Thursday, August 27, 2015

The Unintended Consequences of Composting

Contributed by compost-lover Jenny Lohmann

If you’re reading this blog it is because you are one of the brilliantly enlightened individuals on our planet. You already know all the reasons one should compost but what about the consequences of composting?

Green Guilt
For example, you are on vacation and eat a banana. What are you to do with the peel? Throw it away?! This will lead to feelings of extreme guilt. 
 
You’re sister’s kids never eat their bread crust. It causes you great anxiety because:
a) she allows food waste and
b) she doesn’t compost the crust!
 
If these feelings have entered your mind, get to your compost pile ASAP! Composting will set your serotonins into “aahhh” mode.

Volunteers of a Different Variety
Another consequence I have encountered deals with volunteers. No, not my kids who gladly rake leaves and pick up sticks (as if). The volunteers I speak of are those tomato plants that pop out of my newly potted plants and amended garden beds.
 
Do I scowl and curse? No, I greet them as a new mother welcomes new life.
 
Proof of healthy soil, I transplant them when space allows. Some of my volunteers have produced better than my intentional plantings.

Obviously, my compost pile does not heat up enough to kill the seeds or perhaps I’m too impatient to let it “season.” Just another reason I choose not to compost weeds with seeds. I wouldn’t have those new mother feelings if dandelions were volunteering.
 
Has anyone else felt the unintended consequences of composting?

Unintended Consequences Can Be Delicious :)