Becoming a Backyard Alchemist

A few years ago, my family and I stayed at a cabin at an old YMCA camp in Nevada City that had a composting toilet.While we had gradually been working toward living more consciously and responsibly, I have to admit it was strange and a little creepy to be using a waterless commode.

Daddy long-legs would sometimes crawl up and out over the rim (I had to lift the lid and check for them before I sat down), and the hole was wider than that of a conventional toilet – and deep. Needless to say, I tried not to linger. Our sons were ages four and one at the time, and we were afraid they'd fall in, so we used a baby gate to close off the hallway to keep them from wandering into the bathroom unsupervised.

Obviously, we're not quite ready to install our own composting toilet, but we have been backyard composting since our days in Laguna Beach in the early 1990's. Back then, my husband, Brian, was building furniture and decorative boxes out of recycled wood. He'd throw the sawdust into a bucket and it gradually decomposed. We added it to our tiny chili garden. Those chilis were the hottest and tastiest we'd ever grown.

When we moved to Oakland, the city was giving away free composting bins. We put one in our backyard, and since it was mostly patio, we mixed the compost with the soil of our potted plants and vegetables, and were amazed at the results.

Here in San Ramon, we have an enclosed bin into which we put all sorts of things: Banana peels, coffee grounds, discarded greens and trimmings, dried weeds and grass, chopped-up palm fronds, sawdust, eggshells, torn-up cardboard egg cartons.

Our boys (now 5 and 9) are learning about organic matter, and how it can magically become something else. It appeals to the scientist in them. It's like a big experiment: First we have "garbage," now we have rich food for the garden! They love to dump stuff into the bin and stir it up with a pitchfork. And, of course, they love to find the earthworms.

I can always tell when Brian has spread compost through the garden: The plants look brighter and perkier almost immediately.

Composting is nature's way of recycling. It is the natural process of decomposition of organic material into a rich soil amendment. If you want to do your own composting, the ingredients you need are made up of two types of organic materials – the "browns" (dry) and "greens" (wet). Browns include wood chips or sawdust, dried leaves, grass and other plants. Greens are fresh, moist materials like grass cuttings and food scraps. (Note: never put meats, fats or grease into your compost as they will attract rodents).

It's important to have a balance of wet, green materials and dry, brown materials. This balance generates high temperatures that slowly "simmer" and create compost. If your compost is too dry, that will slow down the process because it won't generate enough heat. If your compost is too wet, it could start to smell.

The benefits of compost are many. It improves soil structure, texture and aeration; it promotes soil fertility and stimulates healthy root development. Compost loosens clay soil and increases its water-holding capacity – especially important for San Ramon residents, since our soil is mostly clay. Compost also helps the environment by reducing the amount of organic material that ends up in our local landfill. When organic matter is put into a landfill, it reacts with other materials and creates toxic leachate (the liquid that drains or "leaches" from a landfill) that could contaminate nearby streams or groundwater.

The City of San Ramonstruck up a pilot campaign last year to encourage composting by offering some residents a free countertop pail for food scraps and certain paper products. It's not composting per se, but items that would otherwise end up in the trash (and ultimately, landfills) eventually made their way into a compost bin. My friend Terri Anne decided to try it, and loves it. "We simply bring our countertop bin to our yard waste bin outside and dump it," she said. "It feels great to be able to do a small part in helping the environment – and so easily."

There are several kinds of compost bins, including enclosed bins (the simplest and most common), rolling bins, compost tumblers, and worm bins. Or you could just heap your compost in a corner of your yard, or dig a shallow pit for it. The great thing is that you can be as lazy or diligent about tending your compost; it happens, regardless.

For more information on how to compost and the different types of composting bins available, there are some great websites you can go to, including: www.composting101.com and www.MasterGardening.com.

You can also check out some composting videos at:  www.youtube.com.

Amy McCurdy is a writer, publicist and full-time mom to two boys, Dylan, 8, and Vincent, 5.