A Year In The Life Of Scott Smith’s Compost Heap

In Westport’s Barnes & Noble, “Gardening” books sit on one side of the store.

“Nature” volumes are on the other.

So where does Scott Smith’s new book go? “On Compost: A Year in the Life of a Suburban Garden” is all about living sustainably, and with ecological purpose. It’s about gardening and nature.

But it’s also about raising a son. About being part of a neighborhood. And engaging with the world.

“On Compost” defies easy categorization.

Of course, to anyone who knows Smith — a longtime Westporter, journalist and committed global citizen — that’s no surprise.

Scott Smith

Just like his book, Scott Smith moves easily and fluidly from idea to idea. He connects with a variety of people who, on the surface, have little in common with each other.

And just like his compost heap, there’s always more going on beneath Smith’s surface than meets the eye.

Throughout his life — working for non-environmental publications like Business Week, Bon Appetit and Golf Digest, and now as communications director for Friends of Animals — he has loved the outdoors.

“It thrills and nurtures me,” he says. At the same time, he acknowledges enormous challenges like climate change and pollution.

Following the mantra “think globally, act locally,” Smith has spent nearly 2 decades tending a compost heap in the back yard of his small (1/3 acre) property, off Greens Farms Road.

He  began the project after clearing the land of years of neglected overgrowth and invasive species.

Curious at first, his neighbors soon embraced the compost heap. Building it helped him connect with them — and to the land sloping down, less than a mile away to Long Sound.

Scott Smith’s compost heap.

“Before chemical fertilizers, farmers collected seaweed for fertilizer,” Smith explains. They also used “horseshoe crabs, bunker, ground-up shells — even horse manure from New York City.”

The book explores all that, and much more. It started as a “year in the life”-type diary. Smith is keenly attuned to Westport’s 4 seasons, and writes lovingly of the magic of each.

Focusing on a compost pile — as humble as that sounds — allows him to talk about bigger ideas. Smith tackles food waste, modern landscaping, and the effect of modern pesticides and fertilizer on our planet.

When he started his compost heap, it was a “fringe hobby,” he notes. In the years since, Sustainable Westport and the Pollinator Pathway have become important parts of town life.

More and more, residents have learned that their yard does not have to be “sterile.” They’re finding ways to make it “more productive, and beautiful.”

But just as the compost pile grew and evolved, so did his book. Early readers wanted to hear more about Smith’s interactions with his son Cole. That relationship now forms part of the volume’s broad appeal.

Scott Smith’s son Cole, in the garden. He graduated this spring from Williams College.

The audience is “people who want to live more sustainably,” Smith says.

That does not mean, though, that everyone needs to start composting. “Even if you have a garden patio, you can improve the soil,” he notes.

Many new residents of Westport have “grown up without how-to, hands-on knowledge” of the land they now own.

They can pay people to take care of their property. Yet Smith senses an urge among many homeowners to get close to nature, using their yards not just for enjoyment, but to learn about the soil, plants, and cycles of nature.

Many of those newcomers come from Manhattan and Brooklyn. Once they hear about composting, they are intrigued by this “classic Connecticut Yankee way of living.”

“On Compost” is an important book, for environmental stewards across America. But it is a very Westport book — including the back story of its route to publication.

Another view of the garden.

Smith spent years seeking the right publisher. An “06880” story led him to Christmas Lake Press, the Westport-based brainchild of Tom Fiffer and Julie Bobkoff. Smith’s concept was perfect for the company.

And — like the compost pile he writes so lovingly about — the publisher was right in his back yard.

(Click here to order “On Compost,” and to learn more about the book.)

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