10/29/07 Composting

Composting. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Each year, gardeners spend a lot of money on fertilizers to make their flowers and vegetables grow. But there is a way to get some of the best natural fertilizer for free. It's called composting and according to Gail Everett, Environmental Education Coordinator in Richland, Washington it really is easier to do than you might think. EVERETT: It's easy, because if it's too hard nobody's going to do it so it's actually very easy and you are actually taking your trash  your organic material  things that nature has made and you just throw them outside in a pile and you don't worry about them until the spring. And when the spring does arrive, you've got an actual finished product. My grandfather had a large compost pile that he had behind a shed. Besides the scraps from the kitchen he added leaves and grass clippings. And the end result? EVERETT: The product is a broken down, I'll say dirt of all those nutrients and so it's like super rich vitamins that you are giving to your plants by composting that can be tilled back into the soil in your garden. It can also be taken and put a shovel full next to the roots of your plants. Of course a lot of people imagine a big pile of rotting, stinking stuff. Done right, Everett says there is hardly any odor. EVERETT: Pretty much you let nature take it's place and what nature does it used heat and warm sunshine although not a whole lot when it comes into the winter months, air, moisture from the air or rainfall, the moisture from the rotting products and then natural insects and bacteria. They work together and they totally start working down and breaking down your items, your grass clippings, your leaves and your kitchen waste. Everything from eggshells and potato, apple and banana peels to the green fuzzy stuff you find in the back of your refrigerator can be added to the pile. There are a number of units available for purchase but Everett says they are not necessary. EVERETT: You do not have to have a composting unit to compost. In fact if you don't have one your material will break down quicker because it's going to be exposed to more of the natural elements. The composting unit just makes it tidy and everybody seems to be into tidiness. It also keeps it together if you have animals that might rummage through it like a dog. Tomorrow, more on getting your composting pile started. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.