Grow with Grace: Composting for Fall Garden and Earth’s Sake

For people like me who love fall gardening, the season is just beginning. Even if you’ve decided not to plant this fall, many summer vegetables have run their course. If your garden is anything like mine, you may find yourself removing an increasing number of plants every week.

Early fall is a great time to add to your compost if you have one — or start composting if you don’t. Not everything, however, lends itself to a healthy heap.

Setting up a composter and knowing what to put in — and what to keep out — is an easy and productive fall project. Understanding the benefits of composting, learning about new composting efforts here in the Garden State, and following a few simple guidelines can keep lots of organic matter out of the landfill while enriching your soil for more success every year.

Let’s dig in!

Why compost?

Food waste is the single largest material category disposed of in New Jersey landfills. What does that mean? Well, for one thing, food decomposing in a landfill contributes to methane emissions. Ew.

For another, the vegetable matter you throw in the trash uses a lot of resources—fuel, landfill space, manpower and money.

Turning some of it into compost turns that model on its head. Not only are you saving those resources, but you’re creating something you can use to enrich your soil, buy less fertilizer and grow more food.

From trash, as it were, to treasure.

Who wants to save a bunch of smelly garbage?

Nobody. Not me. Not you. Not the people who live near the landfill.

The good news is that properly composted organic plant material shouldn’t smell bad. Choosing an appropriate composting method and adding the right materials produces beautiful compost that smells like what it is—good, rich soil.

Choosing a composter

I encourage composting for many reasons, not the least of which is keeping stuff out of the landfill. Unfortunately, many people buy a composter and expect magic. After a season or two, they decide it doesn’t work, blame the composter and abandon the project.

I have three composters, two of which I purchased for pennies on the dollar on Facebook Marketplace. I can’t encourage you enough to look for tumbling composters on resale sites. While they have limited capacity, they’re very easy to use and can make compost relatively quickly.

Here in beautiful Monmouth County, residents can also purchase an Earth Machine composter. These are fantastic composters that turn organic matter into great material for the garden.

One important note from personal experience: Once you’ve assembled an Earth Machine, use a few repair straps to secure the top and bottom halves together.

I have mine in a space large enough for two. Every year, I pick up the entire composter and move it over. I use the finished compost left behind, and anything that hasn’t broken down goes right back in. I find this much easier than trying to remove compost through the small door at the bottom.

Trust me on the straps. If the two halves aren’t attached, getting the whole thing back together after you lift it is quite a challenge.

You can also make a composting bin from an old trash can or build a large bin from wood-framed wire panels. Open bins can be a little more challenging because maintaining the right temperature and moisture level is important. Too much water — or too little heat — can slow decomposition.

There are also super-efficient mechanical composters on the market. They work quickly, and some can process materials that I wouldn’t recommend putting in a traditional backyard compost pile. The downside is that they can be pricey and require electricity. Some are marketed for the kitchen, but people I know who use them say they can produce a bit of an odor and are better suited to the garage.

What goes in?

Vegetable and fruit scraps
Grass clippings
Weeds that haven’t gone to seed
Leaves
Untreated sawdust
Small amounts of wood ash
Coffee grounds
Flowers

What stays out?

Meat and other animal-product scraps
Diseased or infected plants
Weeds that have gone to seed
Pet feces
Food coated with grease or soap residue

A note from my garden: I never put old tomato plants in my compost because they’re very prone to diseases that can carry from season to season. By fall, many squash and cucumber plants are also showing signs of powdery mildew. I keep those out of my heap, too.

Maintaining your compost

Don’t let your compost dry out completely. Water it when necessary or make sure it’s getting enough natural moisture. You’re aiming for roughly the texture and dampness of a wrung-out sponge.

You also need a good balance of materials. A mix of fresh “greens” — things like grass clippings and vegetable scraps — and dry “browns” — such as leaves and small twigs — provides the carbon and nitrogen the microorganisms doing all that work need.

Turn your pile regularly to add air and keep decomposition moving. Once a month is a good minimum.

Your nose can also tell you a lot.

If the pile smells rotten, it probably needs more air. Turn it.

If it smells strongly of ammonia, add some dry brown material such as leaves or straw.

If it smells earthy? You’re doing something right.

Accessorizing for the home composter

Yes, you can certainly buy yourself some new shoes in which to work your pile, but I’m talking about accessories that actually make composting easier.

First, keep a small bin under your kitchen sink. If you take scraps to the compost pile every day, almost any container will do.

If you’re like me and the compost goes out every couple of days when the trash goes out, a small countertop or under-sink compost bin with a charcoal filter is a worthwhile investment. It helps control odors and pests. Rinse it after you empty it, and leaving it just a little damp gives your compost an extra splash of moisture when the next batch of kitchen scraps goes out.

For turning and aerating the pile, you can use a pitchfork. Corkscrew-style compost aerators also do a good job, but my favorite is the Yard Butler with its folding “wings.”

When you’re ready to use your compost, a screen sifter is handy. You can purchase one, but they’re also very easy to make. I use a wooden frame fitted with approximately 6 mm mesh that’s large enough to sit across the top of my wheelbarrow.

The beautiful finished compost falls through. Anything too large to pass through the screen goes right back into the pile for next time.

Old food, new rules

New Jersey has been taking steps to keep more food waste out of landfills, and that may mean more composting and food-waste recycling options become available through counties, municipalities and private programs.

For the home gardener, though, there’s no need to wait.

Yesterday’s vegetable scraps can become tomorrow’s soil — and eventually, next summer’s tomatoes.

I’m off to toil in the (composted) soil!

Grace

** Grace Cangemi Ryan is a longtime area resident and master gardener who graduated from Rumson Country Day School in 1980, is an alum of the famous Barn Theatre in Rumson, a former longtime entertainment industry professional and Red Bank councilwoman from years back. She supports hyperlocal journalism and is a friend to this hyperlocal labor of love, R-FH Retro. Growing with Grace will appear in R-FH Retro weekly, offering gardening tips from Grace — or with Grace. If you need a little Grace in the form of help with your garden, give Grace a call. See her sponsorship below. **