Go ahead, piss off the compost

When gardeners at a National Trust property in Cambridgeshire, England, feel the urge to pee, they take it outside. Specifically, they take it to the compost pile and give new meaning to the term “organic matter.”

According to a story by BBC News, head gardener Philip Whaites encourages his male colleagues to pee on a straw bale to speed along the composting process of their compost piles. Apparently, male pee is preferable to female pee, which tends to be more “acidic,” according to the report. Women are also less inclined to drop trow over a public pile of straw. The estate expects to save 30 percent of its water by not having to flush the toilet so often.

Maybe Bruce Van Dyke was on to something after all. (See “Water the garden,” Notes from the Neon Babylon, Sept. 24, 2009.)