It was the middle of the night, and Phocas was digging a grave in his vegetable garden. Inside his house Roman soldiers were asleep. They had come to Sinope to find and kill a man named Phocas. That evening they had knocked on his door asking for lodging, not knowing they were asking the man […]
The Roman Gardener Who Composted Himself Read More »
There is a Douglas fir on Haida Gwaii that is several hundred years old. Its roots go into soil that has never seen the ocean. Yet when scientists analysed its growth rings, they found that up to 80% of its nitrogen came from the Pacific. And it’s all down to fish. Pacific salmon begin their
The Fish That Built the Forest Read More »
In July 2022, a burnt-out Russian tank sat in Lyudmila Nishenko’s garden in Velyka Dymerka, a village about 30 kilometres northeast of Kyiv. It had been there since the Russian advance on the capital earlier that year. Rather than wait for someone to remove it, she poured soil into the turret and used it as
The Compost Bin Made From a Russian Tank Read More »
If you owned a building in one city, your tenants’ toilet output could earn you nearly twice a carpenter’s annual wage. In London, at the same time, your tenants would have thrown it out the window. Welcome to Edo, home to a million people by the early 18th century, by some estimates the largest city
A million people. No sewers. The cleanest city on earth. Read More »
When the Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo walked into the great market at Tlatelolco in 1519, he was already struggling to find comparisons. He’d seen the causeways stretching across the lake, aqueducts carrying fresh water into a city built on water, and soaring stone pyramids. Now, at the market, he listed what he saw:
Aztec Composting: The City That Recycled Everything Read More »
In 1905, the British government sent Albert Howard to India to improve Indian agriculture. He had a Cambridge degree, a diploma in agriculture, and first-class honors in the natural sciences tripos. [1] He was, by every measure, the expert in the room. Within a few years, he’d concluded that the farmers he’d been sent to
The Indore Method: Where Modern Composting Began Read More »
The Australian Brush Turkey (Alectura lathami), known to the Yuwaalaraay people as Gweela, is not considered a particularly intelligent bird. However, it has mastered something that many of think is difficult even for people – hot composting. The bird gathers organic material and piles it into a large mound before laying its eggs inside. The
These Birds Make Compost – Hot Compost. Here’s How. Read More »
In these turbulent days, when the leaders of the world have to deal with everything from war to disease, it is easy to overlook the importance of our soil. But, as the Romans discovered, poor soil can damage or even destroy empires. In America, the Dust Bowl was a stark reminder of what can happen
Founding Farmers: The Presidents Obsessed With Manure Read More »
1st April 2025 Fascinated by the thought of human composting, but don’t have the funds to pay for it? Or maybe you have multiple relatives coming to the end of their time on earth, and you want a cheap and ecologically friendly way to dispose of them? At Compost Magazine we have the solution with
DIY Home Human Composting Kit Now Available Read More »
There are many composting books out there, but only a handful make this list. That’s because some books can be misleading, poorly written, or inaccurate, while others are adequate. Only a few truly stand out as excellent. Of course, the best book for you depends on your needs. That’s why in this round up I’ve
My Top 6 Composting Book Picks for 2026 Read More »