Master Gardener Lance Johnson oversees the Compost Outpost at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. Photo by Harriet Blake.
Tossing food waste into your garbage disposal or trash may seem efficient, but those food scraps can impact pipes and put a strain on municipal wastewater systems. They also impact landfills.
Food waste is the single most common material sent to landfills, comprising 24 percent of municipal solid waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Wasted food is responsible for 58 percent of landfill methane emissions.
Instead of throwing food scraps away, why not convert those scraps to compost and help your garden thrive at the same time?
For most people, home composting is daunting, but Master Gardener and lead composter for Fort Worth Botanic Garden Lance Johnson aims to quell people’s fears.
“Composting can be a little intimidating but with just a few basics, it can be a lot of fun, rewarding and who knows, maybe even profitable,” he says. Johnson manages the Garden’s Compost Outpost with the assistance of Carolyn St. Clair and Ginny Schmidt both of whom are Master Gardeners and Master Composters.
Did you know? When food and other organic materials decompose in a landfill where anaerobic (without oxygen) conditions are present, bacteria break down the materials and generate methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Municipal solid waste landfills are the third largest source of human-related methane emissions in the U.S, accounting for approximately 14 percent of methane emissions in 2022. Wasted food is responsible for 58 percent of landfill methane emissions. Source: EPA
FIVE COMPONENTS OF COMPOST
The five things you need for good compost, says Johnson are: carbon, nitrogen, moisture, air/oxygen and time. The end product should be a nutrient-rich soil-like material that can and should be used to improve your soil’s structure and chemical properties.
So what exactly is composting? Composting, as described by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, is the microbial process that converts plant materials such as grass clippings and leaves to more usable organic soil or mulch. It is made of partially decomposed remains of plants.
Food scraps are key ingredients to compost, primarily the remains of fruits and vegetables. Meat and bone scraps are not recommended as there is the potential of attracting pests. Dairy should also be left out.
Interestingly, newspaper can become composted as well. As long as it’s shredded and mixed well with the other materials. Newspaper is a good mulching material. The inks used in newspapers today are non toxic.
The Lasagna Rule: Layer your compost with Green Material, like tea bags, coffee grounds, egg shells, lawn clippings, young weeds, vegetable and fruit peels and scraps, and Brown Material, like dried leaves, finely chopped woody pruning, untreated wood sawdust, cardboard and pine needles. Source: Compost Outpost.
COMPOST OUTPOST
Johnson runs the composting volunteer group at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden's Compost Outpost. The demonstration area features a variety of compost bins and barrels on display.
The volunteers make compost for various gardens at the Botanic Garden. Every Friday morning, volunteers work at turning the compost and then place it wherever it’s needed in the park. The Garden requires compost primarily in the fall and spring however various amounts are used all year long.
The site for composting is roughly a 40-foot-by-40-foot space that contains about 40 “shepherd’s” bins, each containing a different stage of composting. The four-cubic-square-foot bins are filled with layers of leaves and grass and food scraps and coffee grounds, beginning with a first layer of straw (not hay) to improve airflow.
“We stockpile leaves all year long at the Botanic Garden, which we add to the bins,” Johnson says.
Leaves and grass he explains provide the carbon and nitrogen needed for compost.
The top of each bin is covered by a square top that Johnson makes. These lids help keep the compost hot and regulate the moisture inside.
One key element to good compost, says Johnson, is that all compost bins need to remain moist. Newly made compost piles should have the consistency of a wrung-out sponge.
Making the compost is a year-long process at the Botanic Gardens, says Johnson. A backyard home compost bin takes less time — about 30 weeks to become good compost if turned and managed.
At the Botanic Garden, the volunteers sift through each bin, turning the matter over to make sure all the materials have the same exposure. The leaves on the edge need to get moved to center. The leaves and grass that initially were on inside have been composted (broken into smaller parts) utilizing the carbon and nitrogen to encourage microbial action to break down the organic material into a nutrient-rich soil amendment called compost.
Each bin gets turned every four weeks, or even sooner if temperatures drop. Johnson has an elaborate chart that indicates which bin gets turned when. The developing compost bins are monitored closely with thermometers. With a proper mix of nitrogen and carbon, the temperature of each pile will warm to a high temperature of about 150 degrees. But as the weeks progress, their temperature comes down as the microbial activity winds down. By the time temperature cools, bugs are no longer active and the nitrogen is all in the product. The compost pile slowly sinks as the weeks go by.
Once the organic matter reaches its low temperature point — about the same as the outside air— the compost is ready for the garden.
Finally, it’s sifted through a screen over a wheel barrel to clean out sticks and any debris that hasn't broken down.
TRY THIS AT HOME
Composting at home is easy to do, says Johnson. Vegetable and fruit scraps from the kitchen are typically plentiful. He recommends pears, apples, watermelons, papayas, kale, spinach, tomatoes and cucumbers. Other good additions are banana peels and coffee grounds. Young weeds (before they germinate with seeds) can also go into your compost bin.
Other things he advised to stay away from: pecan shells are great but they take too long to eventually disintegrate. He adds that you also shouldn’t compost plant roots. And definitely no dog poop. Cow manure is fine, but apparently not horse manure. The reason, says Johnson, is that cows graze in a field and have seven stomachs for digestion, so food is broken down. Horses, on the other hand, have just one stomach — so the food goes out the same way comes in, it doesn’t break down.
Home composters, he says, can save their leaves from the fall, bag them and use in their home compost piles. You can also use mowed grass clippings from your yard.
FEAR FACTORS
We brought up some of the concerns we had about starting this backyard endeavor.
Namely, would a compost pile attract critters? Johnson had the answers.
“I have never seen animals bothering a compost pile,” says Johnson. “But remember, do not put meat, fish or dairy in your pile — these last three items would attract animals.”
What about bugs? Whether you like them or not, Johnson says, they're part of the process.
“Grubs in particular are good for compost. Just make sure they are screened out prior to utilization. We feed them to our volunteers’ chickens.”
And what happens if a compost pile starts to stink?
“This happens when there is not enough carbon and too much nitrogen and your pile may be too wet — too many food scraps and not enough dry carbon. You can add untreated sawdust to help eliminate the smell.”
MASTER COMPOSTER'S ROOTS
If you feel like you're late to the compost game, take heart. Johnson honed his compost chops late in life, following a 40-year career with Ben E. Keith.
“In retirement, I needed something to fill my time. I play golf but I realized I couldn’t do that every day.”
He decided to take a master composting class offered by the city of Fort Worth at the Botanic Garden. He became certified in 2018 and took over lead composting volunteer position at Botanic Garden this year. Today he has 6 to 15 weekly volunteers who come on Fridays, composting from 7:30 a.m to 10 a.m.
SECRET SAUCE
The Compost Outpost once held a contest between the experienced master composters and the new master gardener intern class. As an intern, Johnson put his old Ben E Keith expertise to work by adding beer to his compost. He notes that beer has the carbs and sugar that bugs want. His team almost won, he says, but the more experienced Master Gardeners beat them. Their winning ingredient? Powdered molasses.
COMPOST RESOURCES
Want to learn more? Check out the following:
Texas A&M AgriLife: Easy Gardening: Composting - Free Download
City of Dallas - Tutorials
City of Fort Worth - Classes
City of Grand Prairie - Classes
City of Plano - Classes
Fort Worth Botanic Garden - Compost Volunteer Opportunities