Design a compost heap into the landscape

June 30, 3:38 PMBackyard Living ExaminerJane Gates

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Design a compost heap into the landscape (Photo by Jane Gates)

 In a time when “recycling” is the most popular word in the language, “composting’ should be one of the darlings of the garden. Composting is nature’s most basic building block of life. Life grows out of life and the most efficient way to keep a healthy and happy garden is to work with nature. In short, composting is a perfect form of recycling.  So, why not design a compost heap into the landscape?

Fertilizers are escalating in price along with everything else as the world demand increases. Many fertilizers have harmful chemicals that are adversely affecting the water supply and oceans. Yet nature has always grown things quite successfully with nothing more than compost. The fact that we grow many imported plants does demand we alter the local soil to accommodate the needs of those plants from other environments. But the biggest problems with most soil-growing conditions in this area are a lack of organic matter and too much clay or sand. Just look around at the lack of lush forests in this part of the world. It’s been this way for millions of years. As a result we don’t have millions of years of the organic decomposition available in soils of many other geographical areas. Even the toughest desert plant needs some organics in the soil to thrive. So you can figure that the more demanding the plant (the more overgrown its native environment) the more compost that plant will require.

Many fertilizers help balance soils that are lacking in one chemical or another. The worst problems come from human interference. If you have a spot in your garden where nothing seems to want to grow you might want to have the soil tested and see if some chemical has been spilled in the area. In most cases it is more important to provide organic amendments to the soil than it is to alter the chemical nature of your soil with fertilizing chemicals.

The good news about all this is that you can grow great plants without having to spend a lot of money on fancy fertilizers. In fact, you can actually save work and money by throwing all those non-meat (or dairy) kitchen scraps and garden clean-up clippings into a compost heap rather than pay to put it in containers to let the city haul it away. By converting organic waste into healthy good-smelling compost you copy nature and feed many tiers of life – worms, bugs and microorganisms – while creating your own soil enrichment.

If you design a compost heap into your landscape, remember that pet droppings should be used only if your pet is an herbivore. Dogs and cats have too much meat in their diets that can carry disease into the compost heap so it is not a good idea to use their waste. If you are dedicated to being ‘green’, however, you can find a ‘Doggie Doolie’ or other brand pet waste composting set-up available in pet catalogs or stores. These break down solid waste with enzymes in a confined area dug into the ground. Eventually the composted pet waste can fill up the hole, though what remains is an odorless material that looks more like damp, dark sawdust. When the pet composter is full of broken down material  deposit the ‘dog compost’ away from any child play area or edible-growing area in or outside the garden – just to be on the safe side.

Compost heaps rarely have any odor if they are kept properly aerated and turned. Design yours a little distance from your home as the materials in the pile can attract wild animal life.  But don’t locate the heap so far from the house that it would be an effort to use conveniently. Somewhere in the garden where it is easily accessible yet not too close to structures would work. You can even grow vines or other plants around it for camouflage. I have discovered most plants grow like crazy when planted around a compost heap due to the plentiful nutrients and moisture. Certain plants – like squashes – will happily grow on the edges or even the middle of a compost heap where they thrive amazingly well.  Because of the nutrients, the space around a compost heap can turn into one of the prettiest and easiest growing areas in the landscape even if you don't design it that way.

There are many styles you can use for your compost heap. You can buy one of the many already made models on the market which will save you a lot of work both in the building and the maintenance. Since some of these models come in the form of drums or some style that can be rolled, these will save you the major effort of ‘tossing’ the compost to keep it turned and aerated. Or you can build your own. If you are clever with construction you can duplicate the commercial styles offered up for sale. Or you can go with the tried and true versions. The basic design for a compost heap can be as simple as a hole dug in the ground or it can be a raised, fenced-off area.A good choice is to build a compost pile with  broken wooden palettes. You can then grow vines over the wooden ‘walls’ so no one even notices what it is. You can also divide your compost into 3 bins; one for new material, one for ‘cooking’ compost, and one with the finished product. Then you can rotate them as the finished compost bin becomes empty and is used for new, fresh material.  Consider designing the style of your compost heap so it blends in with the rest of your landscape.

The two less enticing demands of a successful compost heap are making sure it doesn’t dry out and making sure it is regularly ‘tossed’. You can set up a drip line that lies over the top of the heap or locate a sprinkler head nearby that occasionally gives the pile an extra wetting. Moisture helps the organisms do their work. If the heap dries out, it will simply stop breaking down and will stay somewhat straw-like. When it is warm and wet, the microscopic organisms join with all the little insects and worms and work the pile into a nice rich brown soil supplement.

Whoever coined the term “tossing the compost heap” must have been either a body-builder or one of those super-heroes from a cartoon series.  Digging, throwing, forking and prying the stuff in order to mix it up are more accurate. And when you do it, cover exposed arms and legs because there are little no-see-‘ems that love to bite while you're at work. Still, it’s good exercise and only needs to be done few times a year. If you are strong or have a smaller heap, you can turn yours more often. This is where a store-bought rotating barrel design really has its advantages! The more frequently a compost heap is turned, the more air is allowed to enter and the more everything gets a chance to break down evenly. This means it will ‘cook’ faster and be ready for use all the sooner.

You can ‘harvest’ your compost when it is a soft soil-like texture. It should have a deep earthy smell and harbor nothing slimy or nasty. Some folks wait until it is broken down to a fine tilth before using it. This is the most desirable form. Other people will use compost while it still has lumps and small sticks mixed in. This works particularly well if you want to use your compost as top-dressing mulch. If you want to sift your mostly-broken-down compost through a half-inch or quarter-inch sheet of wire like hardware cloth, you can use the fine pieces right away and put the larger pieces and sticks back into the heap to ‘cook’ further.

So, design your compost heap so it blends in with the rest of your landscaping -- and even adds to the growth and beauty of your garden.  Then you can enhance your landscape, recycle kitchen and garden waste into mulch for garden beds, food for vegetables, soil for flowers and save money while being ecologically smart, all by designing a compost heap into your landscape!

 For more info: 

Recycling garden waste hits the headlines

Use vines for garden design

Discouraging insects organically