Compost: Organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled into a soil amendment and nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Urine: A (typically) sterile liquid by-product secreted by the kidneys. Known to be rich in the following nutrients: water, urea, nitrogen, potassium, creatinine, chloride.
I had a delightful conversation about gardening yesterday with a dear friend (I’ll call her JC for privacy’s sake). We often get together and talk about different things we’ve read or seen, so I was not surprised when she started off the conversation with “oh, I was going to tell you about something I read…”. However, I was extremely surprised when she followed that up with “…people are using their urine as a compost now!” In fact, I probably wouldn’t have been more surprised if I’d woken up with my head sewn to the carpet! (shout out to National Lampoons Christmas Vacation for letting me steal that line!)
Okay, seriously, I was surprised because as we enjoyed an afternoon cup of tea, I was actually having visions of people just urinating in their garden- odd!
This got me thinking though, why? Why would you want to excrete your waste on something you are going to eat? Would it work? And lastly, could I do it without the neighbors seeing??? What can I say- I’m easily convinced!
After a little research, I am now clear on exactly how people get the urine to their garden. They pour it from a jug. No popping a squat in the veggie patch, or taking a chance on an indecent exposure “incident”. That automatically takes away half the fun.
The second thing I learned was that this is not a new concept. Quite some time ago some genius decided he would try it out and probably had the most nutrient rich garden in town and everyone was extremely jealous and thought to themselves “my garden will never be as good as John’s, so just piss on it”, literally. And then they discovered John’s profound secret.
On a serious note, after some reading and research, adding urine to your compost or simply mixing some with water and watering your garden with it does not seem that crazy. Nitrogen is in urine. Nitrogen is also one of the most active ingredients in your compost pile. It’s what heats up and breaks everything down. Without the right amounts of nitrogen your compost pile would keep getting larger but would never become that dark, rich soil you covet!
Should you choose to pee, you’ll also be adding a little urea, potassium, and chloride to your compost pile or soil. All good stuff
One thing that I did find disturbing about this method is that if you are harboring a bacteria or are taking hormones or other medications they will also end up in your compost. Not good considering 1) I don’t want any of “that” bacteria on my food and 2) some drugs contain harmful ingredients in trace amounts (such as Coumadin- taken to thin the blood- it is thought to also contain small amounts of an ingredient that can react similarly to arsenic in the right environment- I don’t always have the best luck and I do not want to find out the hard way what that right environment is!)
Just like everything else, there are pros and cons. Done properly, I can see no harm in adding a little urine to your compost or watering your garden with a diluted version every now and then. I’m not going to do it, but I’m not knocking you for reusing your liquid by-product. Just don’t invite me over for a delicious home-grown tomato and onion salad that day. Or ever again…
Let me know how it turns out if you try it.
So I leave you this final question to ponder….to pee or not to pee????