garden news-just compost me

GARDEN NEWS-JUST COMPOST ME

this is a picture from an old blog linked here of a wheelbarrow load of my compost from the country n
this compost was spread over my garden beds before i planted my veggies
i added it on usually a few weeks before i would plant
i added organic fertilizer and forked it into the soil
the compost would finish composting over the next few weeks so it would be ready for planting


at my community garden i add my kitchen veggies scraps to a 5 gallon bucket with several 3/8 inch holes on the sides and bottoms
this bucket is buried in the ground 
the scraps are added then i cover it with a concrete cover
in a few weeks the worms and pill bugs and other small varmints plus all the bacteria in there compost this all down to a fine powder of worm etal compost


in our community garden we have 8 4ft square bins 
the veggie and plant debris are added to bin one 
as it composts it is moved to a new bin 
stirring it every week or two
keeping it moist
at the end what is left in the final bin is a mostly fine compost for use in the garden

so
this week it was with interest i saw this article on having yourself composted when you die
being an organicgreen gardener this intrigued me

i plan on getting cremated after ucla takes my brain for research

my thinking is no matter what you do after you die that you end up the same eventually
nature does its job
even if you have a regular embalming techniques done
cremation does it fast
composting it seems does it fairly fast also

a company in washington is doing it in that state as well its being done in oregon colorado and vermont
and is seeking approval to start doing it in california

heres how it works
its eco friendly 
they put you in a steel container to naturally decompose with woodchips and alfalfa and other biodegradable products and leave you there for around 30-45 days

then this human compost is returned to the family or it can be distributed on conservation land

the compost or i should say your compost pile heats up the first few days to kill most pathogens
any residual things left are then ground up and added to the mix ie teeth bones etc

warning if you are catholic they consider this a undignified way to treat a body
im not sure about some other religions or cultures

your human compost is treated by the same restrictions they put on cremated remains

ashes to ashes dust to dust is the saying

human composting costs around 5-7k  which is slightly more than cremation 
still much less than a conventional burial 

so
if i get human composted when i die
i would like my human compost spread over a garden row and worked in well into the soil
then
plant a long grow of heirloom tomatoes like cherokee purple or black krim
or
put the compost under a big ole tree like a native live oak

maybe you dont have to eat the tomatoes though
just compost them too 

the organicgreen doctor