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Black GoldHere's a program from our archives.It's the harvest season, and gardeners are preparing their annual alchemical ritual of turning garbage into gold - black gold. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, Christina Datz Romero is a co-founder of New York City's Lower Eastside Ecology Center, which supports local urban garden and recycling efforts. By composting now, the Center ensures a supply of rich soil for its gardens next spring. Romero: Compost is basically the organic part of soil -- it fertilizes the soil - it reinvigorates the soil. If you think about it, anything that grows on the earth really grows in soil, so soil is really one natural reseource and the more fertile it is obviously the better it is because we can grow better and bigger plants on soil that is healthy, and compost makes the soil very very healthy. In a garden, composting can be as simple as setting aside a small area for organic waste.Romero: You can find a little space -- it doesn't have to be bigger than 3ft.x3ft., where you can really put everything, from every weed that you pulled, maybe prunings that you did, leaves that fall down, and turning them back into what some people call black gold. It's something that everyone can do - it's a biological process - it's something that's going to happen anyhow -- you just have to manage it., You have to do certain things -- you have to use nitrogen rich materials, like your fruit and vegetable peelings, and you use carbon-rich materials, like leaves and wood shavings and you have to have a 50/50 balance of the two to really make compost that will turn into something that you will recognize as compost. In nature, nothing gets wasted and we should try to do the same thing we should try to really put everything into the appropriate space, to have it go back into the cycle of life. More on composting in future programs. We've been listening to a program from our archives. If you want to hear more, check out our podcast. I'm Jim Metzner