The authors Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin teach the reader how to save on work by designing gardens that have the compost bin incorporated into it.

This thought process is a task management choice venturing away from the idea of hiding compost piles in back corner alcoves, and behind garage and other out buildings set too far away from the garden; cutting off easy access to compost use.

The authors outline which plants to have near what kinds of compost since these plants benefit the most by being near too the compost process.

This Six-Way composting system is outline page after page in full detail for the reader.

The book also teaches how to arrange the piles as close together as possible, while keeping the garden looking fresh, clean, and edible.

For those who need a refresher, the authors explain what types of house matter create what kind of compost, and compost infusers to make the compost pile create the right nutrients for its own health, and the health of your plants after the period of compost application.

The book details regular compost moisture management, and nitrate balance to make sure that the beneficial bacteria are as healthy as possible.

The authors remind those of use who are resource rich, that it is not necessary to buy a spendy item. And that home made in this case does not mean poor quality. The book reminds the reader of child like creativity that can get lost in the quick access commercial world.

They continue to review how to create what they refer too as gardeners gold. This is done through the adding of diverse biodegradable nutrient infusing material for composting.

The sixth process they review is actually a full circle round to the beginning of the process. This means that they review how to determine what the soil needs to support the plant life that will produce this years fruits, vegetables, flower edibles, and greens.

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide has awesome insights on ways of learning what the experts do, so that you don’t have to spend years, even decades recreating the proverbial wheel. Rather trade that in for getting it right the first time this year with this great book.

Now that the ground is frozen here in New England, MA my plan is to recognize and write about those who have contributed to composting. If you are not new to composting with red worms (vermicomposting) you have surely heard of Mary Appelhof. Though people have been vermicomposting for who knows how long, Mary was the first to actively educate the public.

At a Stockholm conference in 1972 Mary promoted the idea that worms could eat “tons of garbage” and produce rich worm castings. Mary had a background in biology and was a high school teacher which lead her to print a brochure about basement worm bins. She printed them using an old mimeograph machine.

Mary helped organized conferences, lectures, classes and wrote books, if there was an event on composting Mary was there.

Most of us who enjoy composting with red worms have a copy of Mary’s most well known book titled “Worms Eat My Garbage” which has sold 165,000 copies so far. Mary also published “Worms Eat My Garbage Classroom Activities” pamphlets which motivated many schools to take composting to the next level and reduce school cafeteria organic waste.

Mary even has a patented worm bin she named the Worm-a-way® and had a business contract with Goodwill Industries to give out of work folks jobs making and packing bins for sale.

Mary was proud of a National Science Foundation grant she obtained to make a videomicroscopy VHS. This educational video titled, “Wormania”, shows footage of worm cocoons hatching, babies growing. You still can purchase all these great educational resources from Mary’s website.

I had emailed Mary a few years back and was going to interview her, but when I visited her site recently it was sad to find that Mary passed away on May 4, 2005. I will never get to interview the Worm Woman who I have admired over the years so much. This post is dedicated to keeping Mary alive in our thoughts. If you read her books, see her videos or discover her classroom activity pamphlets, Mary is still here teaching us today.

Mary said:

My personal mission is to change the way the world thinks about garbage. To think of it as a resource, rather than something to throw away. Worms help me to do that.

Here is a great interview by Evy McGinness (who also is no longer with us) that had the pleasure of asking Mary about her passion.