The Rodale Book of Composting, Newly Revised and Updated: Simple Methods to Improve Your Soil, Recycle Waste, Grow Healthier Plants, and Create an Ear [Paperback]

An essential guide to composting for all gardeners and environmentally conscious people

This revised edition of The Rodale Book of Composting includes all the latest in new techniques, technology, and equipment. Gardeners know composting is the best way to feed the soil and turn food scraps into fresh produce, but even urbanites can get on board thanks to programs like compost pickup and citywide food waste initiatives—there’s no better way to reduce landfill waste (and subsequent emissions) and dependence on fossil fuels while nourishing the earth.

The Rodale Book of Composting offers easy-to-follow instructions for making and using compost; helpful tips for apartment dwellers, suburbanites, farmers, and community leaders; and ecologically sound solutions to growing waste-disposal problems.Grace Gershuny has written extensively on soil, compost, and food system issues. As a staff member of USDA’s National Organic Program in the 1990s, she helped develop the organic regulations. She lives in Barnet, Vermont, and teaches at Green Mountain College.

Deborah L. Martin earned a BS in horticulture from Purdue University. A former extension agent in the USDA's urban gardening program, she’s edited books on gardening and contributes to Rodale’s Organic Life. She lives in Allentown, PA.Chapter 1

Composting throughout History

Composting is, in broadest terms, the biological reduction of organic wastes to humus. Whenever a plant or animal dies, its remains are attacked by soil microorganisms and larger soil fauna and are eventually reduced to an earthlike substance that forms a beneficial growing environment for plant roots.

This process, repeated continuously in endless profusion and in every part of tló´