FARRMS (Foundation for Agricultural and Rural Resources Management and Sustainability) held a “Dig into Soil Health” workshop webinar in March, which featured a variety of soil health topics, including gardening and composting by Laura Halvorson, garden coordinator for Metigoshe Ministries.
Halvorson uses composting in her own gardens and has tried several types. She tells her composters/gardeners to imagine what it would be like to have a beautiful compost, ready to use instead of commercial fertilizer for their garden.
“You got your compost on; you’ve managed it well. You thought about your final product, and it is a nice and dark color. It’s crumbly and it smells like earth. It’s just beautiful – this beautiful compost you have made,” Halvorson said.
But how do you get there? Many gardeners have heard about compost, but they are afraid to try it. If gardeners are willing to follow soil health principles in their gardens, including composting with soil health (reach out to FARRMS or Menoken Farm) in mind, it is not that difficult to do, according to Halvorson.
“As we get going with compost, we just want to start out by making sure that we have an understanding of compost. Compost is a product, a result of decomposed leaves and other plant materials and other organic matter. It’s very high in organic matter and it’s a perfect plant food for all our gardens,” she said.
As a soil amendment, compost is a disease fighter. It has a good nutritional profile for the microorganisms and the food web in our soil system.
“Humus” is the Latin term for soil, and it generally refers to components of soil that are rich in organic matter.
“It could include compost, but it can be from added compost or the natural decomposition of plant material,” Halvorson said. “If you have the chance to walk in the forest or walk in tree rows, those top layers of forest soils are really rich in humus. When we make a compost from mixed yard waste, our finished compost is actually about a hundred percent humus in its composition.”
A lot of folks have asked Halvorson why she is so passionate about compost, and she says she feels too much of our compostable waste is winding up in the landfill. When looking at nature, there is zero waste.
“There isn't anything that ever is not reused or recycled within the natural world, and as humans, we need to be actively participating in this zero-waste system,” she said.
Halvorson said there are way too many things going into landfills that could be easily compostable, such as yard trimmings, food, and wood.
“We could put it back into nature through the action of composting,” she said. “Besides participating in that natural process of returning organic matter back into soil in nature, there are a lot of benefits with composting for our gardens and small farm production, as well.”
When compost is incorporated into our garden, the soil texture is improved. Improved soil improves the drainage of the soil and increases fertility and the ability for roots to anchor soil that contains compost, which has a higher nutrient holding capacity.
“There are a lot of micronutrients within compost that you aren't going to find within your typical fertilizer,” she said.
Compare compost to fertilizer and it averages about 2:1 nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K).
“Commercial fertilizer is pretty much only ever going to provide you with that NPK. It’s not going to give you the micronutrients [such as boron (B), chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn)], whereas compost is going to have a lot of micronutrients in it that you just can’t easily purchase for integrating into your soil,” Halvorson said.
You could also try adding mycorrhizal fungi to your soil, which feeds soil biology.
Jake Callander, program facilitator of FARRMS and a small farmer, said, “We had a few participants that were interested in learning about a supplier of mycorrhizal fungi that is local to North Dakota. If you are interested in their products, I recommend looking into them to see if their products are the right fit for you.
Another amazing thing about compost is it contains anti-pathogenic microbes, and those microbes are going to aid in disease suppression for your plants.
“It makes your plants healthier, stronger, and more able to combat any diseases that are trying to take over,” she said.
There are a lot of right ways to compost and pick what’s going to work best for you and what your goals are for the compost.
People are also reading…
What to consider before composting?
Things to consider are your site, the materials that you have available, and the timeframe that you have to work with. Also, consider how much labor you plan to invest in the process and the appearance of the compost that you desire. What site is going to work best for you? Do you want it close to or even in your garden so don’t have far to move it, or are you looking to manage kitchen scraps?
What materials do you have on hand? What do you need to acquire?
When talking about building compost, you want to make sure that you're working with a good ratio, and the general ratio to consider is approximately 25 percent of your materials should be what are called “green” or “nitrogen-providing” materials. About 75 percent of your materials should be in the “brown” category, which means they provide carbon.
What food scraps to minimize or eliminate?
Citrus can build up. You can certainly use some of those citrus peels, but you don’t want to put an overwhelming amount of them in. Plant prunings from your yard, garden crops, and fresh grass would be your “green” or “nitrogen-based” items.
When we’re looking at “brown” or “carbon,” think dried leaves, aged hay and straw, newspaper shreds, chipped clean wood, dried grass (that has no chemicals on it), shredded paper, wood, coffee filters, sawdust and tea bags. Paper should not be shiny or glossy. Bleached paper can bring in unwanted chemicals.
With a small system, meat, dairy and oils can overwhelm the system and introduce harmful bacteria. They can also draw in some wild animals that you might not want to have around your small farm or home. Rabbits have wonderful manure to incorporate into our compost, but other animals or pets do not.
“I steer away from incorporating weeds with seeds just because it takes a lot of heat to kill the seed from a lot of our common weeds that we have here in North Dakota,” Halvorson said. “We can use coffee grounds, but not more than 20 percent of the compost.”
Worm bins are fun, especially if you have children around, as they can be a fun thing to explore with kids.
“When I lived in Chicago, I had a worm bin in our kitchen in our little apartment. It was the only way I could compost while living there. You can add material to it continuously and worm castings have some of the highest nutrient level out there as far as a compost nutrient level and it is really good for your daily food waste,” she said. But worms are living creatures, and they need their habitat to be maintained. They can also be attractive to fruit flies.
Types of composting
If you use a bin or box, it is going to hold heat better than an open pile to keep those consistently warm temperatures. It can also help deter animals, and if you turn it, it can be red pretty fast, but of course it’s going to take time and materials.
Another option is a compost tumbler, which is pretty handy if you've got a small space or neighbors that would be really concerned with a compost system in a yard. However, there are some significant disadvantages to consider with the tumblers, as they are expensive and only produce a very small volume based on the size.
Another type is called a pit or a hole compost. Basically, you dig a hole, you throw your compost materials in, you cover back up with some topsoil and you let it sit, and then a year later you plant in that zone and the roots are going to reach down and grab those nutrients from the compost.
Halvorson explained the many different kinds of composting, how to set one up and the advantages and disadvantages.
“One thing that people frequently tell me is, ‘Oh great, I’d love to do compost, but it’s so smelly.’ If you’re managing your compost, a good compost system is not going to be smelly,” she said.
Good luck composting and email FARRMS if you would like to hear the soil health webinar. The group advised it will soon put it on its web page.
Callander, co-owner of Nature’s Roots Farms, said, “The goal of today’s workshop is to give you an introduction course to soil health and to understand that your farm is an ecosystem, meaning if you pull on one string of the web that is soil health, it will have an impact throughout your whole farm’s ecosystem.”
For more information on small farms, see FARRMS at https://www.farrms.org.
Photo: Jay Furher, director of Menoken Farm, practices good soil health in its gardens, including carrying worms to be added to the compost.
@font-face {font-family:"MS Mincho"; panose-1:2 2 6 9 4 2 5 8 3 4; mso-font-alt:"MS 明朝"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 134217746 0 131231 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:"\@MS Mincho"; panose-1:2 2 6 9 4 2 5 8 3 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 134217746 0 131231 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Cambria",serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p {mso-style-priority:99; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-font-kerning:0pt; mso-ligatures:none;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}