By: Tom Wickersham

ALL ABOUT COMPOSTING

What are the ingredients that make for a healthy garden? They are light, air, water and soil. How can you learn about these components? By visiting Explorit's current exhibition, "How Does My Garden Grow?" You might want to visit tomorrow because it's free admission Saturday at Explorit.

When visiting Explorit, you'll find interactive stations that deal with things like transpiration, photosynthesis and stomates. You'll also have the chance to learn about composting.

Exactly what is composting? Composting is the natural way to recycle organic materials right in your own backyard. "Not only is composting easy, but it's a lot of fun," said City of Davis Recycling Coordinator, Diane Makely.

Composters recycle such materials as leaves, grass clippings and vegetable food waste. The finished "compost" is an excellent soil product you can use to enhance your garden.

So composting is wonderful for your plants and vegetables, but did you know it's also great for the environment? The grass clippings, leaves and table scraps or "green waste" make up 15% of the waste generated each year according to the Integrated Waste Management Board. Don't send those materials to the landfill...compost them!

Okay, so maybe you're already familiar with composting. Maybe you already have your own composter. But do you know how these organic materials break down? Their decomposition is due mainly to the multitudes of living creatures residing in the compost.

Aerobic (oxygen-consuming) bacteria are among those in the first line of attack breaking down soft or easily rotted wastes like yard waste and food scraps. Located deep inside the compost heap, these bacteria actually raise the temperature of the materials to as much as 131deg.F.

Next on board in the great breakdown process, but living on the outer edges of the compost, fungi begin work on the decaying material. The fungi, such as actinomycetes, chemically breakdown the twigs, bark and woody stems.

Often joining the composting team are larger, more recognizable creatures like earthworms, springtails, millipedes, pill bugs, slugs and snails. Providing all these creatures with the right mixture of organic materials, water and air is all that it takes to turn landfill waste into great garden fertilizer. Just start with your composting bin.

You don't have a composting bin? No problem; the nice folks over at the City of Davis Public Works Department can get you set up. Just call 757-5686 and ask to take the composting correspondence course. They'll send you a booklet on composting, you mail back a completed "quiz," and then you'll be able to pick up your own composter for free.

In addition to the booklets and the composting bins, they also provide seasonal workshops on composting. There's no need to wait for a workshop, however, when you can explore composting in action as part of "How Does My Garden Grow?" at Explorit.

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Explorit Science Center is located at 3141 5th Street in East Davis. The current exhibition is How Does My Garden Grow? Public hours are Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m., and Tuesday through Friday from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. Regular admission is $3; members, teachers (with school ID) and children under 4 are free..