Let It Rot!

In keeping with my latest tendency to comment on my current reading choices, I thought I would mention this little book by Stu Campbell, Let It Rot! The Gardener's Guide to Composting. I purchased it along with my 7 cubic foot Compost Wizard Jr., a tumbling compost barrel that I've put out in my back yard.

Compost Wizard Jr.

Perhaps I should admit at the outset that I'm not by any stretch of the definition a gardener, but set that aside for the moment. The fact is we've bought this house in a rural area; it came with a yard nicely landscaped with native plants; and in the back is a small fenced in patio and garden. The previous owners were very interested in gardening, and they built some nice beds, fenced off from the local wildlife, and left us some well fertilized soil. I don't think the renters who preceded us while the house was on the market did much in the way of gardening, nor did we after we moved in last June, but that soil beckoned, and this spring I decided to see what I could grow.

So I started with some seeds, mostly greens, most of which did not come up. I was beginning to think maybe the soil wasn't so good. Or, more likely, maybe I didn't know what I was doing. Then a friend who definitely is a gardener gave me some plants -- a few herbs and a tomato plant and a couple of peppers -- which I put in, and they have all thrived. I then added some more tomato plants, some additional herbs, and about a dozen little trees I got from the Arbor Day Foundation, and so far nearly everything is thriving. Plus, some of my kale and arugula finally came up as well, and we've already had the pleasure of eating fresh greens from my garden.

The next step on the way to composting came when I cleaned out all the leaves that had piled up under the trees and shrubs around the patio. I saw that I had the beginnings of some compost occurring naturally at the bottoms of these piles of leaves. So after I raked them out and put them out in the wilder part of the back yard, I decided to give more thought to making my own compost pile. Well, one thing led to another, and I came up with the Compost Wizard Jr. It seemed about the right scale for my small garden, and I hoped that the tumbler would be a relatively easy way to manage my compost and also keep the varmints at bay.

Realizing that I knew less about composting than I did about gardening, I took Amazon's advice and included Stu Campbell's book with my order for the Compost Wizard Jr., and I'm glad I did. Let It Rot! is a helpful and encouraging guide to composing. Campbell explains the process, and gives helpful suggestions about what to include and what to avoid, as well as how to manage your compost to get the best and most efficient results. I've started with a mixture of the leaves I gathered from the patio and yard, some weeds from the yard and garden, and so far a good amount of organic waste from our kitchen. I also threw in some compost starter to get the process going, and after only a few days my compost pile looks pretty healthy. Still, only time will tell how good the final results will turn out to be.

One benefit, however, is already noticeable. With ongoing efforts to recycle all of our paper, metal, and plastic waste, and our new regimen of composting all of our organic waste, we've reduced the amount of trash we're sending to the local landfill by a considerable amount. I'm not really a rabid environmentalist, but I don't like waste or inefficiency, and I do like the idea of recycling. Even as a child I used to ask my mother what was going to happen to all that garbage. And the first time I saw our local garbage dump, an enormous landfill outside of San Antonio, I was amazed and horrified by the scale of trash we were creating and so casually disposing of. I wondered how long before we ran out of places to put it. Sixty years later I know the answer to that question.

Of course, I could have had the garden without the compost, and that may still be the result of this little experiment, if my wife isn't pleased with the way the compost develops. Understandably, she's worried about the odor and the mess, as well as the potential for attracting pests, but so far she's been entering into the spirit of the experiment by adding all our organic waste to a very attractive stainless steel compost container I got for the kitchen counter. It's way too soon to know how this will turn out, but for the moment I'm enjoying the experiment and quite pleased both with my Compost Wizard tumbler and with the advice I've gotten from Stu Campbell, who mentions that his wife was also skeptical, but has gradually come around to his way of thinking. I suspect men just naturally have a greater tolerance for garbage than women do.