composting
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The first recognisable composting in history was the early roman empire where typically waste materials from various agricultural harvests would be piled up to decompose until the following season by which time the matter would have started to decompose and at least resemble the initial stages of compost production.
Although the Romans were the first documented scenario of something that resembled composting the truth is the recycling of organic matter would have been a default of early human agriculture going back to the Greeks, Egyptians and Sumerians. We know that some agricultural Chinese techniques were very resourceful and efficient in terms of nutrient recycling so we are sure that this process was going on at least 8 thousand years ago. |
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Today Composting can take many forms, in industry large excesses of hay from agriculture can be mixed with slurry and semi composted for growing mushrooms for supermarkets and the bi product (mushroom compost can be used as a course ameliorant for garden soils.
Our typical recollection of composting is in the home and garden. There are various systems we can use to create good compost, however the range of compost productions success at home is a large one very rarely do households achieve the perfect compost they envisage when they buy a composter or create a compost heap. |
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There are many reasons for this but fundamentally there are two factors which contribute to domestic compost making failure. One is failing to recognise that compost and soil is a living breathing entity which requires a balanced environment of moisture, temperature, bacteria, fungi, invertebrate, to create the correct environment for successful composting. |
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The other factor is the integral parts of compost, nitrogen based and carbon based materials, the amount of manures and green matter to woody carbon based waste materials and in what density, large twigs and sticks mixed with fine grass clippings will not allow fast compost results. So many factors go into making perfect compost but fear not it’s a game of ratios. Get the fundamental parts right and a good system and you will have a very bountiful homemade compost supply.
Here at composting composters we are passionate about teaching you how to achieve this. |