Grow 101  ·  Creation Stewardship

Composting in a Hot, Dry Climate

Compost is how a farm stops throwing things away. In Southern California the whole trick is keeping a pile damp enough to stay alive.

Wet matters more than ratio

Beginners obsess over browns and greens. In a dry climate, water is the variable that kills piles. Aim for a wrung-out sponge, cover the pile, and check it more often than you think you need to.

Hot piles, briefly

A pile built all at once, roughly three parts dry material to one part green, turned every few days, will heat and finish in weeks. Piles added to gradually work too. They just take a season.

Small spaces

A shaded bin or a covered bag works on a patio. Keep it out of full afternoon sun, keep it damp, and skip meat and dairy.

Where your pumpkins go

Uncarved pumpkins we collect at season’s end are fed to our animals or composted here, and what they become goes back into the ground. It is the tidiest loop on the ranch.

Creation Stewardship

Nothing here is waste. It is all on its way to being soil again.