Composting

Ventura County has a composting program for homeowners. I bought the Garden Gourmet model several years ago. I filled it with vegetable scraps and yard clippings and coffee grounds. I never turned the content over like you are suppose to. It was full of bugs and spiders. I think I threw in some worms one winter hoping to speed the decomposing process. I moved the composter to different areas in the yard a couple of times. I didn't do it justice. I'm a lazy gardener. And really, nature does such a wonderful job with the pit composting method that I have come to think of these composting bins as 'make work' bins for the homeowner. Especially for those of us who do not have lawns to mow and hedges to trim.

This last weekend I took my Garden Gourmet to the hose, gave it a good power wash and put it up on the street with a FREE sign on it.

I went into the house to make a cup of coffee. I walked right back out with my coffee to water my baby manzanita plants and the composter was already gone. It's a beautiful thing.

For the last several months I have been pit composting. You dig a hole, dump in the kitchen / garden scraps and cover it up. It's so simple. I have been digging the holes along the wide pathways in my vegetable garden. Sometimes when I trim away the damaged leaves of the Swiss chard, I simply lay them on top of the soil, around the growing Swiss chard, thinking I'm helping to keep the soil cool and moist.

Composting is for vegetation that is exactly like nature made it. It is not for anything that has been cooked or buttered or sugared. A compost pile or pit, will attract spiders, grubs, worms, earwigs, sow bugs, lizards and who knows what micro organisms. Miraculously nature turns the waste into soil.

My classes have suggested that native plants don't like to be fertilized. So I am composting only in the vegetable garden area. So far, it's working out just fine. My ficus is dropping leaves now and I will bring to them to garden also (they are falling on the driveway - what a waste). Mulch. I plan to naturally fertilize my vegetables. I'll let you know how it works out.