficient in organic matter.  While Dionne Warwick reminded us the world needs love, sweet love, more organic matter wouldn’t hurt, either.

How can you find good compost?  Unfortunately, there are no mandatory standards in place to help us.  Bagged materials may be labeled as cow manure or yard waste (dead leaves, lawn clippings, etc.), but indicating the parent material on the label is not required.  Often, packaged composts contain human biosolids – a nice way to say sludge – from a waste treatment plant.  While most of these products are probably okay for landscape use (excluding food crops), with so little information, their use is a crap shoot.

I like local sources of compost.  Take a trip to the pile and have a gander and sniff before requesting five yards be dumped in your driveway.  Compost should be largely free of debris, including trash, glass, rocks, twigs, wood chips and plastic.  It should have a dark brown color with a pleasant, earthy aroma.  If it’s too stinky, it either isn’t finished (and may harm your plants) or something has gone terribly wrong.  For some reason, many folks believe that compost is acidic and requires lime, while in reality most finished compost is near neutral and requires no adjustment.  And the poop on parent material is that if it is still identifiable, the compost isn’t properly aged.  Horse muffins or cow pies are fine, they just need more time to mellow. 

The best compost, like the best spaghetti sauce, is made at home, and the two share some similarities.  To the compost pile you can add the things at hand:  dead leaves, grass clippings, weeds (those without seeds), various trimmings, vegetable scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds.  Keep out meat, bones, grease and pet doo due to concerns with attracting pests and promoting diseases.  The pile should be roughly 3 feet tall, high and wide, although you can go up to five feet.  Put it somewhere secluded and give it time, as most home compost piles are cold and take years to decompose.  Eventually, you’ll find “black gold” at the bottom, ready-to-use.  Don’t ask for my gravy recipe – I compost much better than cook.   

David Chinery is the Senior Resource Educator for Horticulture & Turf Management for Rensselaer County Cooperative Extension.