Food Scraps as the Bold New Fertilizer for Your Garden

Now that the spring sunshine has finally shown up, you’re probably thinking how you could best nurture the garden you’ve just planted, considering that ongoing drought and extreme weather conditions probably can probably put a bit of a damper in the fun. Enter food scraps, the unwanted leftovers—they do a plant’s body good.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, yard and food scraps comprise of 20 to 45 percent of all human-generated waste. In 2010 alone, Americans generated 34 million tons of food waste, and only three percent were saved from landfills for composting. This is bad for the environment on so many levels; more waste in landfills mean more methane (i.e., greenhouse gases) coming out. So rather than contribute to the heating of the planet, doesn’t it make sense to return this waste back to its source for renewal? One way of doing this is through composting, nature’s original method of recycling.

And composting has a myriad benefits. Composting improves soil quality and structure. Healthy soil has a crumbly texture. When composted materials are added back to soil, it enhances the soil’s ability to retain more moisture and air, improving fertility and stimulating root development. Therein lies another benefit—the ability for soil to increase drought resistance. Compost also replaces commercial pesticides with a robust and truly organic fertilizer. This saves you money and reduces the amount of toxic substances circulating in the body.

There is one other cause for celebration. The heat generated as anaerobic bacteria breaks down food and yard waste is one form of renewable energy, a resource now coveted by the onslaught of municipal composting programs nationwide. The East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland, California was the first city in the country to convert food scraps from local markets and restaurants into energy for its treatment plant. Just recently, Washington, D.C. has put its hat into the composting ring with ambitious plans to create “zero waste” by 2032.

For the normal gardener, all it takes is backyard space and knowing which combinations of brown (paper, cardboard, dry yard waste like leaves, branches and sawdust for carbon), green (vegetable scraps for nitrogen), air and water to use in order to minimize the stink factor. The EPA has excellent resources to help gardeners develop their own compost piles properly. Check out the EPA’s tips on composting at epa.gov/recycle/composting.html.

Take advantage of your leftovers and put it to good use. Your plants will thank you a bounty.