How to Create Compost for Your GardenSome Basic Definitions Compost is a mixture of decaying organic matter, as from leaves and manure, used to improve soil structure and provide nutrients. Composting is the transformation of organic material (plant and animal matter) through decomposition into a soil-like material called compost. Insects, earthworms and microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) help in transforming the organic material into compost. Composting is a natural form of recycling, which continually occurs in nature.
Why Should You Compost? Compost added to gardens improves soil structure, texture, aeration, and water retention. When mixed with compost, clay soils are lightened, and sandy soils retain water better. Mixing compost with soil also contributes to erosion control, soil fertility, proper pH balance, and healthy root development in plants. How to Compost While composting may seem mysterious or complicated, it’s really a very simple and natural process that continuously occurs often without any assistance from mankind. If you’ve ever walked in the woods, you’ve experienced compost in its most natural setting. Both living plants and annual plants that die at the end of the season are consumed by animals of all sizes, from larger mammals, birds, and rodents to worms, insects, and microscopic organisms. The result of this natural cycle is compost, a combination of digested and undigested food that is left on the forest floor to create rich, usually soft, sweet-smelling soil. It's important to get the right mixture of ingredients in your compost to ensure that it heats up nicely and breaks down effectively. Here's how: 1. Getting the right mixture of brown (carbon) materials to green (nitrogen) materials will make a huge difference. Adding too much brown material will result in a compost pile that takes a long time to break down, and adding too much green material will result in a compost pile that is slimy and smelly that doesn't break down well. When a small amount of soil is added to the mix, microorganisms are put into our compost bins. These organisms need both carbon and nitrogen to thrive: carbon for energy and nitrogen for protein synthesis. In order to keep the bacteria working efficiently, we need to supply them with a mixture that is about 30 parts carbon (brown materials such as leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper) to 1 part nitrogen (green material like kitchen scraps). 2. Achieving the correct moisture content is an important factor in keeping a compost pile working efficiently. Moisten the pile without making it too wet and soggy. Many people recommend adding moisture until the material is as moist as a wrung out sponge. This is far too wet. If you can squeeze water out of it, it's definitely too wet. If your pile is too wet adding some dry brown materials such as chopped leaves or hay should help dry it out. In a rainy area cover the top of the pile with a tarp or other covering to keep it from becoming too wet. 3. If there is one secret to making compost faster, it is finely shredding the carbon rich ingredients such as leaves, hay, straw, paper and cardboard. Shredding increases the surface area that the compost microbes have to work on and provides a more even distribution of air and moisture among the materials. Since it's the brown materials that take the longest amount of time to break down, shredding them reduces the finishing time of compost significantly. 4. The most important part of composting is to turn the pile. Turning an established compost pile can be a lot of work, so much so that most people simply don't do it often enough. Compost tumblers do produce finished compost in a much shorter amount of time than most other methods. These tumblers tend to be more expensive than other bins and their capacity may be limiting to those with huge amounts of material to compost, but for most people, it's the quickest and most effective method there is. 5. If you have a lot of material to compost it's a good idea to start a new pile rather than adding to an existing pile. Once the composting process begins and the material in the pile starts to break down it is advisable to avoid adding new material unless there is an imbalance of greens to browns that should be corrected. Adding new material to an existing pile will usually prolong the wait for finished compost and, in an open pile, the longer the process takes, the greater the risk that nutrients will be lost to leaching. A better idea is to start a brand new pile with fresh material. Both piles will break down more efficiently and will be ready sooner 6. Consider growing a patch of comfrey. Comfrey has deep roots that absorb nutrients from the subsoil, which are then stored in the leaves. Comfrey leaves have a high level of nitrogen making them a great activator for compost piles. However, their real value is in making comfrey fertilizer for your plants.
Growing Comfrey Comfrey is a hardy plant that will grow from small pieces of root. Comfrey rarely sets seeds so it won't infest your garden. The plants will do well in full sun to near full shade in an area that gets lots of moisture. Space the plants 2 to 3 feet apart, then stand back and watch it grow. In the first year, cut the flower stalks and add them to the compost heap. In the second year you should be able to get 3-4 cuts from a single comfrey patch. Just take a pair of shears and cut them back to about six inches from ground level. Wear gloves because the leaves can irritate skin. |
Compost Barrel Making Comfrey Fertilizer 1. Fill a barrel or plastic garbage can 1/4 full with comfrey leaves. 2. Weigh the leaves down with a stone or a brick. 3. Fill the container with water. 4. Put a lid on the container. 5. Let stand for 4 to 6 weeks. The mixture is ready when the leaves have rotted and are no longer visible. 6. Your liquid feed is ready to use in your garden! If your comfrey plants have grown enough, you can start a new batch.
What Can You Compost? The list is actually quite long: kitchen scraps including fats, meat and bones; paper towels and paper plates; the shredded paper from your office; newspapers; grass clippings; leaves from trees and shrubs; and dead plants from the garden. Basically anything that was once alive can be returned to the ground and it will create new soil.
Ways to Compost There are many ways to compost. Some are: 1. Compost Barrel: fastest and easiest. Just add layers; rotate it every week or so and dump it out when finished. 2. Build a raised bed: fill with layers; it will shrink down as it decomposes, so continue to fill. When filled with beautiful soil, add minerals and microorganisms, and plant.3. Dig a hole in the ground where you want to start a garden and fill with layers. When filled to the top, cover with soil and start a new hole. When you have done this in all parts of the garden, it will be ready to begin the remineralization process and plant. 4. If your garden is mulched already, you can pull the mulch aside, lay the kitchen scraps on the ground, and then cover them with the original mulch.5. You can select an area in the yard and just begin spreading the compost on the spot. Layer the various ingredients and it will begin breaking down. When as high as you want it to be, choose a different spot and begin another one. Turning is NOT essential but it is faster. 6. You can lay your compost material around trees and bushes and top with mulch or leaves.7. Build a fence around an area about 3X3’ or 4X4’ - this can be square or circular. Add composting materials in layers. If you add or leave an opening, you can get in to either turn the compost or to remove the finished compost to add to garden areas. Adding worms and microorganisms will make compost faster, and help create a living community that will work in a symbiotic relationship with the plants, and make them healthier and more nutritious. You must add the minerals as well as they are essential for the health of not only the plants but of the worms, bugs and microorganisms that live in the soil. The most important thing to do is START!!! |
