It often is impossible to completely clean these kinds of kid made messes.

When intentional messes come up, like picking up after Legos, or tinker toys–often pre-planning is the most efficient means of clearing a messy play area quickly. One method is the draw string circular tarp method: Which involves cutting a piece or tarp that lays in a flat large diameter as the play area. When the multifaceted toy(s) are no longer of interest, the parent teaches the child to draw the string up, and the entire play area is contained in the resulting draw string tarp bag.

This method won’t work with packing peanuts. They get scattered over lawns, earthen floors of wooden areas under tree forts, in abandoned storm shelters that are now kid forts.

If a gardener digs down far enough in a neighbourhood that has been built over a pre-existing trash heap: Discarding packing material and other things surface over time in the garden.

Before biodegradable alternatives started being offered: these light weight packing peanuts were the environmental bane of every shipping and freight yard in America.

They were an environmental disaster twisting freely in the spiraling wind. Like insects they were too light weight for any maintenance crew to catch or chase down.

In the past janitorial staff and grounds keepers would have to hope they blew away, or wait until the wind died down, and hope to sweep them all up before a new gust picked them up again.

These light weight cushions often get picked up by the wind, after shipping and moved for miles.

They get swept up into trash cans, only to be knocked or nudged free by foraging animals, and exposure to the wind.

This is why anyone who uses packing peanuts to ship materials should use biodegradable packing peanuts.

These are the kind that archaeologists won’t find two thousand years from now.

They will have long decayed into natural soil and nutrient deposits: Or, been blow to the river and consumed safely by aquatic life nearly two thousand years prior to that inquiring dig.

These biodegradable packing peanuts are not only good for shipping. They make great party confetti.

They are great for dumping off the roof of a church, Masque, temple, or meeting hall on top of the heads of fleeing newly-weds. In fact these biodegradable packing peanuts are safer for birds than rice.

So, let the biodegradable packing peanuts get shipped around, then tossed by children into the wind as additional cushion in raked leaf piles, and tossed down at weddings, food fights, and town square pillow fights. Then get picked up by the beaks of birds, and dropped in water ways across America. It won’t matter; because they are environmentally safe.

The clear thing to ask ones-self is why gardens are taken out with insects and disease, yet the same plants in a forest flourish?

The simple answer it that in the forest plant, and animal material have time to fully break down into colloidal goo (hummus), and heat brewed nutrient rich tea. This has been the case for millions of years.

Plants cant drink up nutrients from compost that hasn’t fully broken down into an absorbent pudding to liquid substance.

Most compost tea brewers use liquids that have formed on the stove top, or in the oven.

Even more people these days are pureeing leftovers from the juicer, top speed up the process of decay into hummus and the tea that is brewed from the heat of the rotting material.

Many gardeners save leftovers and freeze them in the refrigerator. When they have time this vegetation consisting of grape stems; left over choke material from an artichoke dinner; egg shells from fritters, quench, brunch omelets, and baking projects are tossed into a brew pot on the stove top to add in vitamin E.

Many people don’t have the time or energy to oversee pots of tea on the stove, or jars of tea kept from curious raccoons in the sun. Still more people are dissatisfied with the even slower process of waiting months for tea to build up in significant amounts in the bottom of a compost bin that is designed to let the compost tea drip free of the still decaying material.

For this reason many people are turning to compost tea brew kits like those sold by such companies as Bountea.

Other people go and buy it by the pitcher full from plant stores.

Having a home compost tea brew kit is the shortest root to compost tea that has been professionally balanced to offer vital nutrients in the form that is most drinkable by plants.

Still a savvy gardener can look up what is in the food that they personally each, and back burner brew dinner leftovers, stem cut away material and the like to create there own home recipe. But this had been done before and many people choose to just order a brew kit and add reinvention of the wheel to there full schedule.

Like the Soilsoup brewer kits that come with a bucket, some starter and all you need to make your own tea!

Compost Tea Brewers know that nature tries to kill off unhealthy plants. Plants that cant seem to absorb the right nutrients. Anemic plants need too much watering to survive. And still they are attacked successfully by disease and insects.

For example Nasturshum from the wild have noaphid problems. In the garden most people will burn them out do to aphid related issues. In a garden where colloidal hummus and compost tea brew are used, these plants are healthy on rain water alone, and can stay back massive aphid colonies in the surrounding yards. This is a fact in the gardens, floral spaces, forests and fields of American life.

This term is a buzz term that has caught on from the study of below ground food web.

For the sake of study the below ground food web was defined separately from the observations of the above ground food web.

The soil food web is thus a term created from the study of the below ground food web.

This term is dualistically connected to below ground biofilters, or living filters in idea. However, the soil food web is a term derived from the study of how nutrition is moved around. Thatmeans that the process of information and application of it is slightly divergent from the two terms biofilter and living filter, although they relatively overlap in concept. The translation from one research perspective to the other is not exact.

Looking at this same phenomenon from the perspective of nutrients being broken down for composting and ultimately gardening, or the preservation of the environment, (for removal of ammonia in saltwater environments, the breakdown of substances by thermos bacteria into nitrates with the idea of for the benefit of one project or species study, rather than the overall view in general), is the relative or even super-relative difference between the terms soil [below ground] food web, biofilters, and living filters.

Arguably, the human stomach that isnt buried could be considered apart of the above ground food web, and a biofilter/ living filter. Its all a matter of where the subject starts and where it is going.

The soil food web talks about how nutrition is moved about in the soil.

The soil food web is a big part of the underground food web thought process, but it is only a section of the underground food web if the sub-straights were graphed on a pie chart.

At this point it is fitting to repeat that soil food web is made up of detritus, microbes, bacteria, and fungi. The most ample supply of nutrition is decaying plants and animals.
The greatest beneficiaries are the microbes, bacteria and fungi. Others are entomopathogenic nematodes, and their victims the nematodes.

It goes without assuming that if you are reading you most likely already know this.

This concept of observing the link between consumers, rather than how the byproduct reaches a particular relative state or location, has over ten thousand species, which include many types of micro-arthropods, as-well-asone billion bacteria in a gram of dirt. This fact has become common knowledge and is widely accepted.

These creatures exist in microscale environments. These vary diverse environments exist in-between soil particulate.

Over very short distances the distinction between degrees of pH, poor dimension and size variation, and moisture environments can differ immensely.

Food web diagrams best show the correlative nature of what research has been able to determine as the nutrient path through the soil food web to other under ground food webs; or crossing into the creatures of the above ground food web; its atmospheres and environments.

Much of all food webs are fueled by plant material or the photosynthesis of plants, photosynthetic bacteria, lichens, moss and algae.

Bacteria consume and process root extracts, and residue of plantae material.

Fungi utilize discarded plant fibers as-well-as humus colloids.

The soil food web is an interesting way to approach biofilters from a different end goal in the mind set of the soil food web study method.

They are most effective at 13°C (55°F). They can keep at it until the temperature reaches 20 below on the Celsius scale or zero on the Fahrenheit scale.

When researching these creatures it is important to know that some experts with useful information have formed a habit of taking a popular name for the type that do well at lower temperatures and blanketly calling all the creatures that aren’t dormant at those low temperature by the popular term.

To avoid what is surely a senior researchers pet peeve, here are the correctly defined terms:

1. Psychrotolerant and psychrotrophic is the name of a minority of organisms that live outside the rule the next two definitions set in stone. These bacteria have a different kind of physical existence. They can be referred to as mesophilic organisms.

2. Psychrotrophic bacteria are the truly cold loving bacteria whom exist at these low low temperatures.

3. The creatures that exist mainly at higher temperature but can manage to still be eeking out reproduction at low temperatures are called facultative psychrophiles and psychrophiles.

With language use the rule is always function over form. So what’s in vogue for this highly specific kind of research has to go through what linguists call “language maintenance”, shift, and death. If you gain anything from this article it will be the correct terminology so that the slang that could develop over time will make sense.

As winter sets in, it will be these bacteria hard at play like the dolphins and the bees referred to by Jacque Custo, turning the collected home refuse into useful compost. This is also reason to compost inside in the cool of the basement or garage.

Other types of activators are compost from a previous batch, alfalfa meal, bone meal, fish meal, manure, cottonseed meal, horn meal, hoof meal, and others.

The common thread between the various types of compost activator is that all boost nitrogen into the compost pile. This is the idea that you want to take from this.

Most commonly compost activator is urine, mixed with water, and liquid seaweed. People collect it rather than waste it in the sewage system.

This nitrogen rich form of waste from every part of the human body is vitamin and nutrient rich. The technical term for this activator is Household Compost Activator.

Most composters, who use this formula, collect and mix the activator in doors. Pour it into a watering canister. Then they take it to the compost pile to be applied in a civil manner.

Urine has been determined to be the best organic fertilizer by Dr. Barbara Daniels in California, USA. This cultivation technology developed for use in inner cities on porches, balconies, and ledges for people who cant get to, or afford to import fertilizer. Her finding are recorded on the Journey to Forever website.

Dr. Barbara Daniels coined a second name for what we call compost activator. Her politically correct name for urine is Liquid Organic Fertilizer, (LOF).

Her methods have proven to work in growing rich fruit baring plants in cramped neighborhoods in inner cities around the world.

Her study to find what was the best way to grow the most amount of food with the least amount of water came to the conclusion that what she called liquid organic fertilizer was the best method.

Adding this compost activator, or liquid organic fertilizer to plants causes them to have a growth spurt in their early stages. This LOF also makes the plants very resistant to insects according to Daniels.

Daniels adds, that the use of this LOF acted as a activator causing the pots to warm quickly and speed the composting process way up. The small planters were made warm by the activator, which help plants grow better in their early stages.

In the case of other compost activators:

If activators such as blood, or blood meal cause odor that covering the pile with four to five inches of soil doesnt abate add super phosphate.

Gardeners, individuals, and families that are looking to cut down food costs, labor, and plant pests can benefit from the variety of compost activators that are available from various resources.

Even adding more than on type of compost activator can affect varying results in your compost pile or plant bed.

And often the cheapest resource is the most natural way to control pest and put good food in the hands of the marginalized and well to do alike. The same method that keeps these good people from having to share their food with insect and other small pests.

Further reading:
Human Urine Safe, Productive Fertilizer – by Carolyn Colwell
Organic food production in the slums of Mexico City – by Rodrigo A. Medellín Erdmann

What is the role of bacteria in composting? More than that, what is bacteria in the first place, how do we even know what it does and how exactly does it do all this?

Some of those questions can get icky technical to say the least, but for those of you looking to find out more about the scientific aspects of bacteria, there is a plethora of good information at the library and online.

There is so much scientific info on bacteria that it will make your head spin with all kinds of Greek root words, Latin root words and the combination of words that explain behaviors, structures and shapes on a scale that is most of the time far smaller than the human eye can see on its own.

Historically speaking Thonius Philips van Leeuwenhoek, usually considered the father of microbiology, a Dutch tradesman, a scientist and the son of a basket maker; was the first human to observe what at the time he called animalcules in the year 1676 using a single-lense microscope of his own design.

The improved manner in which Dutch eye-glass makers of the 1600s were carrying out their business had been so creative as to invent some more useful items like the telescope and the microscope making it possible for Leeuwenhoek to see bacteria for the first time ever.

Blended with Leeuwenhoeks curiosity, it revolutionized the way science saw the physical world forever.

It would only be much later on, in 1828 that bacteria would be first called as such by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, after the Greek âáêôÞñéïí-á (bacterion a), meaning “small staff”.

Since then, the study of classifying bacteria has gone on and on, and grows even techier as the science of bacteriology advances throughout these long 330 or more years.

Sometimes, bacteria have taken on the role of criminal, sometimes the role of savior.

But to those of us who think practically, and in terms of how important a role bacteria have in composting and have continually had throughout the aeons, it is only reasonable to learn to respect those natural processes as much as possible for what they are; life.

Composting would not work without bacteria, not even vermicomposting would work without them, because without bacteria, there would not even be life on the planet as we know it.

These are ancient creatures, some of the very first forms of life on the planet eventually evolved into bacteria and they might even perhaps be responsible for the original formation of our atmosphere.

Some spiritual composters have even called them midichloreans (a word George Lucas derived from the endosymbiotic theory, yes a big concept), seeing them as a kind of omnipresent collective consciousness capable of healing the world.

That is a metaphysical issue that goes beyond the limits of this column and the fact that many people see them in this spiritual manner is already valid enough to mention since metaphorically speaking, they do a lot to add to our quality of life on this planet, without us even noticing, people accepting the fact as either spiritual or scientific is enough to respect their presence here at least.

They certainly are essential to the planet, cleaning up trash everywhere and producing a useful product, taking on a range of temperatures, surviving the strongest and most intelligent, while always in constant adaptation to environments and conditions.

Probably one of the most fascinating aspects of bacteria is their ability to survive through a kind of communal cooperation, quorum sensing, as in soil and on the surfaces of plants, where the majority of bacteria are bound in the form of biofilms (when bacteria attach to a surface in dense aggregations) also known as microbial mats.

The bacteria living in biofilms will commonly display a complicated network of cells and extracellular components arranging themselves optimally with secondary structures like microcolonies to better diffuse nutrients.

Quorum sensing is kind of a mystery to scientists, some use math to explain it, Kleiber’s Law, others use vitalist anthropomorphism (giving bacteria almost supernatural or human qualities), either way a person wants to rationalize it, these obviously independent organisms just spontaneously organize themselves through chemical exchanges (pheromones) that bind or induce certain genes into certain actions.

But basically what is happening with quorum sensing is, when a given community of bacteria (of the same species or not) undergo certain conditions (usually those that depend on survival, like energy depletion or temperature alteration), the different bacteria signal one another to do totally different jobs and in many cases, jobs that are not even evolutionarily species specific, always optimizing performance.

Friedrich Hayek called a “self-organizing system of voluntary co-operation” Catallaxy. And it is a phenomenon that seems to repeat itself over and over throughout earths communities, even the stock market.

As mysterious as this strange and complex optimization of bacteria is, it is exactly how composting can do its job so efficiently, it is why certain bacteria sacrifice themselves to create a kind of protective layer when quorum sensing starts to send out signals that conditions are going to become unfavorable soon.

The best metaphorical analogy is to say that they are acting like one collective organism, not a bunch of independent single-celled organisms, so where is the central planning?

Essentially, there is none, its just a mess of single-celled organisms that make themselves work together remarkably more efficiently well than even the most able or knowledgeable integrant of the community.

Who knows why that happens, it just does. Time and time again throughout human history and it presents itself as a very big theoretical challenge to both philosophers and scientists the world over. The fact that this catallaxy is the reason why composting with bacteria works is enough to explain how. Why it works, can be left to the reader to figure out.

Perhaps the way bacteria organize themselves could be studied as a form of biomimicry to help our society become more sustainable, since they certainly do have optimal performances during quorum sensing.

Now as for composting, there is a time when freshly added compost begins to pick up heat. Certain bacteria will survive and thrive between 0 and 40 degrees, but below and above that are considered extreme temperatures, thus these bacteria usually form endospores (little impervious shield walls inside the cell, filled with DNA and ribosomes), causing dormancy.

Thermophiles exist above 40 degrees and are what really break down bad news pathogens, making sure that they are completely destroyed during this stage of the hot pile.

Below zero degrees, there are psychrophiles that thrive at extremely low temperatures. Endospores are the way cells put themselves to sleep whenever conditions become too hostile and can just sit through changes until conditions become favorable.

Oscillating from 0-40 degrees and above, or back down to normal temperature and then maybe even slipping into such cold as that below zero. Bacteria use the collective knowledge and the power of quorum sensing to better organize their actions and survive until conditions become favorable once again.

Many bacteria help plants to process nutrients in soil, many help breakdown organic compost into CO2 to return to the atmosphere, many help destroy harmful pathogens and overwhelmingly, each and every single one of these independent organisms has an incredibly important role to play as members of a collective, members of the great cycle of life.

Bacteria work together in ways that we as of yet, do not even fully understand, while in this dance of life, dance of energy and dance of movement; one bacterium can hold the key to an entire community of composting bacteria and maybe even working as gods of the earth.

Not all Americans are familiar with the mystical Afro-Brazilian martial art called Capoeira, even fewer with the Afro-Brazilian religion called Candomblé, much less what they have to do with compost and composting.

They have everything to do with composting, they have even been called a reserve of sustainable practices with nature. Candomblé and Capoeira emerged from sustainable villages in Brazil during the days of slavery, villages called Quilombos, places where composting was necessary to cultivate crops in accordance to their religious practices.

Most all Afro-American religions, including those in the southern hemisphere suffer from serious discrimination due to the use of religious offerings that are non-perishable and therefore harmful to nature.

Misunderstanding about the meaning of such things as the burning of candles, clay plates filled with corn, glass bottles of heavy drink, plastic bottles of honey or any a number of materials that are not easily disposed of in nature have given even greater emphasis on the negative aspects of such religious practices and even been called unsustainable.

In Brazil however, Candomblé has recently taken on a cause for environmentalists as a reserve of Afro-Brazilian culture and identity through such simple practices as low-tech composting.

In today’s Brazil, sustainable practices are becoming more and more popular as a trend, and many have turned to Candomblé for alternative practices, as composting is a serious challenge for those who practice the religion today.

The Executive Secretary of the Minister of Culture Juca Ferreira in Brazil said in Salvador Bahia on the 12th of December 2003 at a the Seminar for Candomblé, Health and Axé (spiritual energy), the following:

“The desire – many times heroic – to dominate nature, stimulated the transforming energy of capitalism and allowed the fantastic development of productive forces and knowledge. But, today, we find ourselves at an impasse. We are before the possibility of an environmental unbalancing of no return in consequence of the human actions. We cannot discard that this unbalancing comes from the malpractice of life on the planet. The social and environmental impacts of such developments have brought us to this threatening point. The rise of the temperature of the earth, the destruction of entire ecosystems, the daily disappearance of thousands of species and the vertiginous reduction of drinking water supplies are symptoms of this global environmental crisis, a true challenge for all humanity.”

“Candomblé is more than an ally. It is a precursor of environmentalism, it is a reserve. The point of view of candomblé is deeper. It is not treated to defend. The reverence of Candomblé, praises, recognizes the sacred one, the manifestation of the Holy Ghost in nature. In this direction, candomblé is a cultural reserve for the change that we need to make for a more sustainable society, or rather, fraternal, just, tolerant with the differences between human beings, because it understands them and because it in general respects other forms of life and nature. Candomblé is, at the same time, space of tradition, base of resistance and place of renewal. The diffuse influence of candomblé in the set of Brazilian society has contributed for many of the qualities of our society. The ecological question demands a magnifying of this influence.” – translated by Babelfish

Juca Ferreira makes a point that has become a trend in Brazil in recent years, the Afro-Brazilian culture, of which Capoeira and Candomblé are integral parts. They teach of ways that countries like Brazil can become more sustainable through such simple things as composting and taking interest in the earth.

More importantly, Afro-Brazilian religions themselves need to take more interest in what the do with their offerings, which when neglected, can be harmful to nature. As this is a growing trend, it becomes more and more obvious that followers of the religion look to low-tech methods of recycling their offerings in creative and innovative ways.

So creative are these methods sometimes that they have even become the object of research in such famous universities as UFBA and USP. Composting in Candomblé is a perfect example of how a religion can play a big role in some of the habits that our society seems to have acquired and how a religion can learn to adapt to new situations that threaten its existence.

According to many researchers and historians, the most influential deities in Brazil come from a now extinct tribe in Africa called the Yorobá tribe who’s priests came to Brazil in slave ships along with there followers, a society that was once “one with nature.”

There are many other tribes that influenced Brazilian Candomblé and the many faces of the religion all point to one thing in common, “harmony with Mother Nature in all walks of life.”

In the days of slavery, slave owners, frowned upon African religions; for this reason it was always hidden and disguised in the form of more acceptable religions, such as Catholicism.

Capoeira has a similar story, but the only place the enslaved Africans in colonial Brazil ever found refuge, was in the escape of the rain forest, a place where sustainable practices meant survival.

In places known as Quilombos, African-Brazilian culture flourished and composting was an integral part of their sustainable villages, without composting, harvesting crops on time, would have been impossible.

We know that in the Quilombo, it was essential that people’s wastes all went into the same area, cured under the earth and turned several times a month until it smelled like earth, and could be put to work in the fields. This was part of religious ceremony and made the difference through prayer and offerings.

For example, animal manure, horse, pig, lamb and human, needed to be “planted” with other materials such as dried grass, sawdust and old leaves in order to get the favor of the gods. In those times the gods would speak to people through priests who would receive dreams that told them what to plant, where and how, and most importantly, it worked.

As a trend, the story of such sustainable villages as Quilombos is one that continues to make breakthroughs in both cultural discrimination of a traditionally Afro-Brazilian religion as well as opening minds on both sides of the coin to the richness of history.

Composting can be spiritual and it can be scientific, how we see the facts is up to our own hearts and minds.

Tribes like the Yorobá from where Candomblé first came to the Americas, are perfect examples of how spiritual ways can tell the same story science keeps telling us all along, that we need to treat the earth with a little respect, it is, after all, our home and composting is the first step to being respectful. (By Mario Lopez)

Why not learn about nature’s laws through a little ceremonial composting in our own lives?

Can composting in a poor low-tech community or nation bring a greater concept of wealth and well-being than a good economy? Does composting have such value?

When people think about gross domestic product that supposedly shows how wealthy a given nation is or is not, the poor of any given nation look at those numbers like they were lies, and with good reason, they dont see any of that wealth in their own lives.

But one thing people in low-tech impoverished communities usually dont have access to, is a good and decent education. And in the end, the GDP only determines the final services and products in a country in any given time, not a nations well-being.

Well-being is what is most important, not the current situation of the economy. GDP is not a calculation of real wealth; well-being is a real calculation of wealth. Human happiness.

Composting in an impoverished low-tech community can be one of the most important factors in creating that kind of well-being. But why? Why would they care? The media makes it a point to merchandise fast cars and new clothes.

And even worse, most of these communities walk around living in a kind of urban landfill, dumping trash and human fecal material all in the river behind the house just to find that it all clogs up and floods in heavy rains.

Romans sacrificed rivers to send their number one and two into the sea, but that was 1,500 years ago, do things need to still be done in this way, just to be low-tech? Why not compost and recycle? Those are products that can actually generate monetary revenue! And better yet, do-it-yourself projects create well-being!

Recycling number one and number two is easy, and just about as low-tech as one could possibly get. Its safe, AND a feasible way to purify human organic by-products. By never throwing waste in the water, we never contaminate it.

By cultivating our ugly human organic by-products into clean earthy smelling humus, we create garden materials that could be either sold or used in community agriculture.

Human organic by-products are high in nitrogen, and as long as there is a high concentration of easily composted carbon materials at hand (like sawdust, paper and moss) composting it into a community based project can be simple, safe and clean.

Not just clean for the environment, clean for ourselves, our children and our childrens children down the line. Composting is natures way to do good for itself and us, providing forests to breath air, food to eat and ground to walk on, all of it filled with life!

Composting is a way to commune with the planet. Not just spiritually, but also scientifically, logically, historically and statistically, as one wishes to think of it.

The obvious is that by composting on individual, community, national or even global scales, we work with nature. If we work with nature, nature will work back with us, providing eternally, it is simple and obvious.

But who will invest? Who is interested in helping the poorinvest in their own wastes? Perhaps only those people living near or around the poor neighborhoods and find themselves most victim to the naughtious smells and toxic floods. Those people who find their well-being greatly disturbed, independent of theircurrent financial situation.

How much would it cost to actually do the marketing with posters and flyers until those people start to wake up? How many lectures on community consciousness would need to occur? How many people would go if soup was being served? How much would it cost to find a space for all that compost?

How much would it cost to get people to invest with their own wastes? How many compost toilets and kitchen scrap bins would need to be made? How about finally getting that compost to the market? Would it market? If so, for how much?

If community agriculture was taught, how long would it take for people to do it themselves? How about getting their final agricultural products to market? Would it market, if so how much?

Well, if people are given the resources, they can figure it out for themselves, and education about composting is a valuable resource indeed. Especially to those who go without. Pride in ones own achievements is an outcome to composting that creates the kind of well-being that money cant buy. Compost itself and even some personal low-tech home gardening, can actually generate wealth.

So who has the passion to do it? This is the final question. Is anyone willing to fight and die for life giving humus in a community that needs it? One day perhaps, that diamond in the rough will emerge. And on that day, the true wealth of composting will be seen. Any revolution, a real revolution, starts with just one passionate person. Let it come forth! (by Mario Lopez)

by Kelly Slocum

There are more than 4400 named species of earthworm on this planet, and researchers have broken them into three categories, largely descriptive of their habits in the soil. These three categories are endogeic, anecic and epigeic.

Endogeic worms build complex lateral burrow systems through all layers of the upper mineral soil. These worms rarely come to the surface; instead spending their lives in these burrow systems where they feed on decayed organic matter and bits of mineral soil. They are the only category of worm which actually eats significant volumes of SOIL and not strictly the organic component. Endogeic worms tend to be medium sized and pale colored.

Anecic worms (like the common nightcrawler Lumbricus terrestris) build permanent, vertical burrows that extend from the soil surface down through the upper mineral soil layer. It is not unusual for their burrows to reach a depth of six feet or more. These worm species coat their burrows with mucous which stabilizes the burrow so it does not collapse, and build little mounds (called middens) of stone and castings outside the burrow opening. Anecic worms are able to recognize their own burrows, even in an environment where there are hundred of other burrows present and return to these burrows each day.

The anecic species feed in decaying surface litter, so come to the soil surface regularly, which leaves them exposed to predators. They developed a spoon shaped tale that bristles with little retractable hairs, called setae, with which to grip the burrow wall and avoid being easily pulled out. They also tend to be very large worms and have bellies with less pigmentation than their backs. These worms have a long generation time, do not do well in high density culture and require the stable burrow environment in order to thrive. In the absence of this burrow, anecic worms will neither breed nor grow.

The worms we use in vermicomposting systems, like Eisenia fetida (commonly called the redworm), are in the epigeic category. In nature epigeic worms live in the top soil, and duff layer on the soil surface. These small, deeply pigmented worms have a poor burrowing ability, preferring instead an environment of loose organic litter or loose topsoil rich in organic matter to deeper soils. Epigeic species feed in organic surface debris and have adapted beautifully to the rapidly shifting, dynamic environment of the soil surface.

We use epigeic worms in vermicomposting because we can duplicate their ideal environment in a bin or bed, because they are voracious processors of organic debris, because they do well in high density culture, and because they are so very tolerant of a wide range of environmental conditions and fluctuations.
Among the epigeic species there are several dozen that have become naturalized to North America. It is widely believed that all native worm species were wiped out by glacial activity thousands of years ago and that those now supported in North American soils were introduced from Europe with explorers and settlers. While the recent articles about non-native species causing damage to US forests are interesting and worth noting, few soil ecologists feel that earthworms pose a major threat.

The epigeic worm species Eisenia fetida is found on nearly every land mass of this planet, with Hawaii being a notable. Regardless, there are typically multiple epigeic worm species in most regions of the US that process organic surface litter. In the southern states, for instance, where E. fetida is prolific, at least two other worm species suitable for vermicomposting systems are common to area soils, Amynthas gracillus and Perionyx excavatus. This is not to say these are the ONLY other species present in these soils, but they are two that are routinely found south of the Mason Dixon line and in many areas of irrigated soils in the southwest. Northern soils are home to many worm species, including E. fetida, but no A. gracillus or P. excavatus as these species cannot tolerate cool temps for any length of time. Alaskan soils support rich populations of E. fetida worms, which can survive the extreme winters. Admittedly the adults are typically killed by the freeze, but the amazing little cocoons can easily survive being frozen solid for many months, hatching healthy young when the spring thaw arrives.

In every region of the world there are worms adapted to the local soils. Not every place has had a taxonomic survey done, so researchers do not always know which worms may be present in a given area, but it’s fairly certain that wherever you are there is a worm adapted to converting surface debris to topsoil. When a composting or vermicomposting system is in soil contact naturalized earthworms will be drawn to the system when and if it meets their environmental requirements. Local epigeic species will all live happily side by side, processing vast amounts of organic debris, and the one best adapted to the particular bin environment and local climate will be the species that ultimately dominates the system. In most areas of the US this worm will be E. fetida, though P. excavatus is sometimes the dominant species in composting systems in the southern states. In systems in soil contact it is also fairly common to find anecic species like the common nighcrawler investigating the bin. It is highly unlikely they will set up residence IN the system, but will visit the bin to find a nice meal before returning home to the comfort of its burrow.

Earthworms are an incredibly varied and adaptable group of animals that are so common in our world that they often go unnoticed and unsung. We are far more dependant on them than we realize, and are fortunate that they are so eager and able to rise to the challenges we pose them!

Deciding to compost with shredded leaves can send a person around the neighborhood looking for lawns that need raking and offer to haul them away for free to have a good supply of nitrogen for indoor worm bins in winter. Leaves, as simply leaves are great for soaking up abundant amounts of water, and can be a great way to make to make leaf mold, that black stuff on the forest floor. But it takes time, and depending on how you leave it, it can take even longer.

Unless shredded, leaf compost just stacks the leaves up on one another leaving a moist and oxygen-less environment which is no good for thermophylic microorganisms. Shredding leaves can be a fun task by just mowing the pile over with lawn mower or using a shredding machine for exactly that purpose.

Most importantly while doing thermophylic composting, be sure and turn the compost often. With shredded leaf compost it’s possible to achieve a nice black humus in a little over two weeks if properly turned. This is one of the main reasons why gardeners like to use shredded leaves in a “hot” compost pile, it can save time on making a rich and urgently needed top soil.

If using highly pathogenic nitrogen compounds be sure that the compost gets itself well heated up first before protecting any ground soil, because pathogens will just march right into the ground soil of the garden with the first heavy rain. A positive point about shredded leaf compost, as mulch, is that it is wonderful at soaking up absurd amounts of water, 300 to 500 times its own weight in water, where as top soil only twice its weight. That can be an effective way to protect sensitive plants that enjoy a more controlled water intake.

If shredded leaf compost is used with passion, the garden becomes a place of deep and powerful emotions. The surrounding trees that look so beautiful in the sacred fall are then synonyms to the wonderful and joy filling chance to crank up the lawn mower and fill the grass bag with load after load of shredded leaves, to be composted or molded as desired. And with a little patience, a fine, rich, black humus is soon achieved, that brings pride to the gardeners life, making the flavor of berried more delicious and vegetables more nutritious. All this from something so simple as shredded leaf compost.

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Deep within every human heart there is a need to make a better quality of life for ones own self as well as their surrounding family. This basic organic need which can be found in all forms of life is a law of nature. No creature is exempt. Humankind tends to see things in a bi-polar way. Good and Evil, black and white, odd and even… All “human” ways to interpret an already time-test-proven-perfect ecosystem that seems to only know how to give… And humanity takes. In large scales, humanity takes. And what does it give back to the ecosystem? Trash! Millions of tons of trash every year! With no regard as to where it goes, is collected or how it is processed. In most poverty stricken communities the organic trash can be bad news. And one fine, beautiful way to deal with it are community compost containers.

Large compost containers that are built and maintained by the communities themselves or by the government are excellent alternatives to pollutant landfills. Who has seen what goes into a landfill? There is no control. A landfill is an uncontainable environment for creating uncontainable pathogen infested disease that seeps into the ground soil when it rains, into our precious underground streams, to the roots of fruit trees and beautiful flowers that become sick and die from the extent of the horror that is ground contamination. People must be educated about the horrors of non-containment and realize the benefits of separating and containing our organic wastes. Whole communities could rise up in action against this injustice with the proper compost containers in hand, a little know-how, and lots of willpower.

If a compost container is used in the correct fashion, the kinds of composting being done will be far more predictable, for example, if the composter wants a high chomper friendly compost with a low temperature and lots of hungry red worms, then the style of container used would be in direct contact with the soil, but yet completely surrounded and covered with a lid, never coming in contact with rainwater in order to keep the surrounding ground soil clean. If on the other hand, the desired compost processes dangerous organic substances, such as those pathogenic in nature, this idea of coming directly in contact with soil and producing a chomper friendly environment should be replaced with a thermophylic friendly world of compost. A thermophylic friendly compost container is the kind of container that prefers microorganisms that work well under very high temperatures, the kinds of temperatures which are dearly necessary when making sure that all those vile pathogenic bad guys fall dead on the battle field.

Should the peace-loving communities of our children’s children be forced into dealing with compost containment themselves, or should they be allowed to explore other, more elevated issues? Compost containers are ways of opening peoples’ minds and hearts to the fact that we are all inevitably contained on the very same planet! Compost containers are the future of our lives in sustainable communities here on the planet. When does the future come into our lives? Usually when it starts hitting us in the face like some gigantic salmon fish jumping out of the river on two hind legs and screaming “hey, I’ve got a three headed baby fish I wanna talk to ya about you foolish human beein!!” But if humankind acts now, with sustainable community action and compost containers that teach of nature and her law, tomorrow can be a dream, rather than a nightmare, come true.

What is then, organic compost? Organic compost is the fuel that takes gardeners to new dimensions in their field. Organic compost is the ideal way to start building a repertoire of gardeners’ delights. Things such as hot compost piles, cold compost piles, worm composts, compost tea and others can all be made from good organic composting. To make sure that a compost pile is “organic” it must be prepared, almost like baking a cake. And careful preparation entails carefully planned compost for deeply meditated final compost products.

An organic composter is the type of person who really is environmentally conscious about the kinds of stuff that go into their compost pile. Not just any old thing can be organically composted. TNT, many different explosives, gas, oil, jet fuel, diesel fuels, insecticides and such are all perfectly compostable, but not considered the kind of thing an organic compost pile is made from. Most people when doing composting in an organic way want things that come directly from nature. Mostly non-animal in nature, but that’s being really detailed about it. But basically fruits and veggies are well recommended by those brave and daring souls, be they men, women or children, who, with such a courageous heart, would venture into the knightly Order of organic composters.

In an incredibly obsessive world that delves in consumption, it is no wonder that there are such adventurers as those doing organic composting. Organic compost is an alternative to other forms of compost, in that organic compost will produce exactly what you put into it. That is, if the composting crusader wants a multi-use urban plague fighting organic pesticide, they need to bake the hot pile of hot piles with specific urban plague fighting thermophylic microorganisms that will provide the proper ingredients for a highly aerobic compost tea that stops the plague dead in its tracks.

Truly pathogen thirsty organic compost is usually made by optimizing the initial organic content, with the proper Nitrogen to Carbon ratio. If organic compost is too high in rotting veggies, it will start smelling bad. Neutralizing bad smells means upping the Carbon ratio, which means more peat-moss, paper, wood chips, or sawdust. Anything really absorbent is good. However if the pile has too much of this, it will take far too long to decompose and only a few pockets of usable material might be achieved.

Thus turning organic compost and maintaining the ratio between woody materials and rotting materials is as important as in any other compost pile. Cold piles, however different from hot piles, are usually full of chompers and chompers (mainly read worms) love veggies. These are usually the most organic composts to be found since they start out really natural and produce great fertilizer. Organic compost is also a very socially acceptable way to get people who used to see compost as the icky truths of a rotting world as something almost adventurous or romantically dreamt, now manifesting itself into a better world for our grandchildren.

Human beings have some of the worst habits concerning urban sanitation, due to an old Greek and Roman tradition. Plumbing. Not the redirection of water in and of itself, but the inconvenient way in which we usually dispose of our own human organic wastes. The toilet. The toilet uses water pressure to take our processed liquids and solids away to the sea, out of the public eye. And we forget about it.

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Most people don’t even know what happens when human fecal material comes in contact with water. Black water happens, and its toxic. No creature can drink black water. Plants will become disease ridden and die, and animals will become hosts to any pathogen that was in the human fecal material. Nasty water-born pathogens, that just love to spread. And the only way to make sure that they die, usually takes so many chemicals and processing filters to clean it. A compost toilet on the other hand, makes use of the breakdown process found in nature to purify highly pathogenic human organic wastes (both liquid and solid), into simple, safe, and useful organic resources that can be used in gardens as fertilizer.

A compost toilet can come in unlimited designs, and are found from the most rustic kinds as a mere chamber pot with a lid and some sawdust on it or as sophisticated as a solar powered port-a-potty, with a unique custom made tumbler baking chamber with automatic exhaust fan and fertilizing drawer retrieval unit, that could cost as much as 1,500 US$ and use special peat moss bought from the local department store. Compost toilet systems that use a compost pile need to be attended to, throughout the composting process, while those that do the job automatically are much more maintenance free, even though most people won’t want to use a compost toilet when visiting. They might have a hard time trading a white hole filled with water for a black hole that smells like sawdust. But whatever the kind of compost toilet, the principles of thermophylic pathogen slaughter continue the same.

Given enough heat, malignant pathogens found in human fecal material will not survive a well designed compost toilet. When using a compost pile in extension to the compost toilet, 135 degrees Fahrenheit is the starting temperature for pathogen annihilation, all the way up to 160 degrees F. More than 160 degrees will usually start killing off the good guys who do all the thermophylic work… Purifying human organic waste materials through composting is a very important tool for the future, since it avoids even polluting our rivers and streams, dealing with our human organic waste in accordance to mother nature.

Mushroom Compost is basically a delicately produced compost of materials for the commercial harvesting of mushrooms. The kind of mushroom to be commercially harvested is pretty much irrelevant, since the basic conditions that permit mushroom farming use the same kinds of composts. Mushroom compost is a fairly new concept that came about officially in the year 1678 by French botanist Marchant upon presenting the transplantation of the white filament found under mushrooms into an adequate medium (mushroom compost), to the Academy of Science.

Mushrooms have been venerated throughout the ages, and from ages past to this very day, they continue to allure and motivate the human soul. In ancient Vedic cultures, the mushroom was venerated as a god. 4600 years ago, the Egyptians believed that mushrooms were the plant of immortality. Reserved only for the nobility of their time, mushrooms continue a delicacy to this day. Due to the fact that it was only possible to find mushrooms in the wild or growing wherever whenever, the gods felt like it, mushrooms had always been a thing of restricted consumption.

After Marchant however, that changed, since mushrooms have since then been harvested on mushroom farms. In Paris, the first commercially harvested mushrooms were done in old roman quarry caves around the city, and these were named champignons de Paris. The kind of compost that these mushroom farmers would use was the same they used for growing melons. A kind of mix between the soil found there and horse manure. In the early 1950’s a plant pathologist and mycologist in India named Shri S.S. Jain, was living with farmers, trying to help with their apple orchards, when he discovered mushrooms growing in the darkness of a barn on top of rotten apple branches, cow manure, twigs, wheat and other fruit tree branches. Mushroom compost rediscovered!

Today, mushroom farmers use mostly an industrialized and controlled process of making mushroom compost, pasteurizing the compost, using it, and after harvest, selling it as fertilizer for gardens. Mushroom compost is very nutritious in and of itself, as are the byproducts, SMC (Spent Mushroom Compost) or SMS (Spent Mushroom Soil). Usually in the making of mushroom compost, some kind of vegetarian manure is used, like horse, cow, or chicken, as well as hay, or dry grass as a good base, with corn cobs to help nitrogen levels. Gypsum which is a calcium sulfate is also usually found in todays modern mushroom compost.

Once made mushroom compost must be pasteurized in order to keep the aerobic microorganisms alive that help the roots thrive such as benefic nematodes, and thereby eliminating any other types of fungi that may want to take advantage of the wonderful conditions found in mushroom compost. All in all, once mushroom compost has been fully used and the mushrooms harvested, the compost itself, is then reused in gardens as the SMCs and SMSs. If the gardener is looking for the perfect fertilizer, that is 100 percent environmentally friendly, then it has certainly been discovered. Spent Mushroom Compost.

For those who love gardening, compost tea is a wonderful way to achieve riper, more lush and tasty vegetables. Compost Tea involves using compost as if it was just that, a tea. Note, however this does NOT mean, dumping buckets of rainwater over any kind of compost and expecting to extract a perfect, environmentally friendly, oxygenated, death to bad news pathogens garden warrior spray. No, compost tea is a gentle and ethical procedure that takes some care and knowledge. Composting properly to extract compost tea is an art, and requires proper timing, and choices of compost.

Once in the early part of the 1600’s, when the renegade Japanese samurai, Myamoto Musashi survivor of the battle of Sekigahara, first went to challenge one of the countries most revered samurai warriors to a duel to the death, he did not expect to be welcomed with a traditional tea ceremony. This was unheard of. Tea? Cultivating tea is an ancient tradition, and so is gardening. The feudal samurai lord who received Musashi was also a master in the art of cultivating different kinds of tea. His garden was impeccable. So was his tea. Not surprisingly, he used compost tea to keep the garden that way. Compost tea cared for in the same way as a samurai polishes his katana, or develops his technique is an easy thing to achieve. The kinds of compost that can be used will depend on the variety of compost tea being produced. Compost tea was written about in the using of agricultural development by the roman soldier/orator Marcus Porcius Cato (234 – 149bc) who advocated the use of many different kinds of compost tea for different purposes.

Compost tea is used to enhance the productivity of beneficial microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, that do decomposing, protozoa and benefic nematodes that are predators. By composting 25 percent high nitrogen wastes, 30 percent wood stuffs, and 45 percent green materials, a high in benefic bacteria compost tea can be made for example. Timing is also important, compost tea needs to be properly cared for, in certain stages of its development in order to achieve the proper tea. If worm tea is to be achieved, then worm compost must be used, in which case a tray collects the moistened worm compost over a long period of time. Using a thermophylic composting system requires a good knowledge of what kind of compost material is being used and the current temperature at any given time. If for example the temperature in a given thermophylic compost reaches 135 degrees F, that’s enough for killing off all the bad news pathogens, but if the temperature goes above 160 degrees F. then benefic microorganisms start dieing off, and that’s not good. So timing is as important as the ingredients.

Another interesting part of compost tea is air, or rather oxygen, itself. Benefic microorganisms need to breath, or else they die, in which case the gardener will know that his faithful troops have succumb to the enemy by the bad smell coming from the compost tea. Compost tea should not smell bad. If it does its because the troops are being suffocated and left with no air to breath. This can be avoided by maintaining the aeration of the compost tea. If using a large compost pile, buckets of water a hose and a pump, then plan on taking some time at this. Worm tea however is much simpler. Just dampen the surface of the compost bed until drops of fresh compost tea drip into a tray. This procedure can be done with cured compost piles as well, but they must be well cured, and the water MUST be as pure as possible. If it’s full of chlorine, it needs to be oxygenated like an aquarium for at least an hour, or else those microorganisms will die from the chlorine. Rainwater can be used efficiently if it’s clean and non-toxic.

Making compost tea from a fully cured pile, means brewing tea, in which case clean water as mentioned above is needed that is well oxygenated, some molasses, and about half a bucket of the well cared for and cured compost, should get the tea started. Pour the water into the bucket, about three aquarium bubblers and a pump, and stir a couple of times a day. Bacteria just love molasses. And once the compost tea is brewed, it can be strained, sprayed immediately on that wonderfully kept garden that would make the most ancient of meditative samurai warriors proud.

To most, Worm Compost is a rhetorical statement, because when thinking about compost, worms are usually one of the fist things to come to mind. A worm does one thing in its whole existence, compost nutritious and valuable fertilizer that can be used in gardens to enrich the growth and development of tasty veggies. More specifically, worms eat the rot off of rotting organic materials, and in exchange, leave behind what we call worm castings.

Worms have been eating organic waste for millions of years and returning nutrients back to the soil, they can breakdown pretty much any organic material, but they have their preferred kinds of food. When doing worm composting, regular earth worms can be somewhat ineffective due to the low concentration of soil. Usually the term Vermicomposting is used when using eisenis fetida or lumbricus rubellus, (red worms), as well as brown nose wigglers. These guys just love kitchen scraps. They can take nutrient rich fruits and vegetables and turn them into nutrient rich compost, within just a few months. A good body of red worms and bedding of moist newspaper strips with some dry leaves, a little soil and a hand full of sand, mixed together inside a cool, dark box under the sink or out in the backyard, away from noisy traffic and dishwashers, could make the perfect place for worm compost.

Red worms can actually double their population within 90 days, when fed properly. Red worms eat about 1 pound of kitchen scraps per pound of themselves in a week. This gets even better for the more space they have to crawl around. The final results are worm castings. And can take some two to three months to be ready in some cases maybe twice that, but once completely transformed, worm compost is a wonderful additive for plants to grow big and strong.

Harvesting worm castings can be a fun and exiting process. For children who are learning about the process, its exiting to separate them by hand, from the finished castings, by gently dumping the whole compost over a tarp and picking them out one by one, but there are easier methods, which can be just as exiting. Worms, are not thermophylic composters. They prefer the very early and latter cooler stages of composting in itself. When said and done, a compost pile left directly in contact with the ground but still properly protected from the rain and elements, will attract worms from out of the ground and into the pile, but once the thermophylic process begins, this situation will change as worms really don’t like heat.

And it is with heat that worms can be convinced out of the finished castings. Just put a few piles around the outer edges of the tarp, and place a lamp light directly on each pile facing in and the worms will all migrate out of their finished castings and into the center of the tarp, where they can be easily collected and given more tummy filling work to do. Which is probably the most remarkable thing about worm compost in and of itself, worm compost means they really will enjoy what they do. Worm compost, in this way, could perhaps by a synonym for humankind in harmony with nature.

Are soil and compost different? Compost and soil are very different. Soil can take in some cases, up to 200 years to finally be produced. While compost is the process of making humus (earth or soil), soil itself is broken down over larger periods of time. Usually once humus is fully composted, through the composting process, it can be added to the soil enriching its already powerful role in nature.

The ecosystem in which we live is unique. It is a complete and perfect system that has withstood the tests of time and developed the laws of nature. No human law can compare to the greatness and beauty that Mother Nature has sculpted through time, in this law, the cycles between life and rebirth are constants. Composting humanities organic waste into humus is a way of humanity working WITH the laws of Nature.

Soil is an integral part of the ecosystem. An entire world of life and rebirth can be found deep under the confines of the earth. For some reason along the course of human evolution, we began to use the realm of soil in ways that were not in accordance to the laws of nature herself. Soil is in fact the accumulation of organic materials that have been broken down completely to produce resources for basic plant growth. Soil is not an easily replaceable resource either. Some studies have shown that to scuff your shoes up in the mountains in a pine grove, could take some 200 years to replace the kicked soil in question. Trees falling over, rotting, and finally becoming reintegrated with the top soil, is a process that could take that long? Then what is the point of composting?

Composting is in fact the process that leads up to the development of humus, a word meaning earth or soil in Latin. Composting should be done in such a manner that it NEVER comes in contact with soil. If a compost pile is being used, it should at the very least be fully layered underneath by some kind of mulch to protect the compost from the soil and vice-versa.

Mulch is any material that can be used as a cover to protect soil from weeds, insects, pest and such things, it can be organic or inorganic, but when dealing with soil and compost, it is always less energy consumption in the end to use only organic mulches. In fact, energy consumption can be measured in kilos of soil. For example, how much petroleum did the truck consume to haul that black plastic tarp used as mulch (Polyethylene), from the factory to the local hardware store? How much did the buyer use to haul it home? How much was used in producing it? How much was used in building the truck that hauled it? How much was used in all and total that into square acres of land that would have been used to retain all that oil? How much does all that land weigh? How many years did it take to produce that oil? For inorganic mulches, and pretty much anything else, energy consumption can be calculated in terms of soil… Why not just use organic mulch? The energy consumption is obviously FAR lower when calculating in terms of soil?

If organic mulch is used, then one day, obviously, soil will be obtained, so no real harm can come to the soil below it. If compost comes in contact with soil and its carrying some kind of dangerous substance such as pathogens or toxic chemicals like gasoline, diesel fuel, oil, grease, jet fuel, wood preservatives, insecticides, herbicides, even TNT and other explosives, these things could potentially seep into the deeper layers of soil until finally reaching an underground stream or just poisoning the whole local regions potentially clean soil. However, if properly kept out of contact from soil, the composting process can break down the vial substances cited above into simple and safe organic molecules. In such an intense example of composting as this one, perhaps a layer of inorganic mulch would be more appropriate?

In the end, what makes compost into soil is careful use of its process. By using compost in an energy efficient way, rich and powerful humus can be added to soil, in a very ethical fashion. Soil may take a long time to produce, but through compost, renewal can be achieved safely and peacefully in accordance to the laws of nature. If the laws of nature are followed and the path of least resistance held true, then the trash known as organic wastes can become a blessing, reusable and efficiently put to ethical use.

Normally a compost pile aka compost heap is just a place out in the backyard where people throw there organic wastes. But when studied, the compost pile becomes a living and thriving focus of knowledge about the world in which we live. A metropolis, of thermophylic microorganisms, that purify all of humankind’s organic wastes, in a natural and energy efficient manner. The compost pile becomes an intense learning environment for people interested in planning and meditating around an alternative future, filled with hope.

Many years ago in the ancient underground Greek cities of Kappadokya, in what is now central Turkey, organic wastes were dealt with by creating humus, and planting it in the garden. They did this by building compost piles and maintaining them. An art as simple as composting, brought prosperity to grape fields, and enriched an already fertile soil… When the Romans introduced sewer systems into western culture, they knew not the grave dangers that they would be creating through river sacrificing.

But compost piles survived the invasion of the Roman Empire, and can still be found today. Thriving metropolises of microorganisms and thermophylic decomposers, compost piles love to eat organic waste and turn it into the rich earthy substance we call humus. Dividing compost into “hot” piles and “cold” piles is most common. Hot piles usually are faster at producing humus, and cold piles take a little longer. Depending on what kind of pile used it could take 1 – 2 years to produce humus or as little as 6 weeks. It really just depends on how much care a person puts in to their compost pile.

A compost pile involves some basic equipment if it is to be done properly and safely. On the other hand, if humus is the only goal, then just dig a hole and throw the compost in it, cover it up with about eight inches of soil and that’s it (a real Kappadokian style “cold” compost pile). Later on however, humankind learned that by layering the ground with some highly carbon decomposers, like sawdust, peat-moss, wood chips, or old hay, by building walls and a roof, and keeping it far enough away from the house (at least 2 feet) to keep critters that might want to get into it outside, we could control the conditions of the compost. By keeping the compost “out” of the natural elements like rain, wind and snow, it can become a better place for thermophylic microorganisms.

Thermophylic microorganisms are important in a compost pile, since they are responsible for sanitation. They can get the interns of a compost pile up to a 140 degrees F, far above the necessary temperatures for killing any bad news pathogens. Microoganisms that do the job of composting need four basic elements for survival: oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and temperature. The different temperatures will define the kind of microorganisms that can exist at any given time, but oxygen, carbon and nitrogen are needed by all. Oxygen they breath, carbon gives them the energy they need to keep on going, and nitrogen offers stuff like proteins, cell structure, and genetic material.

By keeping the compost pile properly turned (could be once a week or month), the amount of oxygen can be evenly distributed throughout the whole pile. There are other ways, of course, like ventilating the compost pile, installing shafts in it from the very start or just basically shoving holes in it from the top. But turning, helps equally distribute the thermophyles, as well as mulching the compost better to give it a better look. In the end, an earthy smell should be obtained, and when you pick any given part of the compost pile up in your hands, that Grizzly Adams log house living off the land and in perfect harmony with nature kind of feeling should fill the human soul. If that happens, or something similar to that, then humus has been achieved, the compost pile is a success, and so is the person who composted it.

Simply put, Composting is a way to purify and reuse organic waste produced by human civilizations. Making compost is a simple and natural procedure that involves human cooperation with nature itself. By composting, humanity uses the most energy efficient method for dealing with the most harmful and toxic of organic substances. Below are a list of past and current articles.

Compost is a word of Latin origin coming from the word “compositus” (to compose, or put together), “com” – together plus “ponere” – to place. In this case placing together different substances that decompose (or fall apart), to produce a newly composed substance composed of rotted organic materials called “humus” (from Latin meaning “earth, soil”). The earliest writings known today were written on clay tablets from the Akkadian Empire in ancient Mesopotamia that mentions the return of manures to the soil. And throughout history, the Greeks, Early Hebrews, Romans, even into the Middle Ages until today, the art of composting has survived.

Human cooperation means not only helping nature, but also, helping ourselves. Statistically, the amount of organic waste produced in the world is astronomical, and it usually ends up somewhere like a landfill, where it is rained on and eventually seeps into underground rivers, polluting our natural drinking water. Composting, is a way of using the organic waste we throw away by mixing it with things such as peat-moss, hedge clippings, sawdust, woodchips, dried grass… etc. is this all that is needed to compost? Well, compost must be protected from contact with water, and tumbled from time to time. Carbon and Nitrogen are the basic resources obtained, but to decompose them both humidity and oxygen are also needed. Carbon is the basic building block of all life on earth, and can be found in any organic material, since the very definition of the word “organic” is any molecule containing carbon.

Composting implies that from these decomposing resources, a product called “humus” will be obtained. Humidity and Oxygen are required to create the temperatures and conditions necessary for fungi and other microorganisms that participate in the breakdown process of decomposing organic materials to produce humus. High temperatures, will kill any volatile organisms that can be found in compost, such as when composting manure. And in the end, enriching humus is made, which can be put on lawns, flower beds, parks, forests, gardens and even plantations.

No matter what material is to be composted, composting continues to be the most energy efficient method for dealing with organic wastes produced by human civilizations. By composting correctly and safely, humankind can walk in harmony with Mother Nature. But to compost in such an efficient manner, also means learning about the world outside the city gates and keeping an eye on those things that can perhaps be alternatives to the harmful things that have been done in the past. Keeping ourselves, in this way prepared for a better, and brighter future.