Anatomy of a Compost Pile
A potato plant started growing in my compost pile. We throw most of our kitchen scraps in the compost pile. So I’m sure it grew from an eye attached to some potato peelings.
It’s quite large. It sprouted back in January. I’m sure the warmth of the compost pile helped it to survive the few cold snaps since then.
I’m really excited to see how many potatoes it produces compared to the plants in my garden. This happens all the time throughout the year in our compost pile, but the volunteer potatoes usually appear when it’s way to hot or dry for the plant to actually produce potatoes. This time, our compost pile sprouted a potato at the right time of year.
Not just potatoes spontaneously appear throughout the year. Onions often sprout from the onion roots that get thrown in with the kitchen scraps. I threw a jack-o-latern in the pile after Halloween, and about 50 pumpkin plants appeared in the compost a few weeks later. Unfortunately, it was too cold by then for them to survive the winter.
Tomatoes and peppers readily sprout from seeds that get thrown in with the kitchen scraps. I’ve transplanted some of these volunteers before.
It’s always fun to see what pops up in the compost pile. More often than not, I let these volunteers grow, unless I need to mix the pile or pull out some compost.
The other day I sat next to my barbecue pit and admired my compost pile. Yes, the barbecue pit is next to my compost pile. That’s for a reason – every time I cook in the pit, before I start a fire, I scoop out the old ashes and mix them with the compost. This adds potash and other nutrients to the compost.
The ashes from the barbecue pit often include unburned pieces of wood and charcoal. These are wonderful additions to the compost as well. If you have ever been to a big fancy organic gardening store in the city, you might have seen products called “biochar” that sell for an arm and a leg. That stuff is basically crushed up lump charcoal. I should note, though, that when I cook with charcoal, I only use natural lump charcoal, never briquettes. I would not use ashes from briquettes in my garden.
If you look at the photo below, you’ll notice the old charcoal sacks sitting on top of the pile. These paper sacks are wonderful additions as well. They’re made out of paper. The insides are coated with charcoal dust. Of course, they’ll take forever to break down like that. I just haven’t chopped them up yet.
It’s a good idea to chop up everything that goes into the compost pile. I use a push lawnmower to chop up things like paper bags, leaves, weeds that I pull from the garden, and light brush. Chopped up materials break down faster in the compost pile.