No-Waste Composting: Small-Space Waste Recycling Indoors and Out

Composting For Everyone

No-Waste Composting: Small-Space Waste Recycling Indoors and Out by Michelle Balz

I've been cold composting for nearly two decades. I've read many books in which they mention composting & nearly all of them seem pretty adamant about hot composting. It always made me feel like I was doing something wrong even though I had loads of compost each year to apply to my rows each autumn. It was only until more recently I finally felt free. There is nothing wrong with how I compost. It simply takes longer. Mother Nature will do the work. She always does. Humans seem to have this need to over complicate everything.

If you like to make it complicated, then you want this book. If you want to hide your compost due to neighbors complaints, then you want this book. If you want to DIY your own pet waste "septic system", you want this book.

When you come right down to it, you don't really need this book. With that said, it's not a bad book or a worthless book. In fact, it's a very good book. But truly, if you put your food scraps & leaf litter in a pile on the ground & continue to add organics to it, you will eventually get compost. That's pretty much how I do it. However, I live on a small farm. I don't have any tractors though. It's human power all the way.

Everything gets dumped on one compost pile for the year. I don't even turn it. The pile is too big, it's too flipping hot outside & I already have more work than I can handle. Come autumn, I remove the outside bits that are not composted & start a new compost pile. What is composted goes onto my rows which I then cover for the winter.

Compost is pure gold. My method means I always have two compost piles chilling. Not cooking. Well, sometimes they get hot depending on what has been dumped on them. Compost slows come winter, but as I said, Mother Nature does her thing. She's got this down pat. Just don't put your compost against your house or fence or in a wet low lying area & you should be good to go. Food scraps, lawn clippings (you don't use lawn chemicals do you??? I really hope you don't), leaves, straw, hay, etc.

This awesome little book provides several projects for different composting methods. You can even set up to compost inside your home. There really are some great projects including worm bins. I'm thinking of incorporating the pet waste septic for my cats waste. I currently have a dedicated cat waste pile. I use Okocat kitty litter so it breaks down as well. The thing is, the cat waste pile just gets bigger & bigger. I'm not too sure what to do with it. The pile is 11+ years old now! A note to my fellow crazy cat households, this book only discusses dog waste. For feline waste, composting is not recommended. My thoughts on the pet septic project however, seems viable (to me). No mention that I recall for feline waste in the pet septic. After you read it, you can decide for yourself.

If you are afraid of what is safe to compost, this book will help you out. If you are just afraid in general, this book will ease most of your concerns. The author recommends against composting meat scraps & similar but if you have a hot pile & a tractor, for example, you can compost anything. There is a farm who even composts their animals after they pass. Crazy, but it works for them. Note that it can & often does attract rodents, so there are legitimate concerns about adding these types of tidbits to your pile.

There are also some really attractive projects that I never heard of like the African Keyhole Garden. This is basically a raised bed with a small compost area inside it. Another nifty idea comes from the Viking era called a Hugelkulture Bed. This method uses trees as it's base (not live trees). Some composting methods are a lot more work than others, but they all have their usefulness depending on ones situation & goals.

Simply put this book is great for the beginner composter. Even if you are experienced, there is probably something in here you didn't know. I love beginner books as they often provide fresh ideas &/or refresh me on things I forgot.

When you come right down to it, every single one of us should be composting, no matter where we live.