A Reflection on Low Tech
When I was about ten, my uncle, who was a writer, bought a farmhouse and some land in Pennsylvania. He formed a partnership with two men to grow Christmas trees. They provided the labor and expertise and Uncle Bill provided the land. The first trees would be ready to harvest in five years. When the contract was signed, the experts said to my uncle, "How about some business cards?" So Bill had business cards printed with all their names. The card read, CHRISTMAS TREES FOR ALL OCCASIONS. In the bottom right hand corner, it listed an emergency phone number.

The card was my first appreciation of layers of humor, and the extravagance of investing money in whimsical fun took my breath away. I carried that business card around for years, and I still have a copy tucked away with family photos. The other morning, as I was building a summer compost pile in my garden, I made a connection with Bill's old business card. You have to bear with me while I explain the delights of compost, but we will get back to Christmas trees.

Compost, the black gold of gardening, is made by layering leaves, grass, weeds, dirt, coffee grounds and other non-meat garbage, more weeds, manure if you have it, sawdust if you have it, shredded newspaper, more weeds, more garbage, more dirt, and so on. I've been composting for ten years now, building a pile with whatever biodegradable stuff I have around, letting it sit for a season, and then, when white worms take the place of the red ones, putting it into the garden.

A great labor-saving hint from Organic Gardening magazine is to build your compost pile on the bed where you are going to use it. I haul truck loads of manure and sawdust from the park, add my own leaves and weeds and kitchen remains, and build these layered heaps of organic goodies at the foot of all my garden beds. Instead of spending weeks of spring hauling compost from the main pile to each bed, I'm ready to plant. I keep compost piles around the garden, near where I plan to use them next season.

But the newest fashion in composting is the quick-cooking method. Instead of dumping what's at hand on the pile, you layer scientifically: 75% nitrogen-rich manure and grass clippings and 25% phosphorus and potassium content: wood ashes, granite dust, slag, mushroom compost. These are mostly not items I have laying around in my yard.

You build a four-foot high pile, keep it moist and covered, and turn it every four days, which

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