Inside The New York Botanical Garden

The Breakdown on Compost

Posted in Programs and Events on August 20 2008, by Plant Talk

Kate Murphy, a junior at Fordham University, and Genna Federico, a senior at St. John’s University, interned in the Communications Department this summer.

CompostingThe weekly Farmers Market not only features vendors with regionally grown produce and home-baked treats but also offers demonstrations on the first and last Wednesday of every month. We decided it would be fun to check out the demonstration on composting led by staff from our Bronx Green-Up program.

The New York City Composting Guide The NYC Composting Guide describes composting as “the process of creating the ideal conditions for the rapid decomposition of organic materials.” In other words, it’s what happens in your pile of vegetable and fruit peels, garden waste, and raked leaves after tending it in a particular way for a while.

Our first stop was the composting table at the Farmers Market, where we found lots of free information and learned that there was hands-on experience to be had if we visited the Home Gardening Center’s composting station, a short walk away. There we met a group of students from Adlai E Stevenson High School in the Bronx who are part of New York City’s GreenThumb-certified summer program.

The students were here to learn about composting so that they could use it when planting and maintaining the more than 20 vegetable beds at the Stevenson campus community garden, where the students also learn how to cook with what they grow. These students have also planted gardens at a local elementary school and have worked with a local homeowners’ organization in planting trees in nearby neighborhoods as part of the MillionTreesNYC initiative. (The Garden is involved in this initiative, too.)

Want to know more about composting for your own garden? See the tips after the jump.

Did You Know?

  • The average New York City household discards two pounds of organic waste each day. If you think there is nothing you can do about it, start thinking a little greener. Try composting yard trimmings and food scraps in your own backyard.
  • Composting is a way to create ideal conditions for the breakdown of organic materials. In other words, it’s a way to naturally recycle some of the junk you throw out. When added to soil, compost improves soil texture, helps root growth, and helps retain water and nutrients. All you need to do is set up your bin, add materials such as food scraps and water, turn the pile regularly, and wait to use it!

Here are some helpful tips to kick off your own composting endeavor:

  • Get Your “Greens” and “Browns”—“Greens” are materials that are fresher (leaves, prunings, grass), whereas “browns” are dry materials with no life in them (straw, twigs, wood chips).
  • Turn, Turn, Turn.—Keep the pile damp, but not soggy, and make sure to distribute the materials evenly. Mixing helps to speed the process while reducing odors.
  • Chop It—By breaking everything into smaller pieces, the pile will compost faster and be easier to manage.
  • Make a Mountain—Pile the compost to retain the heat and moisture to keep it going.

Comments

The Composting Chica said:

Just another thought to add to your composting tips…
You mention piling up the materials to be composted; however, creating a compost pile encourages anaerobic composting which poses a few main problems. #1, it’s slow. Anaerobic bacteria are very inefficient and it can take a compost pile several years to create good, finished compost. #2, it smells. Anaerobic microbes produce methane and sulfate gasses as a byproduct of the composting process—these are the odors that we humans find very offensive. And last but certainly not least #3, it’s not very good for the environment. Yes, you’re composting and that is good. But those smelly gasses are also greenhouse gasses that deplete our ozone. After all, things can rot anaerobically in the garbage dump just the same as they can rot in your backyard.

A better choice might be to build or buy a compost tumbler for aerobic composting, which is quick (6 weeks in good conditions), easy, and doesn’t smell. Oh, and it also doesn’t produce any harmful greenhouse gasses, either.