NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:

Vic and I are sold on composting. We got our first composter many years ago, and added another one a couple of years later. Consequently, we’ve kept a lot of food waste from going to the sewage treatment plant and then to the ocean, and a lot of green waste from going to the landfill. We’re not only fighting ocean pollution and reducing the amount of greenhouse gases that are generated from transportation of our green waste, we’re also saving money by making our own compost for the garden. And it’s fun to boot.

Some people prefer vermiculture to composting, but we want to process more green yard waste than a vermiculture bin can handle. In the autumn, we collect fallen leaves from our deciduous trees, storing them in plastic trash bags until we’re ready to put them into our composters. Our trees generate about 15 big bags of leaves in the fall, way too much for a vermiculture bin to handle.

But let’s get some definitions straight before we go any further. Composting means putting your green waste — dead leaves or vegetable and fruit peelings — into a pile of some sort and keeping it damp so that microbes can decompose it. After a couple of months, you have the richest, most lovely compost you can imagine.

Here’s how we do it: We put a layer of dead leaves on the bottom of the composter — in composting lingo, that’s called the brown waste. Then we add a layer of coffee grounds and peelings from the kitchen — that’s the so-called green waste. Then we add another layer of leaves, then kitchen waste, etc. We never put meat, grease or dairy products into the bin because that can draw houseflies and rats.

Vic likes to add a shovel-full of dirt every so often to add more soil microbes, and I’ve taken to contributing a scoop of composted cow manure to add a little nitrogen to really get things cooking. You can also buy compost additives at Armstrong Nursery to provide nutrients and microbes.

After about six weeks in the warmer months, or three months during the winter, the finished compost is ready to be removed from the bottom of the composter. I scoop it out from the bottom door of the composter, and spread it around where it is needed most. I dig it into the soil prior to planting my vegetable crops, and spread it around the trunks of my fruit trees to add a little mulch to the soil.

I collect the vegetable peelings and coffee grounds in an old plastic coffee can that stays by the kitchen sink, and take it to the composter every couple of days when it’s full. We water the composting bin a couple of times a week to keep the compost moist to speed decomposition.

Vermiculture is generally done on a smaller scale, and involves putting newspapers and vegetable waste into a bin where worms live. The worms decompose the material, and you get compost loaded with worm droppings and also a liquid called worm tea that is great as plant fertilizer. We aren’t vermiculturists, so we know less about that process. Shipley Nature Center sells worm castings from their vermiculture operation. They have repeat customers who swear by worm castings for keeping white flies off their hibiscus plants.

Fortunately, Shipley Nature Center, in conjunction with Rainbow Disposal and the city of Huntington Beach, is hosting a series of workshops where you can learn about both composting and vermiculture.

The really neat thing is that they’re offering a $50 voucher from the city that is good toward the purchase of either a $125 vermiculture bin or a $95 backyard composter, one per household.

These items will be available for purchase at the seminars, so you can avoid the shipping and handling charges that you would pay if you bought them online. The $50 discount voucher makes this a really good deal. This offer is good for residents of Huntington Beach only, with proof of residency, such as a recent utility bill, required.

Composting can be done in a recycled plastic bin for enclosed composting, or in a three-sided open bin made of wood, or even a circle of chicken wire. We prefer the plastic bins. They reduce mess from marauding raccoons, skunks and opossums, they require less water, and they produce finished compost faster than an open bin.

Sen. Tom Harman and his wife, Dianne, use the open-bin composting method, as does Fountain Valley expert gardener Chad Hanna. We’ve heard reports of a woman who made her own three-sided composting bin from discarded wooden pallets.

Dave and Margaret Carlberg prefer vermiculture. Kay Goddard and Juana Mueller of Shipley Nature Center also extol the virtues of vermiculture. For many vermiculturists, the worms are like pets. For us, vermiculture is too much bother. You have to feed the worms just the right amount — not too much, not too little. But, wow, the worm castings they produce are like garden gold.

The Shipley workshops will help you get started. The first vermiculture workshop is from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday. The backyard composting workshop follows from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. There will be repeat workshops May 16, June 20, and July 11. Seminars are $10 each, or $15 if you attend both on the same day. You can visit www.shipleynaturecenter.org to register with PayPal.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].