Diary of a Compost Pile - April 12

Today I am welcoming a guest author to the blog. I am posting diary entries written by the compost pile built by the participants in my Basic Compost Workshop. Some of these are a few days late, but we'll soon catch up to "real time." It's all yours pile! --- Eric



Dear Diary,

My name is Fertilemyrtle Rottenpile. I am a compost pile, and this is my story…

I was created today by a group of Basic Compost Workshop participants under the instruction of Master Composter Eric Renger.



They built me using the hot-pile or “batch” method, assembling me all at once of alternating layers of browns, water, greens, and air. I feel nicely balanced --- about equal parts greens and browns, damp as a wrung-out sponge.

I contain all kinds of interesting ingredients. My browns are mostly leaves and chipped woody prunings from around the yard and about 15 gallons of large, unfinished compost material sifted out of my predecessor pile, but I also have a little bit of straw, some cardboard, some newspaper, and a few paper napkins. My greens are mostly shredded leafy material from around the yard, but I also have a generous load of vegetable trimmings, about 10 pounds of Starbucks coffee grounds, and a pile of poop from Roscoe the rabbit. I am a very diverse pile!

It’s great to be here, and I hope to get rot down to business. I feel I am going to be a very hot pile! I am very grateful to the workshop participants for building me so nicely, and I’m sure I will be a pile that they can be proud of --- nicely decomposed, and not a bit smelly.

-- FR