This is part of our series retelling Backyard Farming: Growing Vegetables and Herbs by Kim Pezza (ISBN: 978-1-57826-460-5).
The growing season ends. That’s just how it works for most of us. But ending well matters as much as starting well. What you do now sets up next year’s garden. Pezza dedicates this chapter to closing out the season the right way.
Book: Backyard Farming: Composting | Author: Kim Pezza | ISBN: 978-1-57826-587-9 | Hatherleigh Press, 2015
We made it. Twelve posts later, we’ve covered everything from ancient Egyptian worm decrees to DIY bin plans to the science of thermophilic bacteria. And honestly, I think composting might be one of the most underrated things a person can do.
This is a retelling of Chapter 9 from Backyard Farming: Composting by Kim Pezza. Consider this your quick-reference guide for when something goes wrong with your pile. Because something will go wrong eventually. That’s just composting.
Book: Backyard Farming: Composting | Author: Kim Pezza | ISBN: 978-1-57826-587-9 | Hatherleigh Press, 2015
You did the work. You built the pile, turned it, waited, maybe even raised some worms. Now you’ve got this dark, crumbly, earthy-smelling stuff sitting in your bin. Congratulations, you made black gold. Chapter 8 of Pezza’s book covers how to clean it up and actually put it to use. This is the payoff chapter and honestly? It’s pretty satisfying to get here.
Book: Backyard Farming: Composting | Author: Kim Pezza | ISBN: 978-1-57826-587-9 | Hatherleigh Press, 2015
Composting sounds simple because it is. Stuff rots. But Chapter 7 of Pezza’s book gets into the actual science of what’s happening inside your pile, and honestly? It’s way more interesting than you’d expect. There are bacteria working in shifts, temperatures that could cook an egg, and yes, the possibility of spontaneous combustion. We’ll get to that.
This is a retelling of Chapter 6 from Backyard Farming: Composting by Kim Pezza. And look, I know “carbon to nitrogen ratios” sounds like something from a chemistry exam. But it’s actually really straightforward once you see what’s going on. Let’s break it down.
Book: Backyard Farming: Composting | Author: Kim Pezza | ISBN: 978-1-57826-587-9 | Hatherleigh Press, 2015
Okay. This is the chapter most composting books skip over, and honestly, I get why. It’s not a comfortable topic. But if you keep animals on a farm, death is part of the deal. It just is. And when it happens, you need a plan for what comes next. Pezza addresses this head-on in Chapter 5, and I respect that.
Book: Backyard Farming: Composting | Author: Kim Pezza | ISBN: 978-1-57826-587-9 | Hatherleigh Press, 2015
So you’ve got a bin or a pile set up. Now comes the question everyone asks: what actually goes in there? Chapter 5 of Pezza’s book breaks it down into two categories you’ll hear about constantly in composting. Greens and browns. Plus a solid list of things that should never touch your pile.
So you want to keep a box of worms in your house. I get it. It sounds weird. But Chapter 4 of Kim Pezza’s Backyard Farming: Composting makes a pretty convincing case that vermicomposting might be the best way to compost, period. Especially if you live in an apartment and your landlord would lose it if you started a compost pile on the balcony.
So you’ve seen the DIY options from the first half of Chapter 3. Cool. But maybe you don’t want to build something from scratch. Maybe you want to just buy a bin, set it up, and start composting this weekend. That’s totally valid. Kim Pezza covers commercial bins and placement in the second half of this chapter, and there’s more to think about than you’d expect.
Book: Backyard Farming: Composting | Author: Kim Pezza | ISBN: 978-1-57826-587-9 | Hatherleigh Press, 2015
One of the first excuses people make about composting is space. “I don’t have room for that.” Pezza shuts this down early in Chapter 3. Whether you’ve got 30 acres or a studio apartment, there’s a composting method that fits. No excuses. Let’s talk about the systems you can build yourself.
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.
You know what’s funny about composting? We treat it like some trendy new sustainability thing. Like someone on TikTok just invented putting banana peels in a bin. But people have been doing this for literally thousands of years. Chapter 1 of Kim Pezza’s Backyard Farming: Composting lays out the full timeline, and honestly, some of it is wild.
Book: Backyard Farming: Composting | Author: Kim Pezza | ISBN: 978-1-57826-587-9 | Hatherleigh Press, 2015
So I picked up this book about composting. And honestly, I wasn’t expecting to get this into it.