I would never call myself a hard-core composter. My thought for many years was that compost just happens. You rake up the breadfruit leaves under the tree and just let them do their thing. I did have to put some coconut logs around the tree to stop the wild chickens from scratching them back all over the yard again. If I needed some well-rotted compost, I just dug down into the leaf pile.
Gradually, I upped my game. For one thing, as my two breadfruit/ulu trees grew, there were times that I needed to find another space for all those extra dropped leaves. At the same time, I decided that it really was wrong to be putting my kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps into the trash bin. I needed to put them back into the earth of my garden. I was able to buy some fence wiring from ACE and made a four-foot-wide cage for my back yard. It was now time to get more serious about composting.
I knew that a good compost needed both brown, dry as well as green, fresh organic matter. The ulu leaves quickly supplied the dry brown. I hear that some people have a hard time getting enough brown so use crumpled cardboard to lighten up the compost. Although I do throw in some cardboard stuff like egg flats and paper roll tubes, I am happy to send most of my scrap paper and cardboard packages off to H power in the city trash bins. Recyling it for our island's electricity seems just as important. The dry, curled leaves of the ulu do a great job in giving air space in my compost.
The vege scraps, peelings and papaya skins etc. from my kitchen are now collected in a covered pot on my kitchen bench. I take a daily morning walk out to the compost heap to deposit this green waste amongst the ulu leaves. The wild chickens quickly caught on to my routine and hover by the compost cage looking hopeful. I might throw them a few papaya seeds but most of the scraps still go into the compost. I have a wire top over the cage to keep the chickens out. At one time, I tried covering the compost pile with big cardboard sheets but within a few weeks I found a family of baby rats sheltering under it so decided to keep the compost open to the elements. I do push the kitchen scraps down into the ulu leaves, so they are not up on top to attract flies and birds. I have never noticed any bad smell coming from the heap.
Every several months I would dig down into the one compost cage to scoop out the compost in the bottom if I needed it for the garden. The garden plants that got the compost were so much stronger and those in my kitchen containers looked fabulous. At the beginning of 2021 I decided it was time to up my composting game again so I would have a bigger supply of compost for the garden. I went over to ACE and got more wiring (now considerably more expensive) and made another cage. I know lots of folks around here make their compost bins from free wooden pallets, but I wanted something I could work with and move easily. Now composting is becoming more of a science for me. I have checked a few books out of the library on the subject and I am more concerned about the brown and green ratio. Compost breaks down quickly in the tropics so that I find I can pile up the organic matter for 4-5 months, then leave it for the same amount of time, to get the black gold....a rich, well-rotted compost for my garden use. Having two compost cages has really improved things. One I am collecting in, and one is sitting and composting down. The ulu leaves are big and loose so I can pile them up to the top of the collecting cage and then a few days later I can add big armfuls again as the older leaves compress down.
Just like with our bodies, the more different foods we eat, the wider range of nutrients we get. The more variety of organic waste going into the cage; the richer the compost will be in nutrition for the garden. Just keep those junk weed seed pods out. A small compost heap is not going to get hot enough to kill them and you do not want the seeds going into your flower beds. I love to gather the nitrogen rich green leaves of the haole koa weed trees to add in. Then there are all of the hedge clippings, young weeds etc. from your garden. Some put their lawn clippings into the compost, but I prefer to leave mine on the lawn to nourish the grass. Comfrey leaves are another excellent addition, and some gardeners grow it especially for this purpose. In rainy weather, there is a wide amount of wild green growth that can be added like the plantain weeds. I also like to pick up bits of seaweed that I find washed up on the beach to add in some extra minerals. (This past week I also found two dead small fish on the beach, and I brought those home to bury under some fruit trees.)
To encourage the composting organisms to set up home I occasionally throw a bit of soil into the heap. When I clear out a composted heap, I throw some of the organism rich compost on to the new pile to get things moving. In dry weather I will water the compost heaps when I water the garden with a hose. Turning the compost is good too for good aeration so all those little worms, bugs and bacteria have oxygen to do their job. Some people will shovel their pile from one bin to another, while others use a plastic barrel to make their compost in and roll it to turn the pile over. Early last year I went out to the compost cage with a garden fork determined to turn the compost. Instead, I badly pulled my back which resulted in a few months of physical therapy to stop the pain. So, guess what? I no longer bother with turning the compost. I just hope all the dry ulu leaves are making air pockets. I do poke a stick into the pile every few weeks and that is about as much aeration labor I will do. Despite that, compost still happens!
As the rotting heap gets low in the cage, and almost ready for use, I have another trick up my sleeve. I open up the top of the cage and throw in some papaya seeds. Next thing the wild chickens are in there scratching to find those seeds and are giving the compost a good last stir up. Hopefully they are also adding a bit of extra nitrogen as well. The chickens do not know that I refer to them as my food storage. If a zombie attack happens, they will find themselves trapped in my compost cage. I am just priming them for the event!
Now that I have the two cages it is so much easier to just lift the cage off the composted heap and shovel the rich compost into my wheelbarrow to distribute in my yard. Most of it will go to the kitchen garden which is mostly in containers. Really, having a compost heap and growing a tree are the two biggest things that us gardeners can do in our little home spaces to help the planet that we live on. Both will also give us practical rewards and joy.
Aloha
PS July 2022
Have realized that I need to change my composting dates. I was figuring on 6 months for each compost cage to be filled and then sit. I had thought new years day and the beginning of July would work as easy days to remember as changeover days. But at the beginning of July, my container vege garden is in full production and I am not needing extra compost right now. I realize that I need to change the dates to early spring and early fall when I am starting winter or summer crops off and need the new compost to pump up the containers. So, my change over days will now be the beginning of March and the beginning of Sept. I had better mark it on the calendar.
August 2022
Less than a year later than setting up my second compost cage, I am pissed off because somebody came into the back yard and stole it one night. At least the compost it contained was still there. I suspect a local chicken (cock) fighter as I saw one walking through the back yard the day before trying to catch one of the wild roosters. There are young boys that come through with their fighting roosters all the time, but I have never had any problem with them. It is the trickier adult that I suspect who needed a cage for his bird. Anyways.....there goes the money paid for that cage and I am reluctant to dole out more for another one that might also disappear. But I really need more compost so I will have to think of something else.
