You already know that throwing vegetable peels in the trash is wasteful. What you don't yet have is the system that makes it easy to stop.
Composting Handbook is the complete, no-nonsense guide for anyone who wants to compost — whether you have a backyard, a balcony, or only a kitchen counter. Written by Oliver Thorne, a composter of thirty years who has made every mistake in the book, this guide explains the why behind every instruction — so when something goes wrong, you know exactly how to fix it.
Everything is here — from the first pile to the finished product, from a backyard heap to a kitchen counter bin. No fluff. No guilt trips. Just the information you need to start and keep going.
What you'll find inside:
✔️ A complete beginner's path — from choosing the right system for your space and lifestyle to building, maintaining, and troubleshooting your first pile, with zero assumed knowledge
✔️ Every major composting method explained and compared — hot composting, cold composting, vermicomposting, bokashi, trench and sheet composting, hugelkultur, and grasscycling, each with step-by-step instructions, honest pros and cons, and clear guidance on when to use which
✔️ A definitive materials guide — what goes in, what stays out, and why, including a comprehensive reference table with C:N ratios for over 20 common materials
✔️ Solutions for every living situation — apartment, balcony, indoor worm bin, community program — there's a system for every situation
✔️ The soil science that makes your garden produce — how to apply finished compost by crop type and season, how to brew compost tea, and how to combine composting with cover crops, mulching, and crop rotation for results that compound over years
✔️ Honest troubleshooting — when your pile smells wrong, won't heat up, attracts pests, or just sits there doing nothing, this book tells you exactly what's happening and what to do about it
✔️ The numbers behind the practice — climate impact, household savings, municipal policy, and the emerging science linking soil microbiome health to the nutritional quality of food you grow yourself
It gives you the knowledge to act on what you already care about — and the confidence to keep going when things don't go perfectly the first time.
For the gardener who has killed a plant before. For the apartment dweller who has always assumed composting wasn't an option. For anyone who has started something and abandoned it because no one explained what was actually happening.
