Organic Composting - What You Need to Know

Organic composting is a widely mentioned misnomer. With more of us buying into the organic and environmentally friendly lifestyle more marketers are trying to sell us just about everything with an organic angle thrown in. Now gardening sites and books are dictating that we should be creating organic garden compost. We need to be clear about the difference between 'Organic' and 'organic.

'Organic' with a capital 'O' is the new word in food production. Food crops in particular are grown without chemical assistance. That means no chemical fertilizers or pesticides of any kind may be used if the food we buy is certified as 'Organic'.

Many people adhere to these Organic principles when gardening at home too. Ornamental flower gardens and food production plots all benefit the environment if reared without artificial assistance. Plants grow stronger if they grow more naturally and slowly. The local ecology is not put at risk by toxic pesticides and we all benefit by cleaner air and less polluted water-ways.

Any gardener and particularly any using Organic principles will know the benefit of recycling garden waste and kitchen scraps into their own garden compost. Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of waste we send to land-fill and it gives us a free all-purpose soil improver and plant food. But, now for the environmentally aware there is the worry about whether we are carrying out Organic composting or not.

The simple answer is of course we are. Anyone creating compost is doing so organically. Compost, is by nature a decomposed form of organic matter. This true meaning for 'organic' is that the matter was once alive. Whether that means it is vegetable scraps, manure, lawn clippings, old newspapers or sawdust, anything added to the garden compost bin is by its very nature organic.

It seems ludicrous to be concerned about only putting Organic waste onto the compost heap. Sure, that means no chemical residues are put on your heap but it also means less organic matter period. We should all aim to put as much into our compost bins as possible to minimize the polluting effects of our lives. Any chemical residues remaining on your waste food, or in the newspaper ink will all be tiny volumes unable to have a detrimental effect on your garden soil. Plus, the decomposition of all that waste will mean most residues are broken down into harmless mineral components anyway.

Even the Soil Association realize how difficult it is to maintain soil fertility while relying only on Organically produced waste matter. They allow certified Organic growers to use animal manures from conventionally reared animals. That means those manures are produced by non-organic feed and are likely to contain veterinary chemical residues. They specify how long such manures should be stored or composted for, before being safe to put on the land without any loss of Organic credentials to the resulting crops. Some manures are not permitted but this is due to welfare issues not practicalities. So for example poultry manure from battery farmed hens is not permitted because the Soil Association would prefer battery farming to stop. But, manure from hens reared in sheds and fed ordinary feed can end up on Organic farms.

This is good news, it shows how we should be practical and pragmatic when it comes to organic food production. Rather than worry about whether the apple core ready to go on the compost pile has been grown without pesticides we should be more concerned with how to get the goodness left in that core back into our garden soil.

Of course if we manage to live off our own land we can ensure everything going back onto it has been farmed in such a natural way. Or if we have vast amounts of money to only ever buy Organic produce we can do the same. But, in reality even the most environmentally aware of us must battle with economics and practicalities. It is very unlikely more than a tiny proportion of us live off Organic produce alone.

We should not fear what is not a problem. Whenever we hear of Organic Composting we must remind ourselves that all garden composting is in fact 'organic composting'. Forget about the lifestyle connotations associated with that capital 'O' and remember what organic gardening is really all about; making the most of our land is as natural way as possible. The principle way to do this is to ensure we always put nearly as much back into our soil as we take from it.