Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507240125
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN ARBOGAST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Untreated grass clippings are the No. 1 energy source for home compost piles. Today's author is Deborah Moore Clark, Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener in Roanoke and member of our Backyard Compost Demonstration Site management team.
A bin is recommended for composting because it will hold the accumulated organic materials in a neat pile that approximates a 3-foot cube. Commercial bins of all shapes and sizes are available on the market. However, consumers can build a simple, yet effective, bin with little or no cost. To view several sample bins constructed of various recycled materials, visit the Backyard Compost Demonstration Site behind the Fine Arts Building at Virginia Western Community College.
Here's a simple recipe for compost:
Loosen soil in the area where the pile will be built. The area should be at least 3 feet square.
Layer "brown materials" 2 to 8 inches thick. Choices for this layer: sawdust, chipped wood-type brush, shredded newspaper, straw, dry leaves and dry hay.
Water to make the material as moist as a wrung-out sponge.
Layer "green materials" 2 to 8 inches thick, pulling material out to the corners and edges of the pile. Yard waste "green materials" include: untreated grass clippings, healthy vegetable and flower garden plants that have been pulled out and leafy prunings. Experienced composters might also add kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, chicken manure and blood or cottonseed meal. Grass clippings tend to mat together, thus limiting 2 inches of grass at a time.
Add a sprinkling of soil or finished compost to inoculate.
Repeat layers in step 2 through 5 to use yard waste on hand, but limit the pile to 4 feet in height.
Finish the pile with a brown layer and cap it off with a 2-inch layer of soil.
In order for these organic materials to become compost, use a pitchfork to turn your piles (mix the ingredients). Turning speeds the process by: reintroducing oxygen to the pile, remixes the brown and green materials, pulls outer materials in where the pile should be hotter and allows for problem identification and correction. If you want finished compost in a hurry, the key is to turn your pile often. Examples: turning a pile twice a month can result in finished compost in three months; weekly turning produces compost in one or two months; daily turning will finish it in two or three weeks.
Particle size of things put in the compost pile affects maturation time. The smaller the particles, the less time needed for decomposition.
Do not try to compost meat, bones, dairy products, greasy foods, cat, dog and human wastes, weeds, diseased or pest-infested plants, conifer needles or leaves from eucalyptus, walnut or laurel trees.
A properly maintained compost pile with the right amounts of "greens" and "browns" should heat up to at least 140 degrees.
Look for additional tips on composting, plus more on fall gardening and garden cover crops, in this Dear John series.
Q: Rose bugs are eating our apple trees and ruining the fruit on the trees. What can we do? S.C., Wytheville
A: I am not familiar with so-called "rose bugs" so I don't know what kind of damage they do. Use a commercially available general-purpose fruit spray mixture as directed on its label. This should contain a fungicide to combat diseases, which might not be relevant here, and insecticides for sucking insects, such as Malathion, and for control of chewing insects, such as Methoxychlor.
Send short questions about your lawn, garden, plants or insects to Dear John, c/o The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, 24010-2491. We need your mail, but this column can't reply to all letters. Those of wide appeal will be answered during the weeks that the subject is timely. Personal replies cannot be given. Please don't send stamps, stamped envelopes, samples or pictures.
by CNB