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The Rural Voice, 2000-11, Page 28Gardening Creating gardeners' `black gold' By Rhea Hamilton Seeger I was cleaning up around the garden and wanted a little soil to fill a depressed area in the back of the border. I headed to the black composter in the corner of the vegetable garden. This summer the door at the bottom of the composter was more often open than closed. I have been sneaking out shovelfuls of gardener's black gold all summer to put around new plants. Normally I don't have too much time in the fall to clean out the composter but this fall I tackled the job and it went rather well. I spread finished compost on the flower garden and turned the unfinished compost into the vegetable garden. By planting time next spring there will be very little of it left. More organized gardeners take some of the finished compost and store it in a dry place for use during early spring planting. Once cleaned out you can start your composter again. Place a layer of brush or broken plant stalks in the bottom. Add a layer of leaves (browns), about six inches and then an equal amount of food waste (greens) and top it all off with an inch of soil or finished compost. There is the start and you just repeat that sequence. Always bury greens or food waste with a layer of soil, compost or leaves. The cooler winter temperatures will slow the process but with a . balance of brown to green, or carbon to nitrogen, the process will continue. A constant source of brown or carbon can be an issue during the winter. Plan ahead and collect up some of those wonderful fall leaves. Save them in a bin near your composter. If you use a bag to store your leaves, remember the bag can be eaten through allowing rodents to enjoy nesting there. If you can keep layering the materials in your bin you will be able to create and keep your pile "hot", a sure sign of decomposition. I must admit there have been winters when the snow was too deep to get to the composter or it was full and I had no where to put my household compost. So I tried double bagging the food waste with a splash of coffee grounds or paint free sawdust on top and leaving the bags outside the back door or next to the composter. The bags froze solid and patiently waited until spring. But come spring you don't dawdle when it comes time to clean everything up. The contents of the bags start to decompose a lot earlier than you would expect thanks to the longer days and stronger sun's rays. I learned the hard way to dump the temporary bags of material in the early spring. By then the composter had settled and I could pop some more material into it. More knowledgeable people will tell you a compost pile needs to be aerated to improve the bacterial action and keep odours down. In winter turning the pile would release too much heat at a time you want to PATTI ROBERTSON'S Unique Residential and Commercial Interiors 135 Victoria St., W1NGHAM 357-2872 • Custom-made Window Fashions, Bedspreads & Accessories • Fine Domestic & Imported Fabrics • Select Wallcoverings • Furnishings, Lighting & Artwork to suit any interior... 24 THE RURAL VOICE preserve it, however by keeping your layers fairly equal you can avoid that job. If your pile is too wet once the warmer weather arrives, you should turn the pile once or twice and blend in leaves or a small amount of soil or finished compost saved from last fall. Of course by spring you may want to keep your nose peeled for unpleasant odours that signal something is wrong with your composter. There are a few rules. Try not to put anything larger than one inch in the composter as it takes considerably longer to break down. Don't let your layers get any deeper than four to six inches. If you have too big a portion of household waste it takes the microbes longer to break it down and it also creates less than ideal conditions and the compost pile can become stinky. That layer of leaves, soil or finished compost helps prevent odours and adds more microbes to the pile. Moisture is an important factor as well. Too much water creates a rotten egg smell. You want to keep the pile as damp as a well -wrung sponge. And I know I shouldn't need to tell you never add meat, bones, dairy products, fats or oils to your compost pile. They are smelly and attract a host of pests that you don't want to even know about. An ammonia smell means that you have too much nitrogen -rich material such as kitchen waste or grass clippings. Add some carbon or brown elements: leaves, soil, dried plants or straw. The carbon material traps the ammonia and turns it back into nitrogen. Now that you are all hyped up and organized with your winter composting you can sit back and enjoy picking out the new additions for your garden confident that you will have a wonderful supply of gardener's black gold in the spring.0 Rhea Hamilton -Seeger and her husband raise two children at their home near Auburn. She is a skilled cook and gardener.