An Ode to Sh*t

 

When I was in Peru this past January for a permaculture intensive, I spent at least 5 full days making compost piles. I had never really made compost before (aside from leaving it in the compost bin for the city to collect and crossing my fingers that they actually do something with it.) This was different. For five full days I spent my waking hours knee deep in caca de gallina (chicken sh*t) under a blazing Andes sun, turning lasagna layers of poop and leaves and hay into a magical oven and creating hot and steamy, beautiful compost.

 

Compost, in my opinion, is sexy. Sure, it smells a little putrid at first, but once you realize what incredible metabolic processes are happening to turn your trash into rich black gold, you can actually get over the smell and maybe even start to almost like it. It’s like magic! What was once slimy garbage is now gorgeous nutritious soil for plants, which will in turn become your food.

 

 

Our Sh*t Design

 

Composting is what nature is already up to all the time. Since earth is a self-stabilizing and closed system in terms of matter, that means that all the elements in every living organism are just moving and pooling all the time (read: all the water molecules on earth are all the water molecules that have ever existed!). The carbon cycle specifically moves carbon from the atmosphere and oceans into organisms, and then back again to the atmosphere and oceans. If this cycle is left unperturbed, it maintains a steady concentration of carbon in the atmosphere, land, plants and ocean within which nature and beings are happy and also there are unicorns and rainbows everywhere.

 

Unless, it isn’t. Somewhere along the way, humans forgot they were indeed part of nature’s great cycle, and decided that waste was just kinda gross and that it would be a good idea to just put all the garbage on Staten Island and forget about it. Think about it: if your waste doesn’t eventually become food again through the great carbon cycle, then what does it eventually become? Does the big Staten Island garbage fairy just get to click a trash icon? Nope. Because matter cycles, remember?

 

In permaculture design, there is an important principle that can be summed up like this: “Waste Equals Food.” In ecological systems, the waste of one process is the food or energy for another process. Pollution is only the result of bad design.

 

 

Getting Real with Our Sh*t

 

It is now 2020. We are quickly realizing on a global scale just how badly we have designed our world socially, economically, and environmentally. We have a massive pollution problem in part due to the fact that we just refuse to shit where we eat.

 

So what if all we have to do is tweak the design so that it, idk, looks like how ... nature does it? Instead of putting the waste on ... Staten Island ... could we maybe put it ... over ... here? like ... IN the backyard?

 

Learning to compost in your own backyard or balcony or even studio apartment is nothing short of liberating. It is a ridiculously simple, glorious, profound and direct solution to the very ills we are actually breathing from the air everyday. It is a way of taking a good hard look at our own sh*t and designing a life that is honest and transparent about the waste we create because we give a damn. By designing with nature instead of against it, we can even start to see the inherent intelligence and beauty of our sh*t because we start to see it as future food or future energy. In doing so, we draw down carbon, reduce waste, build soil, and become active participants in nature’s grand design.

 

 

How to Get Intimate with Our Sh*t

 

There are many ways to compost — Indoor? Outdoor? Compost pile? Worm bin? Bokashi? — and so I recommend doing your own research before choosing the best strategy for you. Space and outdoor access is a huge element to consider, and some people just don't have that. If this sounds like you, I would suggest trying out a worm bin inside first, but I’ve also heard of ways to have compost piles inside.

 

However, if you have the space to compost outside, I would recommend trying the tried-and-true Biointensive compost method outlined below, which was brought forth by Ecology Action and written about in John Jeavons’s famous Biointensive gardening bible, How To Grow More Vegetables.

 

1. Location location location. Choose a spot to put your compost pile. Ideally it would be under an oak tree or other deciduous tree (besides eucalyptus or walnut) in order to provide good soil, a windbreak and shade. Otherwise, any spot that is somewhat shaded and protected from wind will do. It needs to be at least 3 feet wide in diameter, and 3 feet tall, in order to have sufficient insulation. Also try to keep the piles uphill if possible.
2. Prep. Prepare your materials by separating your greens and your browns. Brown stands for things high in carbon (garden waste, leaves, straw, woody material and twigs) while green stands for things high in nitrogen (kitchen waste, new grass or hedge clippings, basically freshly cut anything). And always remember this simple rule: 50/50 brown/green.
3. Build. You can always add your materials ad hoc whenever they are ready, but know that this may take longer to create your compost. Know that with a little extra effort and planning, you can speed up the process and also impress your friends with how much composting science you know.
   1. Loosen the soil about 12 inches deep with a spading fork and then wet the area.
   2. Lay down a 3 inch layer of roughage like twigs, brush or other woody material for aeration.
   3. Create a 2 inch layer of browns and water thoroughly.
   4. Create a 2 inch layer of greens and water thoroughly.
   5. Cover the whole thing with a ¼” to ½” layer of soil and moisten.
   6. Repeat steps c through e until the pile is 3 to 4 feet high
4. Wait. Let this pile cure (or sit) for 3 to 6 months. While you wait for this pile to sit, you can build another pile.
5. Spread the love. Finished compost will occupy only about 30% of the space occupied by the original pile. You’ll know it’s done when it looks dark and smells sweet and earthy. Add to the garden for improved soil structure, fertilization, nitrogen and aeration for plants. Yum!

 

 

Before You Run to Amazon

 

One last bit: having a compost contraption thingy may make things look more neat and tidy, but they are certainly not requirements. In fact, it is faster, cheaper and much more higher-yielding to design a free-standing compost pile than it is to deal with plastic turn-y barrels from Amazon.

 

And so, an inexpensive way to make your compost look a bit more neat and tidy is by creating a homemade container out of one 12 foot long, 3 foot wide piece of chicken wire, attaching it to two 3 foot long boards at the ends,  wrapping that around the pile, and then fastening it together with a simple hook and eye.

 

Here’s to getting real.

 

 

 

Reference List

 

Jeavons, J. (2017). How to Grow More Vegetables. Ten Speed Press. (Original work published 1974)