Community Compost for Patio Gardens

Cutting green organic matter for the compost

When I think of compost I think of kitchen scraps and dried leaves and grass from the yard. However, in many of the rural communities we work with, all of the kitchen scraps go to the chickens and other animals they raise in their patios. So today we held a workshop to brainstorm what materials we could use locally to make compost. The materials we came up with were the following:

Soil

Green leaves and grasses

Cow manure

Ashes from the stove

Egg shells

Water

We worked together with the women participants of the home gardens project to collect the materials. We shoveled wheelbarrows of soil, the women got out their machetes and cut down green vines of leaves and grasses (seen in the picture above), we took a short hike to the stable to collect cow manure and collected ashes and eggshells from the kitchen.

Collecting and laying materials for the compost.

When we had collected everything, then we started laying the materials-- first a layer of soil, then green matter, then egg shells, then ashes, then cow manure, and then lots of water. We made several layers until everything ran out. Then we covered it with a plastic sheet and secured it down with logs of wood so animals don't get in. It also allows the compost to heat up well. The women will be checking it to see how its heating up and flipping it periodically. In a few months it will be added to their home gardens!

After making the compost, we also talked about pest management and created a calendar to monitor pest outbreaks. In the calendar below, we listed the major pests they face in the region. Then we talked with the community participants to mark which month the pests usually appear and which crop they eat. This can help participants use preventative measures to apply organic pesticides at the beginning of the pest outbreak ideally. We also talked about which organic preparations to apply to each different pest or fungal infection.