One Man’s Trash Is Another Garden’s Treasure

By Kelly Morris

Composting is the natural way of recycling organic matter and nutrients back into soil to be reused. It increases soil’s ability to retain moisture and reduces the need for fertilizers.

But why compost?

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found landfills to be one of the largest producers of methane, the second most prevalent greenhouse gas emitted from human activities. Though organic material like food, paper, and yard debris is 100 percent compostable, it’s also what we most throw away in our landfills, thus emitting mass amounts of greenhouse gas. Of all things sent to the landfill in Denver alone, 58 percent is organic material.

So what can you do?

Sign up on Denver’s compost collection page to see if your address is eligible. You’ll get a green bin to start filling with all your excess organic material.

Vivian Walker has been composting in Colorado for more than thirty years.

“I would definitely recommend it,” she says. “It keeps your refuse out of the sewage system and landfills, and it’s great for your garden, great for your environment!”

Another option is backyard composting.

Organic material must be separated into carbon and nitrogen sources which are simplified as brown and green sources. Carbon, or browns, include things like leaves, straw, and woody material. Nitrogen, or greens, include items like grass and food scraps.

Once the material is separated and put into a bin in the backyard, it’s broken down by invertebrates that naturally start to appear. Mites, millipedes, beetles, sowbugs, earwigs, earthworms, slugs, and snails start to gather in the material and “cook” the compost through the heat they generate.

This process kills harmful bacteria and when it’s finished, the pile has a crumbly texture that is nutrient rich and soil-like.

To create your own backyard compost, choose a level area in your backyard that’s at least three square feet and receives only partial sun.

Loosen an inch or so of the soil to allow the soil microorganisms access to the compost. Start adding alternate layers of carbon and nitrogen materials to your compost with a layer of soil in between. Mix the layers and water them until they feel like a wrung-out sponge. Throw straw or a plastic bag over the compost, which will prevent the direct sunlight from drying out the pile. Stir the pile once a week. Continue with the layers, mixing and watering and in two months you’ll have your own compost. Brad Paterson audited a Master Composting Training Program in Denver and is about to start his own compost. “Backyard composting helps food waste decay in an environmentally responsible way,” he says. However, it does take continual effort to maintain, like turning the compost and cutting up material into two-by-two inch pieces.

“If you don’t do it right, it can smell,” Brad says. “It could also attract vermin if the organics aren’t buried deep enough.”

You’ll know your compost is ready when you can’t recognize most of the materials and it starts to smell like a forest. Once it reaches that stage, you can start to use it for houseplants, lawns, vegetables, flowers, herbs, trees, and shrubs. Still skeptical? Denver Urban Gardens offers free classes from April through October at the Grove Community Garden, located at 13th and Colorado, to teach Denverites how to compost.

Happy composting!