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SuSue's Garden Spot

COMPOST

The Gardeners Friend

Composting is a great way to rebuild and replenish the nutrients in soil.  It’s like recycling for Mother Nature.  Making and using compost allows a gardener to recycle garden and some household waste and reduce the burdens of trash disposal. 

Almost all organic materials will decompose, but that doesn’t mean that all organic materials should be put in your compost bin, or heap. Yard debris, like leaves, grass clippings, straw and non-woody plant trimmings can be safely put in your compost.  You can put in woody material too, but if it’s very big at all (bigger than a quarter inch around) you’ll need to chip it.  A lot of kitchen scraps can be used too, such as veggie scraps, coffee grounds and egg shells.  You won’t want to add grease, meat, bones or dairy stuff because they will attract all kinds of nasty critters, and doesn’t do much for your compost.  You also shouldn’t toss in large amounts of weeds.  Most of the weed seed would be destroyed during the composting process, but there are the few that survive and that can create a new set of problems. 

The composting process is really quite simple, and that is a good thing since I just hate to be bothered with all the scientific mumbo jumbo.  I just want to do it and have it work.  I really don’t care how it works as long as it does!   I use a compost heap because that is what works best for me, but you can purchase inexpensive bins, or even build bins for your compost.  Lots of people use a three compartment bin, but in my personal situation, I don’t find that it is necessary.  I just have a pile out behind our garage.

First of all, you need to gather green stuff and brown stuff.  Sounds silly doesn’t it?  The green stuff would be yard clippings etc. that aren’t dead and brown yet.  The brown stuff is the stuff that is dead and not green anymore!  See I told you it was silly.   So, you mix the brown stuff and the green stuff together (I like to add a little bit of plain old dirt to this mix) and dampen it all down with a hose.  Every few days in the beginning you need to stir and turn your pile.  A pitch fork (or garden fork) is the best tool for this.  Pretty soon, the temperature of your pile will begin to rise and the cooking process has begun.  Keep turning your pile every few days, dampening it as needed.  You can pick up a handful of your compost and give it a squeeze, if it holds a form, it is damp enough, if not you will need to give it a drink.  Now, at this point you can either continue to add organic material to this pile, in which case it will take longer to break down so that you can use it, or you can start a second one.  The latter is my personal preference, that way I can cycle the two piles and always have composted material ready to use in my gardens. 

When the pile has decomposed enough to be ready to use, the temperature will drop back to about normal because the “cooking” process is done.  The heap will be about half of it’s original size and will be a nice, brown, crumbly mass with an earthy odor.  You can add your compost to your gardens as is, or mix in a little aged manure with it.   I happen to have an uncle with horses, and a nice old manure pile.  Believe me, I take advantage of it! 

Have fun and happy composting!

The contents of this site have been gleaned from personal experience and many other sources. 

I've done my best to give credit when the source of information is known to me.

©2004 SM Fultz