Backyard composting Michigan style…
My husband, Al, first started learning about composting in California through the Tulare County Master Gardener’s program in 1986. When we moved to the country a year later, he decided to make some compost piles in the backyard so all of our vegetable matter from the kitchen and garden could eventually be put back into the soil.
They were fairly simple to construct, circular in shape and made of field fencing. Each bin was about five feet in diameter with a long post in the center and filled with layers of vegetable scraps, grass cuttings, leaves and occasionally horse manure. Al had to water them daily during the spring and summer months.
The posts were taken out after things had packed down, allowing for better circulation of air. He also turned them regularly, taking down the wires and shoveling the compost into new bins so the stuff on the top of the old piles would be on the bottom of the new. Worms also found their way from the ground below into the layers of compost and helped speed up the decomposition process. The end result of Al’s hard labor was rich, fertile compost that was mixed in with the soil in the garden and around areas where new shrubs were planted.
I liked the practice of composting because we were able to recycle most of the organic waste from the kitchen like egg shells, peels and even coffee grounds. In fact, along with recycling most of our cardboard, plastic and glass, we only had to go to the dump once or twice a year. No need for a regular trash pickup service.
After we moved to one of the suburbs of Detroit, I wanted to start it up again in the backyard of our new place. Not so fast! Houses in the neighborhood were right next to each other, not spread out like in the country. The odor of the compost bins might attract rats or other rodents.
On Al’s birthday, I surprised him with a plastic composting bin that had two compartments and stood on a metal stand. Each compartment could be spun around individually to speed up the process. The new bin was smaller than his original circular ones, but the same concept of layering organic material, watering and turning was used.
Only one thing was lacking — the hot sun! Fruit flies were in abundance though, necessitating relocating the bin from the side door to some distance from the house. Insects were attracted to the former compost piles as well, but the piles were in a far corner of the property.
Then, one day I noticed small white worms on the lid. Maggots! Now that was a different problem. That’s when everything got dumped out, hosed off and the compost disposed of. No more food waste was used, even if it was organic and vegetable. Only leaves and other outdoor type yard waste except for grass clippings were thrown into the compost pile.
The problem with gnats and flies seemed to improve after that; however, three seasons have passed and the contents of the bin are still not ready to put back into our little garden. Michigan composting is certainly different than back in California.
Well, it’s understandable. We are in a new environment; old procedures have to be revised and expectations changed. And that applies to our lives as well. Even though it’s tempting and sometimes more desirable to cling on to our old ways, we have to let go of them in order to adjust to changes in life.
So it’s with the experience of becoming spiritually born as a Christian. When Christ becomes the Lord of our lives, “the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Although
the transformation of our characters is a process that happens over a long period of time, this promise gives us hope. With God’s help, we who are made new in Christ can transform the world around us. We can, we should and we must!
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.” * Matthew 9:16-17NIV