Purchasing my salvation
I am now the proud owner of a giant green monolith that I believe is the source of tremendous entertainment for Mr. Dr. Think Science.
It is a backyard composter.
Here is why this is entertaining in my household. I routinely get what many might call, um…obsessed, about a particular issue or problem. You have probably picked up on that little personality quirk in reading these columns. But, I do not always think it through completely before acting rather impulsively and implementing the “perfect solution” typically accompanied by much fanfare on my part and more than a few cajoling “come on honey, this is going to be perfect, you’ll see” quips to Mr. Dr. Think Science.
Case in point, I recently got the notion that I would give up paper napkins in my home and use cloth. I found some at a good price, laundered them, and folded the entire basket. The searing backpain brought back instant memories of tiny, tiny baby clothes that took hours to fold, because you can fit a lot of tiny baby clothes in one load of laundry. I also was reminded about the raging debate between cloth and disposable diapers. What is the environmental cost of placing disposables in the landfill versus putting the cloth diaper detergents in the water supply? I never quite worked out which was better, and disposable diapers won the less-leaky test for our son. I am not sure how well I am going to be able to stick to my new cloth-napkin-only rule.
So, back to my new composter. I am particularly proud of this little, well huge (at least in size), purchase. And, I am sure once this one will be a tremendous success. I researched this on the web, found a reliable product, and a great price on-line. I will write about my Adventures In Composting and let you know all about its fabulosity. It will be perfect, you’ll see.
In the meantime, here is the really amazing science inside composting. Within a compost pile is a whole little ecosystem all its own. The composting critters that make up this ecosystem come in two varieties: the critters that chemically transform the raw material, and the critters that mechanically transform the raw material.
The chemical transformers are bacteria and fungi. Who knew I’d come to love either of these groups of organisms? Bacteria and fungi oxidize the materials in the compost pile. This means they use oxygen in the process of eating the carbon sources in the pile. Living, or formerly living, materials are made of carbon. Things made of carbon are said to be organic, in the scientific sense of the word (not in the ‘synthetic-free food’ sense of the word). These critters use carbon and in turn produce nitrogen and phosphorus as waste products. Nitrogen and phosphorus are the main elements in fertilizers for plants.
The mechanical transformers are the bugs; worms, sow bugs (roly poly bugs), centipedes, millipedes, spiders, beetles, and more. These critters chew, chomp, grind, suck, dig, and digest the materials in the compost pile. Often these critters need to work first, breaking the material into smaller bits more effectively tackled by the chemical transformers. Of course, these critters also eat the chemical transformers. Its all in the package. There’s a whole little food chain inside the compost pile, and when you transfer the compost to your garden, you extend that chain to higher organisms that might have been excluded from the compost pile, like birds. Hopefully, your garden isn’t an incidental part of this food chain!
I am not going to delve into how one successfully composts in order to create this cool little ecosystem, as I am not quite sure if I know myself how this is done! But, I’ll keep you posted.
Lara Ferry-Graham is Research Faculty at California State University’s Moss Landing Marine Labs, a parent of two semi-helpful gardeners, and writes mostly opinion. You can read more of her opinions at her Science Blog: swimswithfishes.blogspot.com.
