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Hill Gardner - Martha Huizenga
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This is a green story told by Capitol Hill’s growing legend of urban gardeners. It is a circular tale where the beginning meets the end and starts a new beginning. It features a simple process of taking organic scraps and waste and turning them back into a nutrient rich product that enhances the soil in our gardens. Composting is doing something positive for the planet.
Compost is an organic product resulting from a controlled decomposition of organic scraps. It is important to note that it is not soil or fertilizer. Compost is a very nutrient rich product that improves soils in three ways: 1) structurally it helps improve the clay soils like we have on Capitol Hill by making the soil more porous and creating a better plant root environment; 2) nutritionally it supplies a slow-release of nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium; and 3) biologically it encourages many organisms to thrive such as bacteria, fungi, red worms, beetles and many other microorganisms. Microorganisms maintain the correct mixture of gases in the air we breath.
Compost is known as “black gold” and has long been considered a gardener’s best friend. Many different factors contribute to the process, but heat is an essential factor in helping to break down the elements. Therefore, it is hard to put an exact time estimate on how long the process takes, but for the home compost pile in a hot summer period it would probably take 2-3 months to go from waste to riches. And the compost pile slowly works it way to completion through autumn and winter, so that it is ready for planting time in the spring. There really isn’t too much of a good thing as far using compost in your pots or spreading in your gardens. It isn’t a substitute for soil, but more the magic ingredient to make your soil productive.
Taking the Plunge
Steve Sweeney and his wife, Mandy, live across from Hine School with their three young children. Martha Huizenga and husband, Matt, run their Internet business from their home off of Lincoln Park. Both families are part of the new generation of Capitol Hill residents who are seeking a green urban lifestyle. Like all of us, they recycle their paper, plastics, and glass but are concerned that there is more that we could be doing with other waste to lessen the carbon footprint on the Hill.
For Martha, composting is a way to live a little more simply and be more aware of her impact on the environmnet. She is at the beginning of her composting experience and hasn’t yet gone full cycle. Steve, on the other hand, has advanced to a more sophisticated composter and he is enjoying the fruits of his labor. Both are interested is getting more people involved in the process and encouraging a citywide composting effort. “It is the logical next step after recycling for the city to set up a composting system citywide,” says Steve. Using compost at the city level can hold down costs for the community, and cut the amount of chemical fertilizers to a minimum. Cities across the country and Canada are turning to this environmental practice.
Steve confesses that his composting experience has been one of trial and error, yet one that has helped him learn more about the cycle of life. There are two kinds of waste products that are at the center of the process -- yard and garden residues like leaves, grass clippings, chopped tree and shrub prunings and kitchen scraps such as fruit and vegetable trimmings, coffee grounds and egg shells. To end up with a black rich compost product that will be used to supplement the soil that grows your vegetables and fruits, it is important to follow some basic rules. Steve laughs about some of the early or lazy short cuts he has tried and says he “always pays the price.” “It isn’t a huge commitment of effort,” Steve says, “but you do need to keep on top of the scraps.”
Following the Rules
Hill’s Kitchen, at 713 D Street, SE, right on the Eastern Market metro plaza, sells several varieties of counter compost buckets where kitchen scraps can be gathered while cooking or after meals. Steve and Mandy liked the old-fashioned white enamel look harkening back to days gone by. Martha has gone with the sleeker silver model. The bucket takes up little room on the kitchen counter and comes with the essential lid.
“Rule number one,” Sweeny emphasizes with authority,” no meat scraps, bones, grease, whole eggs or dairy products.” For one, they don’t decompose quickly. They can cause odors, and most importantly for the urban gardener, they can attract rodents.
“Breaking or cutting up the kitchen left-overs is also key,” Martha says. “If you stick the whole corncob or orange rind in there you are going to be making a lot more trips to the composter. It just doesn’t break down fast enough outside and problems can arise.” Steve remembers a summer where his whole compost pile seemed to undulate from the number of maggots trying to break down his watermelon, which he had lazily thrown in without cutting. “Really, it was a scene out of a bad movie, and the only time we have experienced any problems.”
Green experts also remind gardeners not to put in diseased plants, seeds, and dog or cat feces. Newspapers can be shredded and mixed with other materials, but you always want to be careful about toxic inks.
“Think green and brown,” says Steve, “and you have to experiment a little to figure the right mix of kitchen waste to yard waste.” It takes both kinds of organic products to accelerate the decomposition process and it is important to get the biodegradables working quickly. Steve’s compost bin that he churns with a pitchfork about every two weeks seems to have the right stuff, as he demonstrated.
Martha, on the other hand, has been struggling with her self-made bin. She built her own from instructions off the Internet site, You Grow Girl, but has found turning her mix over difficult. It doesn’t seem to be turning into black gold. Heat and air circulation are two key factors involved in the organic process. Her Rubbermaid recycled bin may need some modification to get it working.
Odors and fruit flies may be the two things that Martha and Steve acknowledge can be a showstopper for composting. Steve’s wife, Mandy, says that if you are good at taking out your kitchen gatherings you can easily manage to keep fruit flies from being a problem. Odors really don’t seem to be much of a problem for either household.
A Happy Ending
Martha is looking forward to dumping her composted material on her front flower garden knowing that she has improved the quality of the soil. Compost is especially important in helping heavy clay soils with aeration. Steve uses his compost twice a year to improve his vegetable garden and has been extremely pleased with the results. In his estimation, his cabbages and leeks could have won a prize at a state fair. He also uses his compost for his container gardening. It saves him money by not having to buy organic fertilizers. By using his vegetable waste and a little investment of time and very little money, he produces a great nutrient product for his garden. It lets him grow even better vegetables than before. It is such a happy ending.
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