What’s Ahead?

CSC will continue to educate the community about the benefits of composting and provide instruction and equipment to encourage home composting and vermiculture.

We also plan to build and maintain community compost areas and provide shredding service for community yard wastes.

Compost

What is Compost?

Compost is decomposed organic material.   It’s one of the ways nature supplies plant food (fertilizer) to perpetuate the cycle of life.  Fallen leaves and other vegetation, as well as animal dung and other materials, are broken down by bacteria and worms.  Usually dark brown, soft, even a tad fluffy when finished, the sweet smell so prevalent in forests is largely due to the compost that has collected there over the years.

Why Compost?

Compost makes soil come alive!  It improves soil aeration and drainage, adds nutrients, and promotes biological activity.  Far superior to chemical fertilizers that leave soil sterile, compost contains a greater variety of nutrients, as well as the microbes needed to make them absorbable by the plants. 

Composting is free fertilizer, is easy and cuts down on the volume of trash in landfills.

Vermiculture uses red worms to turn kitchen wastes into worm castings, nature’s most perfect fertilizer and an excellent soil conditioner.

What’s Happening?

CSC members compost community garden and orchard wastes to enhance the soil.

Many Stelle residents compost their kitchen, yard, and garden wastes using various systems, such as bins, compost tumblers, and wire collectors.

Several residents are using kitchen wastes to create worm castings.

CSC provides composting and vermiculture workshops.

A tall compost pile in the CSC Gardens held together with wire fencing.

An active compost pile requires air.  The tube has holes drilled in it to provide air to the center of the pile.

Turning the compost pile helps it stay hot by adding air and insuring good moisture levels. Compost must be kept moist but not soggy. 

Steam rises from a hot pile.  A well maintained pile will maintain a temperature between 135 and 160 degrees

Grass is being added to the pile in the background while the one in the foreground  looks like it's ready to be used.  Note the pipe with large holes drilled in it that was used to provide air to the center of the pile

Red worms and brown gold.  If you look closely, you can see some of the red worms still working on this nearly  done compost.  It's called brown gold because when it comes to growing things it doesn't get any better than this.