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Basic Composting
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120 pages, Spiral-bound
First published July 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 21, 2009
You know how if you buy a new appliance or electronic device it sometimes comes with a quick start guide? Well, this is the quick start for composting. It really does have everything you need to know, with step by step instructions for many different methods and lots of really pretty pictures. It can easily be read cover to cover in 30 - 45 minutes and kept around for reference. It would not be good for someone wanting to know lots of in depth details on soil composition etc. It has some pretty impressive contributors. The most important thing I got out of this is that you absolutely do not need fancy/ expensive bins and equipment to start composting.
July 30, 2018
The list of books about composting on Goodreads is large and keeps on growing. Basic Composting: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started (2003) and its second edition Composting Basics: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started (2017) don't contain any surprises if you've read a few other books about composting. For a raw beginner, reading almost any book about composting beats trying to figure things out by trial and error, and this book is as good as any other in that regard. You'll learn the basics about compost: what it is, how to make it, and how to make it faster by supplying more effort. Best of all, the book is mercifully brief, so you'll breeze through it easily in one or two sittings – thus giving you more time to make some compost.
The book is pretty conservative with its advice about what you can and cannot compost. It repeats the usual dire warnings against composting meats, dairy products, pet feces, and so on. While this advice is valid for the raw beginner, it's like telling skiers you should never ski down a double black diamond piste. Someone strapping on skis for the first time should stick to the green circle (bunny) slope, but advanced skiers with more skill can enjoy the steeper slopes in relative safety. The same is true for composting: the more skill you have, the more types of commonly forbidden materials you can compost safely (up to whole livestock "mortalities"). The book is aimed at beginners, but beginner advice is hardly the last word on composting.
While everybody who composts seems to develop his or her individual style, I have to take issue with one bit of advice that the book repeats several times. Namely, that you should "store" composting materials for later use. For example, autumn leaves may account for a large fraction (half or more) of your annual production of yard waste. This is a problem, because autumn leaves are rather "brown" (having a C:N ratio well above the ideal figure of 30). Adding all your autumn leaves to your pile or bin at once tends to overwhelm it with an excess of composting "browns." The book's "solution" is to "store" your excess leaves, apparently all winter, so you can then mix them with the "green" waste such as grass clippings that you'll have in abundance come spring and summer. Well, this is silly advice. If you can fit all those leaves into your pile or bin, that's the best place to "store" them, because even if they break down only slowly over the winter, they will break down to some extent. Then you will have plenty of partly-composted leaves to mix with your following spring and summer green waste, thus giving you a head start. If you were to somehow preserve your autumn leaves and not allow them to break down at all, that would only delay your production of finished compost when you later add them to spring and summer greens.
The book repeats the common advice to carefully assemble a collection of fresh browns and greens, and then layer them up into a pile. While that certainly will work, it overlooks the fact that most people's yards don't give them a choice about what to compost. You just have the yard waste that you have. What if you don't have greens and browns in the right amounts? Well, the solution is ridiculously simple once you understand the role of greens and browns in a compost pile. Greens supply biologically available nitrogen, which decomposing microbes consume to build up their cells and thus their numbers. The goal is not just to add nitrogen to the pile for its own sake, but to build up your community of decomposers, which can then eat the browns. So, if you have too many browns and not enough greens, just mix in a generous amount of older compost, which already has an established community of decomposers ready to eat more browns. The book does mention the option of throwing some soil in your compost pile to add microbes, but doesn't clearly explain why throwing in old compost works even better.
Old compost also works if you have too many greens and not enough browns. For example, suppose you have a tightly closed garbage can full of green grass clippings that have sat for a few days and putrefied in hot weather. When you dump the contents on the ground, the stench can be overwhelming, and houseflies will swarm to the decaying goo. But if you mix the gooey mess with a like volume of older compost, the old compost soaks up the excess rank liquid, and the odor almost immediately subsides. Older compost is highly porous and acts as a biofilter, absorbing odor molecules which the microbes in the compost then eat.
Old compost acts like a "miracle balancer," able to balance either an excess of browns or greens in your compost pile. Therefore, if you have enough old compost on hand to mix with your fresh waste materials, you don't have to worry about compost arithmetic and whether your greens or browns are balanced. And you certainly don't have to delay your composting by "storing" excess browns for later use.
The focus of the book is entirely on making compost on your own – what I call your composting inner game. This is similar to most other books on composting. There's nothing in it about creating composting synergies with your neighbors – what I call your composting outer game. For composting to become a common behavior, it's going to take more than a sprinkling of isolated individuals spontaneously getting the idea to do it all on their own. These early adopters scattered thinly around neighborhoods need methods for getting their less-motivated neighbors involved. That will require yet another book about composting, so I'm writing one.
The book is pretty conservative with its advice about what you can and cannot compost. It repeats the usual dire warnings against composting meats, dairy products, pet feces, and so on. While this advice is valid for the raw beginner, it's like telling skiers you should never ski down a double black diamond piste. Someone strapping on skis for the first time should stick to the green circle (bunny) slope, but advanced skiers with more skill can enjoy the steeper slopes in relative safety. The same is true for composting: the more skill you have, the more types of commonly forbidden materials you can compost safely (up to whole livestock "mortalities"). The book is aimed at beginners, but beginner advice is hardly the last word on composting.
While everybody who composts seems to develop his or her individual style, I have to take issue with one bit of advice that the book repeats several times. Namely, that you should "store" composting materials for later use. For example, autumn leaves may account for a large fraction (half or more) of your annual production of yard waste. This is a problem, because autumn leaves are rather "brown" (having a C:N ratio well above the ideal figure of 30). Adding all your autumn leaves to your pile or bin at once tends to overwhelm it with an excess of composting "browns." The book's "solution" is to "store" your excess leaves, apparently all winter, so you can then mix them with the "green" waste such as grass clippings that you'll have in abundance come spring and summer. Well, this is silly advice. If you can fit all those leaves into your pile or bin, that's the best place to "store" them, because even if they break down only slowly over the winter, they will break down to some extent. Then you will have plenty of partly-composted leaves to mix with your following spring and summer green waste, thus giving you a head start. If you were to somehow preserve your autumn leaves and not allow them to break down at all, that would only delay your production of finished compost when you later add them to spring and summer greens.
The book repeats the common advice to carefully assemble a collection of fresh browns and greens, and then layer them up into a pile. While that certainly will work, it overlooks the fact that most people's yards don't give them a choice about what to compost. You just have the yard waste that you have. What if you don't have greens and browns in the right amounts? Well, the solution is ridiculously simple once you understand the role of greens and browns in a compost pile. Greens supply biologically available nitrogen, which decomposing microbes consume to build up their cells and thus their numbers. The goal is not just to add nitrogen to the pile for its own sake, but to build up your community of decomposers, which can then eat the browns. So, if you have too many browns and not enough greens, just mix in a generous amount of older compost, which already has an established community of decomposers ready to eat more browns. The book does mention the option of throwing some soil in your compost pile to add microbes, but doesn't clearly explain why throwing in old compost works even better.
Old compost also works if you have too many greens and not enough browns. For example, suppose you have a tightly closed garbage can full of green grass clippings that have sat for a few days and putrefied in hot weather. When you dump the contents on the ground, the stench can be overwhelming, and houseflies will swarm to the decaying goo. But if you mix the gooey mess with a like volume of older compost, the old compost soaks up the excess rank liquid, and the odor almost immediately subsides. Older compost is highly porous and acts as a biofilter, absorbing odor molecules which the microbes in the compost then eat.
Old compost acts like a "miracle balancer," able to balance either an excess of browns or greens in your compost pile. Therefore, if you have enough old compost on hand to mix with your fresh waste materials, you don't have to worry about compost arithmetic and whether your greens or browns are balanced. And you certainly don't have to delay your composting by "storing" excess browns for later use.
The focus of the book is entirely on making compost on your own – what I call your composting inner game. This is similar to most other books on composting. There's nothing in it about creating composting synergies with your neighbors – what I call your composting outer game. For composting to become a common behavior, it's going to take more than a sprinkling of isolated individuals spontaneously getting the idea to do it all on their own. These early adopters scattered thinly around neighborhoods need methods for getting their less-motivated neighbors involved. That will require yet another book about composting, so I'm writing one.
August 16, 2022
Simple and straightforward. Gives you a great beginners guide to composting and how to go about setting it up. The pictures are detailed and it’s just info to get going but not so much that it feels overwhelming.
May 18, 2018
This is a great book because it has lots of pictures so you know exactly what he is talking about. It makes it easier to see which methods would work in your space and what equipment is required for each method.
December 1, 2008
Simple, to the point, great pictures, easy to understand for beginners. I used this book to build a compost bin that cost $10.
March 7, 2009
Best "how to" book for composting!
May 31, 2009
Great pictures, easy to follow guidelines. Lots of info put into simple form. Great book!
April 24, 2011
This book confirmed my nagging suspicion that yeah, are we ever doing it wrong. Time to head for Home Depot...
June 25, 2011
Extremely easy read on the basics of composting. I have only done a little myself but I know my kids would LOVE to try the worm composting!
March 18, 2014
A great reference for future use.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews