Review of The Complete Compost Gardening Guide

Written by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin
Paperback

This is overflowing with information about composting in the kitchen and garden. They discuss simple things you can do in the house to collect your kitchen scraps like keeping a 5 gallon bucket with a secure lid just outside the kitchen door. As you prepare your meals, you throw the cuttings from your veggies into the bucket. Easily incorporating the compost process into your everyday life encourages you to continue with the process. Every few days, you will take the 5 gallon bucket and dump it into your large compost bin in the yard.

The authors include wonderfully easy and economical ways to facilitate your composting process from building an easy “sling screen compost sifter” to constructing a worm bin from a plastic storage container to preparing a more complex “Pit of Plenty.”

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide does not promote a lot of expensive products to perform your composting chores. The authors of course do discuss these products but also suggest and explain how you might be able to create the similar product function with cheaper materials. For example, in their discussion of rotating composters like the one pictured below they also explain how to build one yourself using a plastic garbage can and some bungee cords which costs a lot less.

I’ve seen some reviews of the book that state that the book is too complicated for a novice. I don’t think that is true. I think if you read through the book in its entirety you’ll find things that you can do quite easily without too much work. As you see that those things worked and worked well, you may want to take on a few other projects/tasks that seem reasonable to you.

Reading Part 3 of the book which talks about plants for the composter’s garden, I learned that borage is a great plant for composting. This is great for me because borage has those beautiful blue blooms and the deer which are numerous in my area will stay away. During the summer, I can harvest the stems
of the borage and add it to my compost piles.

All in all this is a great book and a wonderful addition to any gardener’s library. Pick up your copy today.