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Weather
Having Impact on Rural Family's Composting Efforts
By Darci
Clark – For the Sun
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With
summer on the wane and school just around the corner, it’s
time for the fifth installment of our friendly eco-challenge
– Compost Quest. Last month
we saw both city and farm families begin developing their own
backyard composting style. Our latest ‘compostoon’
sketches give us a peek at what will now be happening inside
the different compost bins. The approaching change in seasons
highlights unique experiences for each family that in turn illustrate
some of the differing norms of urban and rural life.
For readers just joining us, Compost Quest
is our light-hearted local version of Enviro-Survivor where
we check in each month with two Westman families – one
urban and one rural – as they learn how to fit backyard
composting into already busy lives. The idea grew out of a larger
community action project called “Composting 101”
which promotes the economic and environmental benefits of backyard
composting by showing how the average household can make simple
changes of habit that will help conserve our scarce landfill
space. In addition to significant tax savings and reduced pollution
generated to haul and treat our ever-increasing waste, backyard
composting produces a nutrient-rich organic product called humus
that naturally boosts the health of soil and plants. Best of
all, backyard composting can put us back in touch with our pioneer
roots by creating a valuable earthy product that is safe, free
and uniquely our own!
A delayed spring and weather extremes this summer have impacted
our farm site much more than our city composters. Our rural
family planned to rely on grass clippings and barn manure to
get things cooking in their compost pile. Extended dry conditions
required much less frequent mowing and the family wisely decided
to leave the smaller volumes of grass clippings on the yard
for natural cycling and protective cover. The active reality
of farm life also proved that it was not convenient to divert
small amounts of barn material that was more efficiently recycled
in large volumes on the fields. Moisture has not been a problem,
despite the recent wet spell, as their recycled-pallet bin location
is well sheltered with just enough rain access to avoid hand
watering of the pile.
Although pleased to have it reinforced that, like most working
farm families, they were already doing a lot of natural composting
and recycling through established farm practices, our rural
family’s compost pile has progressed more slowly than
anticipated. Daughter N creatively replaced the expected small
volumes of barn manure with regular cage cleanings from their
pet rabbit and Mom has boosted the green nitrogen material with
the addition of smaller yard trimmings like dead flowers and
plant prunings. Upcoming fall yard work may see them play some
catch up, but, for now, the family is content to know that they
are still steadily building a compost pile that will benefit
Mom’s flowers and that they return their organic waste
to the earth in many other traditional ways.
On the city front, our urban family’s nine-year-old ‘Compost
Boss’ reports that they have really settled into a regular
routine and that he doesn’t have to do any more reminding
about adding all their ‘good’ kitchen waste and
most of their grass clippings to the bin. Before I could ask
what else they were doing, T assured me that they still remembered
that meat and milk stuff (dairy products) were no-no’s
and that he makes sure they add some of their store of dry stuff
(old leaves and a handful or two of garden soil) each time as
well. T was proud that they have experimented a bit this month
by adding some ashes (to neutralize acidic materials like orange
peels) from a recent campfire and that they threw in the crumbly
wood chips and moss found under a shed they recently moved.
Our urban family remembered that wood chips could be an excellent
source of brown carbon material as long as the source is not
chemically treated. Moisture has been naturally sufficient in
the bin and regular pokes with a rake handle keeps things well
aerated.
Son T thought it was pretty cool to see some corn getting ‘really
rotten’ when he added his watermelon rind the other day
and his enthusiasm serves as a great ambassador for urban-scale
backyard composting. Our city bunch have learned that balance
and proportion are key to producing compost in an enclosed commercial
bin (thanks again to Canadian Tire) without concerns like odor
or pests and are showing increasing confidence in their own
style of composting.
Stay tuned next month as we continue sharing the eco-experiences
of both families as they demonstrate that composting can be
done on any scale, at any speed and in many forms, with the
important value being to reduce, reuse and recycle our waste
wherever possible.
For more information on all types of composting, or copies of
previous articles, call us at 725-9234 or 727-5675. Composting
101 provides presentations, demonstration workshops
and educational material to help make backyard composting second
nature.
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