Hungry Gnome Gardenscapes

organic gardening and edible landscapes in Athens, GA

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Composting

There are a number of ways you can dispose of your biodegradable waste responsibly and recycle its nutrients back into the soil from which it came. Depending on the amount of waste you produce, the available space on your home site, and the amount of time you have to manage your composting system, you can find an option below that works for you. Hungry Gnome can help you create a system that fits your needs & desires and can help guide you in recycling your biodegradable waste at home.

Why Compost?

Can I do this myself?

Simply composting your kitchen scraps is a powerful ecological choice that will save much space in the landfill, reduce the amount of methane (4 times more of a potent greenhouse than CO2) that is produced in the anaerobic conditions in landfills, and reduce the amount of petroleum used to ferry our garbage from home to landfill. This will also be a valuable source of nutrients for your garden; it is not likely, however, to generate enough compost to sustain soil fertility in a vegetable garden. To meet the vegetable garden's high demand for fertility, one must either import large quantities of fossil fuel-dependent soil amendments, or a more ambitious composting program is required. This will include composting a higher volume of organic material. For suburban homeowners, an impressive amount of organic material can be obtained from lawns and trees. Every fall deciduous trees shed their leaves and lawns require persistent mowing. The general practice in our city is to shove these materials into bags and allow the city to cart them away in trucks. Transporting this material is yet another misuse of petroleum and an unfortunate misuse of fertility.

Methods for Composting:

Cold Composting (heap or bin)

A simple pile of roughly 70% fresh grass clippings and 30% brown leaves left to sit for a year can be an easy and satisfying way to create substantial compost for your garden. This fall, instead of driving to the store, purchasing bags, filling them with leaves, and dragging them to the curb, you can try instead rake them into a pile in an unobtrusive spot in your yard. As you mow your lawn in the warmer months, build your compost pile next to the leaf pile, alternating layers of grass clippings and leaves. This pile will break down to less than half it's original volume. The bottom layers will probably be ready to harvest in a few months. Whenever you need compost, you can rake off the upper, uncomposted layers, harvest the black, loamy goodness from the bottom, then rake the uncomposted material back into a pile. Or, you can let this pile sit until it is all broken down and simply start another pile next to it as you acquire more organic materials. Kitchen scraps can be added to this pile as they become available - just dig a hole in the pile, dump the scraps, and cover them back up with. Covering the kitchen scraps with the other material in the pile will prevent flies from becoming a nuisance. Other animals, such as rats, mice, raccoons, opossums, and neighborhood dogs might become a nuisance in a compost pile with kitchen scraps, and if this is a concern, some type of structure is necessary to keep away pest animals.

Pros: lowest maintenace requirements of all composting systems
Cons: does not destroy plant pathogens (diseased plant material should not be added to a cold composting system); decomposition rate slowest of all methods (3~5 months depending on ambient temperature)

Hot Composting (heap or bin)

Very similar to cold composting, but intended for a higher volume of organic material. Accumulate a batch, roughly 1 cubic yard (3ft x 3ft x 3ft) of organic material. It's important to balance the ratio of carbon (paper, dead leaves) and nitrogen (food scraps, 'green manure' i.e. fresh grass clippings or green leaves). In order to 'cook' your batch of compost, turn it once a week to introduce oxygen and allow aerobic decomposition to take place. Generally after turning your batch 3 times your compost should be fully 'cooked' and ready to use as soil. Urine is also an excellent and sterile source of nitrogen and diverse micronutrients which will help speed up the 'cooking' process.

Pros: compost 'cooks' and destroys plant pathogens (bacteria, fungi & pest insects and their eggs & larvae); fast (compost ready in approximately 3 weeks)
Cons: Turning requires time and labor

Vermiculture (Composting with Worms)

Worms are excellent decomposers and their 'castings' (worm poop) are some of the highest concentrated compost around. Creating a worm bin consists of a few easy steps, but it's important not to neglect them as it could lead to a bin of dead worms:
1. Make a bedding out of shredded paper or dead leaves. Moisten the bedding to create a damp environment for your worms.
2. Add kitchen scraps. Worm don't like large quantites of citrus or alliums (garlic & onions)
3. Add a small amount soil (garden soil) to help worms with digestion.
4. Add worms. Not just any old earthworms—red wigglers. Red wigglers are surface feeders and actually enjoy living in smaller spaces. Common earthworms (nightscrawlers) need deeper soil to thrive.
5. Cover worms, scraps, and soil with a final layer of shredded paper or dead leaves.

Pros: Worm castings and 'teas' are the highest quality compost for plant health; worm bins can be any size (3 gallon bucket~55 gallon drum) and can be conveniently located anywhere (under the sink, in your garage, or outside)

Cons: Worms are living creatures that need care and attention; decomposition can take a while (6~10 weeks depending on volume of waste and worm population)

Helpful Links:
Planet Natural article on worm composting
Mary Appelhof's WormWoman.com
Will Allen's Growing Power
Red Worm Composting

Biopod (Grub Composting)

Worms are great decomposers, and so are soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae. Fast (decomposes food scraps in 24~36 hours) & sanitary way to produce high quality compost.

Pros: Soldier flies do not spread diseases, grubs can be fed to chickens, can compliment a humanure or vermicomposting system
Cons: Expensive (approximately $200 for Biopod unit and BioGrub starter colony)

Helpful Links:
Biopod Website
SE US Biopod retailer

Humanure (Human Manure)

Most people have used an outhouses or latrines at some point in their life, but in the past century our society has switched over to city sewage systems & septic tanks. Why would we, with all our technological advances, want to return to such a brutish form of human waste disposal? Though it may sound stinky, properly managed humanure composting systems have been developed to be incredibly inexpensive, sanitary, simple, and odor-free ways to dispose of your human waste in an environmentally responsible way. Conventional human waste disposal systems, on the other hand, do not solve these problems. Home-scale septic systems are known to leak pathogens into groundwater; meanwhile city sewer lines and waste treatment centers use immense amounts of fossil fuels to remove our bodily waste from water before discharging it back into our rivers. Joseph Jenkins, author of HUMANURE HANDBOOK: A GUIDE TO COMPOSTING HUMAN MANURE, has developed and popularized a number of humanure systems we can help adapt to your home.

Pros: destroys all disease-causing pathogens; cheaper than manging septic systems; an environmentally-ethical way of recycling nutrients; a way to produce rich topsoil at home for your garden or for planting trees; can be combined with vermiculture to enrich quality of soil and speed up decomposition process
Cons: Must be managed carefully; 'cooking' compost takes between 6~12 months in order to kill all pathogens,

Helpful Links:
Free online resources on Joseph Jenkins' website, including a free download of HUMANURE HANDBOOK

Water Management:

Passive Water Management

"The cheapest place to store water is in the soil" goes the Permaculture mantra. In current times of unpredictable rainfall patterns and economic recession, it's important for us to look to low-tech ways of harvesting rain and using it efficiently. Here are a number of ways Hungry Gnome can help you recharge your soil and give it more life without hanging you out to dry.
Swales & Berms: By far the most simple water management system, swales are wide, shallow ditches dug on contour across your landscape that slow down water as it runs downhill and sinks into the ground. The displaced soil is then mounded on the backside of your swale forming a berm, where you can plant shrubs and trees. During rain the swales will sink water underground and hold it deeper in the soil where plant roots can access it long after the rains have ceased. Along with rain gardens, swales & berms can help alleviate problems with stormwater runoff and add subtle undulations to your landscape.

Helpful Links on swales & berms:
Permaculture and Sanity
More on Swales
Video on how swales work

Rain Gardens: Combine aesthetics, stormwater management, and functionability! Unlike ponds, rain gardens need plants that can survive periods of drought and flooding. Native flowering shrubs are a good start, especially those that invite pollinators to fertilize your garden or blueberry patch. Perform similarly to swales and berms by allowing water to infiltrate the soil rather than flowing off the property.
For more information, read the following presentation on rain gardens from the UGA Agriculture Extension Services

Large Ponds: Although more costly to implement, ponds reserve more water than any home-scale rain barrel or cistern could hope to achieve and deepen the complexity of your home ecosystem. Ponds serve a myriad of functions: to relax and swim, raise your own catfish or tilapia, regulate extreme temperatures, increase the beauty of your landscape, store water in case of prolonged drought, or meditate at the end of a long day. And by diversifying life in your home system with fish, amphibians, and pollinating insects, there's no need to worry about mosquitoes keeping you out of your own back yard.

Small Ponds: A small pond might not contribute to water storage, but can help bring your landscape to life by being a haven for beneficial insects and amphibians. These insect predators can help with garden pests as well as mosquito control.

Active Water Management

These systems also serve vital roles in cycling water responsibly through the home site. When we cover the ground with impervious surfaces, such as paved driveways and rooves, we prevent the earth from being able to effectively process rain as it attempts to fall from the sky to the soil where it feeds our plants (and in turn feeds us). Municipal water systems require incredibly high energy inputs to purify rain water, pressurize and transport it to our homes, and then process it yet again in the form of waste before discharging it back into our rivers. All of this work taxes the environment, our health, and our wallets excessively. Why put the burden of managing water on our land on other people? Taking steps to actively control the water that flows onto and off of our land as runoff or waste, we can attempt to mend the broken system that humans have created over the past century.

Rain Water Catchment: During the droughts of the past few years, rain barrel sales really took off. This was a great thing, but when the average American uses 90~100 gallons at home per day, and the average rain barrel only holds 55~60 gallons, is that really enough? At Hungry Gnome we want to help you envision the big picture. Cisterns from 1,000~10,000 gallons can be stored above and covered with a trellis of Kiwi or Muscadine Grape vines, and depending on the type of roof you have the captured rain water can be used for your showering, cooking, drinking, and watering your plants. With one or more of these in place you can always have a back-up supply of water to keep you and your landscape lush and happy.

Greywater: California with all of its water woes has begun taking water management to the next step by utilizing greywater at home. Greywater is any kitchen, sink, laundry, or bath/shower water, not to be confused with blackwater coming from the toilet. In municipal water systems grey and blackwater are flushed out together, generating more waste water than our treatment centers can handle. Recycling the water you use at home and putting it back into the soil can help to feed your plants and dispose of greywater responsibly.

Helpful Links on Greywater:
Greywater Mulch Pits
The Wetpark at Teknikhuset