Compost: The Soul of Soil6 billion microbes per handful can’t be wrong!

The Ingredients

Brown Stuff (Carbon)Green Stuff (Nitrogen)

WaterTopsoil, Old Compost, or

ManureAir

The result: carbon-rich, organic matter able to hold 6 times its weight in water; holding trillions of beneficial microbes to help plants achieve their full potential.

Building a Pile

Gather Materials - Enough to make a pile 1m x 1m x 1m:

2/3 brown, 1/3green, 60 liters water, 20 liters finished compost or soil.

Find a place in the shade: keeps pile moist (no sun),

nicer for you (no sun).

Building a Pile

Add layers of chopped brown and green leaves, the smaller the better to increase rate of

decomposition. 6” brown then 2” green.

Scatter old manure, soil or compost to inoculate the pile with decomposing microbes.

Moisten with water. Mix. Continue till pile is a meter tall.

Building a Pile

A 1 square meter pile of wet, dirty leaves. Let stand for two

week. Mix and add more water as needed to keep just

moist, not too wet.

After 2 months of twice per month mixing, the pile will reduce to 1/3 its original size, be cool to

the touch, and ready to be applied to garden beds.

And it DOES get Hot!

Three days at 130 to 160 degrees F will kill all weed seeds and pathogenic bacteria making way for the beneficial

decomposers to colonize.

Hot – Active - Steady

Kitchen Waste CompostAdd a little each day

Make a layer of brown and green mixed together

Add a layer of old compost to inocculate with bacteria

Kitchen Waste Compost

Daily addition of kitchen waste Add in a layer over the baseRinse bucket, add water

What goes in: fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee grounds, egg shellsWhat stays out: oil, meat, bones

Kitchen Waste CompostFrom waste to quality soil in two months

Cover with a 2” layer of saved chopped brown leaves

Pile is ready to receive the next day’s offerings.

Repeat the layering process until pile is a meter tall then mix to the space to the left. What was added first is now well rotted and covers whole pile and you are ready to begin again with the next day’s offerings from the kitchen.

Using the Compost

One 20 liter bucket per meter of garden bed applied before each crop is planted will reinvigorate even the most depleted soils.

Spread and mix into the top 6-8” using only local tools….like fingers!

Using Compost Maize Bed Comparison

November 10: Planting Day. Bed to the left is double dug with

compost added. Bed to the right is single dug with no added compost.

Each receive 50 seeds and equal water.

One meter wide double dug bed with one bucket of compost added per

square meter. Note water retaining pathways between permanent beds.

Using Compost Maize Bed Comparison

Planting Day. Compost bed: 2 seeds per station at 35 cm hexagonal spacing. No compost bed: 4 seeds per station at one meter apart – the conventional way.

4 seeds close together will result in four weak plants and little food.

Using Compost Maize Bed Comparison

December 12: One month after planting. Note poor plant growth in the no-compost bed. Soil dried too quickly after germination so that only the strongest survived vs 98% viable plant and germination in compost bed.

Using Compost Maize Bed Comparison

December 18. Two weeks after second seedling has been transplanted into middle bed.

December 23. No compost bed struggling to retain enough water to maintain plant vigor.

Using Compost Maize Bed Comparison

December 28. 6 weeks after planting. Weed free and strong plants growing in moist soil. Hexagonal spacing maximizes space for roots and stems so as to maximize yield per unit area. Compost allows this to happen.

The Difference is Clear

Eight times the yield per unit area!

Permaculture and Bio-IntensiveGrowing Household Food Security

Compost, Double Digging, Perennial Guilds and Water Holding Swales