What Delaney's Been Working On

periodicals section of the NYU Bobst library which I have access to and is open 24 hours and that’s cool

Have a look at her Tumblr page.

A Quick Primer on Compost

Compost nourishes plants with micronutrients and trace elements not found in most organic fertilizer and helps protect your plants from diseases. And because compost is nothing more than broken down organic matter you can easily make it yourself.

WHAT'S COMPOST MADE OF?

Easy answer: dry brown stuff & wet green stuff.

Dry brown stuff includes things that are high in carbon, such as:

• dried leaves, branches and twigs
• straw
• sawdust & wood shavings
• pine cones & needles
• shredded newspaper
• manure 
• old cut flowers
• nuts & shells
• shredded paper egg cartons
• shredded cereal & cracker boxes
• Dryer lint
• Cold wood ashes

Wet green stuff is naturally high in nitrogen and includes:

• Kitchen scraps - Fruits and veggies
• Egg shells
• Tea and tea bags
• Fresh green grass clippings and plant trimmings (grown without pesticides or weed killers)

But don't add:

• animal manure
• diseased plants
•  meat and bones

Proportions:

• 5 parts dry brown to 1 or 2 parts wet green is recommended to speed up the composting process.

Heat:

• Ideal composting happens at 135° -160° Fahrenheit. 

To Speed Up the Process:

• Smaller bits decompose faster than bigger bits. Some people even toss their kitchen scraps into the blender and make a slurry that they toss onto the pile.
• Keep the pile moist (not wet!). If it's slushy it's too wet and will start to smell really bad.
• Incorporate air. Use a pitchfork to toss the pile or invest in a compost tumbler.
• Keep an eye on the dry brown to wet green ratio. You may need to adjust what's recommended.
• Add compost activator, a product that accelerates the process.

Compost is ready to use when it's rich brown and looks just like the compost you pay money for at your local nursery. 

Common Problems:

• Pile isn't hot enough. It's probably too dry. Sprinkle on some water or add more wet green stuff.
• Smells strongly of ammonia. This can be a normal part of the composting process. But if it lasts more than a couple days you need more dry brown stuff.
• Soggy pile. This usually accompanies the stinky pile problem above, so add more dry brown stuff. Adding air will help too, so toss the pile with your pitchfork.
• Finished compost is too chunky. Big chunks in, big chunks out. (Or a lot more time to breakdown to smaller chunks.) The solution is to chop or shred your dry brown stuff and wet green stuff into smaller bits before you toss it in.

If you want quicker results there's a great tutorial on Hot Composting here. They claim you can get compost in 18 days, but you need to pay a lot more attention to your pile than we do here, so I can't report on how successful it is, but the article is filled with really nice little drawings and graphs and charts.