Scraps to soil: The benefits of composting at home

It is officially springtime; last Friday the vernal equinox marked the first day of spring here in the Northern Hemisphere yet feels like spring has been here for a few weeks already. If you have been out in your garden lately you will likely have noticed the lack of snow and sprouting bulbs, irises, yarrow, and grass. I made these observations last week while utilizing the string of warm days and the extra hour of daylight after work to tidy up my yard. Between cleaning up windblown tree branches and other stray tidbits, I decided to give my compost pile its first good turn of the season. Incorporating leaves from last fall into my accumulated kitchen scraps from this winter reminded me of the benefits my garden receives from turning my kitchen scraps into a lovely soil amendment. Hopefully this article helps bring the benefits of composting to your garden as well. 

I have long been a proponent of composting. While growing up, my parent’s house always had one, if not many, compost piles or bins in various states of decomposition. When I lived in the dorms at Western, I would collect my kitchen scraps, walk them across campus, and add them to the compost piles in the Chipeta Garden. After moving to my first apartment in Gunnison, I continued composting by walking my compost from my apartment to the pile at Bill’s Park Garden; and I now compost in my own backyard pile. Keeping my kitchen scraps out of the landfill and instead using them to create compost for local community gardens or for use in my garden is well worth a few extra minutes on trash day. 

In the US, only 5% of food waste is composted annually with the remainder ending up in landfills. Food waste accounts for 24% of annual landfill contributions and is the number one contributor to landfills by weight. Organic waste – food waste combined with yard waste plus wood, paper, and cardboard – comprises over 51% of municipal solid waste. Due to rapid aerobic decomposition (the breakdown of organic materials in the absence of oxygen which produces methane gas) organic waste is the largest contributor to methane emissions from municipal landfills, comprising 58% of methane emissions nationwide. 

Instead of thinking of food scraps as garbage, think of composting as nature’s recycling system. Similar to recycling glass bottles and aluminum cans, composting organic waste diverts material away from landfills, thereby reducing needed landfill space and cutting methane emissions. Unlike recycling glass and aluminum, food scraps can be composted in your backyard or community garden with minimal transportation, and the process produces valuable soil amendments. 

The process of composting uses organic waste to feed microbes, earthworms, and other organisms which in turn add valuable macro- and micro-nutrients into the soil through microbial decomposition, thus creating nutrient-rich ‘food’ sources for our plants. Unlike synthetic fertilizers available in hardware stores, composting contributes not only nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) to soils but also trace elements to be used by plants including calcium, copper, iron, sulfur, magnesium, iodine, and manganese. Compost also supports living soil systems by creating a host environment for microorganisms including beneficial bacteria, fungi, and protozoa which continuously aid in the decomposition of organic materials while releasing nutrients for use by plants. 

Building soil structure through the use of compost allows the home gardener to control exactly what is added to their garden beds while cutting out the need to buy synthetic fertilizers. The presence of compost increases fungal populations in soils and builds networks of fungal hyphen (the tiny threads connecting the fungal network) which serve as a net to hold soil particles in place. The combination of stabilized sand and clay particles, root hairs, fungal hyphen, and bits of organic matter allow soil to retain water and nutrients for plants to use for days after watering or a rain event. Additionally, healthy soil structure helps moderate soil temperature and reduce plant stress. 

Home composting is as simple as diverting food scraps from the trashcan into a garden space; food scraps can be collected and turned into compost in piles, bins, or even a simple trench in your garden. The process of turning kitchen scraps into a high-quality soil amendment follows the formula of Carbon + Nitrogen + Moisture + Heat + Aeration + Time = Compost. Carbon sources (brown materials) include leaves and twigs, shredded newspaper or carboard, or browned plant matter; nitrogen sources (green materials) include food scraps, green plant matter, or coffee grounds. Combine brown materials with green materials in a 3 to 1 ratio (three parts carbon/ brown to one part nitrogen/ green), keep the compost moist, and turn it occasionally (to introduce aeration) and the decomposition process will introduce its own heat to the system. It is that easy to make your own compost.

If you lack a space to make your own compost, consider contributing your food scraps to compost piles at local community gardens such as the WCU Chipeta Garden, Mountain Roots’ Bills Park, Sunshine, and Community School gardens or to the Elements Compost collection program in Gunnison and Crested Butte. Elements Mountain Compost is a great alternative for anyone interested in diverting their food waste but lacking a space to make their own compost as the program has collection points at the Gunnison City Market and Clark’s Market in Crested Butte (for more information visit elementscompost.com). 

If you have questions about your garden or how to get started composting, visit the Gunnison Valley Producer’s Guild website for information, educational topics, and events at www.gvpg.org.