What Is Composting and Why Should You Care About It
Book: Backyard Farming: Composting | Author: Kim Pezza | Chapter 2: What Is Composting?
Composting is basically using nature’s own recycling system on purpose. You take organic materials, things that were once alive, and let decomposition turn them into rich, dark soil. That’s it. That’s the whole concept.
The finished product is this coarse, crumbly stuff that’s brown to black in color and packed with nutrients. If you’ve ever walked through a forest and kicked up the dark layer under the leaves, you’ve seen what nature produces on its own. The difference is that nature takes centuries to build a single inch of that material. With backyard composting, you can get usable results in weeks to months.
What Goes In
Your compost pile uses yard debris, kitchen scraps, and optionally manure. About 30% of your household waste can go into a compost pile instead of a trash bag. That’s a real number. Almost a third of what most people throw away could be turned into something useful.
When a pile gets hot enough, it kills off pathogens, weed seeds, and harmful organisms. So you’re not just making soil. You’re making clean, safe soil. That heat is doing real work.
Humus (Not Hummus)
Here’s a word you’ll see a lot in composting: humus. And yes, Pezza makes the distinction, because someone had to. Humus is fully decayed organic matter. Hummus is the chickpea spread you eat with pita bread. They are not the same thing. I genuinely appreciate that this book addresses this, because I know for a fact that plenty of people have been confused. Your compost pile produces humus and humic acids. Your grocery store produces hummus. Please do not mix them up.
Humus is what makes compost so valuable. It’s the end stage of decomposition, and it does different things depending on your soil type. Got clay soil that holds water like a sponge? Compost helps with drainage. Got sandy soil that lets water run straight through? Compost helps it hold onto moisture. It adapts to what your soil needs.
Compost vs. Fertilizer
Here’s the thing that most people get wrong. Compost and fertilizer are not the same thing, and they don’t do the same job.
Compost feeds the soil. Fertilizer feeds the plants. That might sound like a minor difference, but it’s not.
Pezza uses a comparison that stuck with me: compost is like your daily meals. It provides steady, balanced nutrition over time. Fertilizer is like a doctor’s prescription. It targets specific deficiencies when they show up. You need both, but they serve completely different purposes.
Compost can supply the big three nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. But it also brings calcium, sulfur, and magnesium. It’s the full package, delivered slowly, through the soil itself. Fertilizer hits harder and faster, but it’s narrow in scope.
If you only use fertilizer and never add compost, your soil quality goes down over time. The plants might look fine for a while, but the dirt they’re sitting in is getting worse. Compost keeps the foundation healthy.
Compost Tea
This is one of my favorite things from this chapter. You can make tea out of compost. Not tea you drink. Tea for your garden.
Here’s how it works. You take finished compost and put it in a water-permeable bag. Burlap works. Think of it like a giant tea bag. Drop that bag into a bucket of water and let it steep for 24 to 48 hours. You’ll know it’s ready when the water turns black.
What you end up with is a liquid full of beneficial organisms, microbials, and micronutrients. And here’s what makes it great: you can apply it undiluted. Spray it on leaves, pour it on soil with a watering can, whatever works. It won’t burn leaves or roots. That’s a big deal because a lot of liquid fertilizers will absolutely cook your plants if you use too much.
You can apply compost tea anytime during the growing season as long as the ground isn’t frozen. And the spent compost from the bag? Mix that right into your garden soil. Nothing wasted.
The whole concept is just so practical. You’re already making compost. Now you can extract even more value from it by basically brewing a nutrient bath for your plants. It’s low effort, low cost, and it works.
The Takeaway
Composting isn’t complicated. You’re taking stuff that was going to rot anyway and giving it a controlled environment to rot in. The result is soil that’s better than anything you can buy in a bag at the store. It feeds your soil, adapts to your conditions, and you can even brew it into tea for a quick nutrient boost.
The key insight from this chapter is that distinction between feeding soil and feeding plants. Most beginners skip straight to fertilizer because it seems more direct. But without healthy soil underneath, you’re building on a bad foundation.
Start with the soil. The plants will follow.