My Mom and Pop were super gardeners. They grew huge, delicious vegetables and beautiful flowers organically, using whatever was available to them to amend and enrich the soil: manure (all types of it), green manure (cover crops, leaves, vegetable wastes, etc.) and wood ashes. If you have access to an abundance of rich manure and waste, you, too, can have a great garden. But if you don’t, what then is the solution? Make your own compost.

When Mom and Pop moved away from their small farm, their new garden didn’t do so well. They tried their hand at making a compost pile, but they had little luck. My story is why their compost pile failed and you can prevent yours from failing. A compost pile, like your body, needs food, air, and water and a circulation system to move the three around to maintain the bacterial life in the pile. My Mom and Pop had included leaves (for carbon), grass and manure (for nitrogen) and water in their pile, but they hadn’t made any provision for air. Air is available initially, but after a while the pile compacts and the air is no longer available for the beneficial bacteria that need it. Anaerobic bacteria that can live without air then take over and the pile becomes a putrid, stinking mess. Turning the pile now would incorporate the much-needed air, but at this stage most gardeners would just as soon abandon the pile.

Turning a compost pile every other day since it was built is one way of airing the pile and preventing it from going sour, but it takes a lot of energy and time. I figured there must be an easier way, and I thought of using a flue in the center of the pile. Jim Bennett, the Weekend Gardener, has found a perfect flu - cheap, effective, and easy to find and use - a septic tank drainage pipe. This flexible, 6-inch diameter pipe has holes in its side and can be cut easily to fit your pile. Those who want to do some serious composting can order our complete compost kit. The kit contains microbes, a quick compost activator and complete instructions for super quick and rich compost.

First, select a compost-making location that is well drained, convenient to the garden and close to a water supply. Second, gather the materials for building your pile. You will need some brown vegetation for carbon and some green material to supply nitrogen (the quick compost activator already contains the nitrogen and microbes needed).

To start making your pile, place a 12-inch deep layer of brown material, four-feet square, on cultivated soil. Sprinkle on a cup of high-nitrogen fertilizer or quick compost activator and water it well. Now is the time to place your flu in position. A stick in the center of the pile will support your pipe until the pile is completed. Next add a green layer of grass and vegetable waste. If you don’t have much of this, use more leaves. Making your compost pile inside a wire cage is an excellent way to keep the pile in position and to make sure that it is at least four feet high. Continue layering your compost material as mentioned above until the pile is four feet high. You may want to add 10 pounds of either wood ashes or Dolomitic limestone (not both) to sweeten the pile (raise the PH), but don’t do this if the compost is going to be used on acid-loving plants. The wood ashes supply potassium and the Dolomitic lime contains calcium and magnesium.

After the pile is built, cover the top with black plastic to help provide additional heat and prevent the pile from being saturated with rain. If the pile does not heat up to 120 degrees F in 24 hours, it might need additional water, but check it first - it should have the consistency of a wrung-out sponge. Your compost should be ready in 12 to 14 days from the time the pile heats up. Don’t worry about leaves and stalks that are not completely broken down - coarse material are what your garden needs each year.

Work your compost into planting rows and holes and use at least three inches above the soil as a top dressing. I cover this with hay or pine straw for additional moisture retention. As it rains, the nutrients flow to the plants’ roots - feeding and watering but not compacting or crusting the soil. Whether you are a new or old gardener, compost will help your garden produce more. Composting is a science and an art, but mostly just good old common sense.