As you might imagine from a book published in Ojai there are a great many people thanked and acknowledged; the disclaimer comes in the form of the following statement, "All philosophical conclusions are the sole responsibility of Harmonious Technologies." This essay will attempt to come to no philosophic conclusions.

Let's start with full disclosure: I just love gardeners, old hippies and anyone from Ojai. The place reminds me of Eagle Rock.

I came into possession of this book through a friend who found it at Read Books down on Eagle Rock Boulevard. Both my friend, who chooses to remain nameless, and Read Books are treasured assets of this community. Being that the store deals in used books, I checked with Amazon to be sure that it was available, at least by that venue; it is. However, given the virtues of buying local, I would encourage anyone to begin their search on Eagle Rock Boulevard.

The book spends a good deal of time proselytizing about the virtues. Here I will simply say that good soil, of which compost is a vital part, grows better plants than bad soil.

The most important principle established in this book, and the most endearing, is that you cannot fail at composting. All other gardening activities carry some risk of failure; there are even some people, and you know who you are, who can't grow radishes. Composting is something that will occur regardless of method, amount of effort, or personal virtue: everything rots in the long run.

That means that you can simply rake all your leaves in a pile and wait. You could invest in a compost tumbler and turn it twice at day. You could layer your compost alternating nitrogen rich material with brown leaves and dried grass. You could invest in a dozen chickens and mix the 'end' product with your kitchen scraps. It doesn't matter which method you choose: it all works.

Now that you know you can't fail and the pressure's off, there are some basics to consider if you want to have your compost ready in this decade.

First off, you need nitrogen. This can come in the form of green plant clippings, like from your lawn or from manure. Nitrogen is essential for the break down of other plant materials.

Secondly, you need carbon. This can come in the form of kitchen scraps, brown leaves, straw or wood shavings.

Finally, you need oxygen. This comes in the form of, well, air. You introduce oxygen into your compost pile by turning it. By turning your pile, you avoid anaerobic decomposition, or having your pile smell like an open sewer.

A compost pile is like a slow burning fire and needs air to keep going. A good pile will have an interior temperature of up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The warmer it is, the faster it's cooking and the sooner there will be ready to use compost. The book recommends that at least a quarter, or as much as a half, of the pile be nitrogen.

There are several styles of piles. The least expensive, but the most labor intensive is the heap. In order to attain the critical mass required to get the compost cooking a pile of at least three feet by three feet is required; six feet by six feet would be better. Consider, though the amount of back work required to turn such a pile on a regular basis before you commit to having one of these in your yard.

There are several commercial compost bins available. This book is, in fact, sponsored by "Earth Machine." These are the round black plastic bins occasionally made available by the City of LA at a discount. They can be used with either a layering technique or turning with fork or shovel. The next time I hear of them being available through the City I'll pass that information on in these pages.

There are also drum composters which are bins laid on their sides and capable of turning so that. These I've seen in the back of various gardening magazines, but have never used. They look very handy. If anyone reading this eletter has experience with these, please let me know how you liked them.

The don'ts of composting are equally simple. Don't add meat scraps. And while newspaper and cardboard will eventually breakdown, they are so carbon-heavy as to require an inordinate amount of nitrogen. Best not to put those in your compost pile.

There is a method for composting bones, which I learned from a murder mystery novel some years ago, but which I will not share here in the interests of keeping the blight of garden violence to a minimum.

There are probably as many ways to make compost as there are gardeners. I hope that this little piece stimulates some conversation on this topic.