Composting / soil generation

Composting

Humanure Handbook

This method of composting includes poop, so if you don't want to read about composting your poop, please skip to another section.

Including your poop attracts bacteria who really heat up the compost and break down the contents, and they can also break down toxins if you apply the compost to a toxic environment.

This method involves a lot of buckets. Some buckets are for poop and pee, and other buckets are for the usual kitchen scraps. For your poop and pee bucket, you could use a toilet seat on top, and you could make or buy a fancy box to hide the bucket. Along with this setup, you would have a lot of wet sawdust, and in another bucket, you would keep some wet sawdust. Outside, you'd have a whole pile of sawdust underneath the sky where the rain can keep it wet. After pooping/peeing, you would add enough wet sawdust to eliminate the smell.

After about a dozen buckets, it's time to make your compost. You would make a box out of pallets. Then, you would line the pallet box with bales of hay. Next, you would dump the contents of your buckets into the hay pallet box. Lastly, you would cover the contents with more hay and let it sit there undisturbed until it finished turning into compost.

For more details, you could watch this video. They also have a video about cleaning the buckets.

A Naturalist Method

The naturalist, Masanobu Fukuoka, had a much simpler method of composting. Composting is an old Japanese tradition, and it was back-breaking work for young Fukuoka. When asked about composting, Fukuoka replied, just bury your kitchen scraps out in the land. Inspired by this, one person takes their scraps out in the woods, in the middle to avoid attracting raccoons back towards home. This person finds a dip in the soil, moves the leaves to the side, dumps the scraps onto the dirt, and covers up the scraps with the leaves and possibly some sticks to discourage critters.

Soil Generation

A Natural Approach

This method takes several years. You could grow nitrogen-fixing plants, and leave weed roots in the soil. In other words, you could cut weeds instead of weeding by pulling them out of the dirt. The former leaves the soil intact, so all the lifeforms can continue to improve the soil. Also, the roots will decompose and contribute to soil generation. You could avoid mowing with lawnmowers or tractors as they might compress the soil, which would prevent the soil from absorbing water, contributing to runoff and erosion. (soil loss) You could avoid raking leaves and leave the leaves where they fall, and they will contribute to soil generation. Also, you could use some of the leaves to mulch plants that need your help. You could grow cover crops, too, and cut them when they start growing flowers. You should definitely grow a cover if nothing else if you have bare dirt because the rain will wash it away.