How would you like to create nutrient rich, free, organic fertilizer right in your own backyard? Composting is the nature friendly, effective way to improve the soil in your garden. There are many benefits, it’s relatively easy to do, and you can start tomorrow. Composting is an excellent soil conditioner for both the garden and your lawn adding nutrients and vitality, introducing microscopic, organisms, and improving the moisture content of your soil. You are also helping the environment from diverting waste to landfills, everything from kitchen scraps to lawn clippings and raked leaves in the fall.
Many people don’t compost because they don’t know where to start. If you have a backyard or garden, you have room for a compost bin or tumbler. I find this to be the most effective method, especially if you have pets and kids playing in your yard. You can build your own bin or tumbler simply with wood, chicken wire, screws and/or a recycled drum. Many different varieties of compost bins are available to buy from garden stores, and some municipalities have them available at a discounted cost. Once you have your bin set-up you can start adding materials.
What you put into your compost bin is important. You have to have a healthy balance between carbon and neutral materials. These are essential as they are the bacteria in the compost pile that breakdown carbon as an energy source and ingests nitrogen for their protein. For all the carbon materials you put into your bin, you want to match it with neutral materials. Some examples of the two materials:
Carbon (light & fluffy) Nitrogen (raw)
~ wood (branches, stems, sawdust)
~ dried leaves ~ cardboard
~ hay
~ corn cobs
~ wood (branches, stems, sawdust)
~ dried leaves ~ cardboard
~ hay
~ corn cobs
Nitrogen (raw)
~ manure
~ food scaps
~ lawn clippings
~ green leaves
~ coffee grounds & tea bags
Layering your compost (carbon, nitrogen/dry, wet) will ensure that it mixes well. You can also put a layer of soil into the compost bin to help contain any smell, and speed up the process. Pretty much anything organic can be added to your composter, except for bones and fish unless you want pests, and I wouldn’t suggest any weeds, as they could seed in your garden eventually.
Once you have started a composter, you need to maintain it. If you wish to leave the composter to work on its own, than you’ll wait a year or two for the finished product. However, you can produce a finished product for your garden in a month. To quickly make compost this gardening season, there are a couple of tasks to required. Before adding your materials, chop them up into smaller pieces as this will give the microorganisms more surface area to digest material quicker.
You’ll also need to turn the compost. Aeration is required for the centre of the compost to get oxygen. This can be done with a shovel, flipping it on your own, or if you have made or bought a tumbler – it does the job for you. When you build or buy a composter, ensure that it has many ventilation holes. You can put chicken wire at the holes to help prevent critters from breaking inside.
Layering your compost (carbon, nitrogen/dry, wet) will ensure that it mixes well. You can also put a layer of soil into the compost bin to help contain any smell, and speed up the process. Pretty much anything organic can be added to your composter, except for bones and fish unless you want pests, and I wouldn’t suggest any weeds, as they could seed in your garden eventually.
Once you have started a composter, you need to maintain it. If you wish to leave the composter to work on its own, than you’ll wait a year or two for the finished product. However, you can produce a finished product for your garden in a month. To quickly make compost this gardening season, there are a couple of tasks to required. Before adding your materials, chop them up into smaller pieces as this will give the microorganisms more surface area to digest material quicker.
You’ll also need to turn the compost. Aeration is required for the centre of the compost to get oxygen. This can be done with a shovel, flipping it on your own, or if you have made or bought a tumbler – it does the job for you. When you build or buy a composter, ensure that it has many ventilation holes. You can put chicken wire at the holes to help prevent critters from breaking inside.
Watch the moisture levels! A simple and free way to check the moisture is with the squeeze test, grab a handful and squeeze. The perfect amount of moisture will be the same as a squeezed sponge. Too much moisture is hard on the micro-organisms and too little will slow down the compost.
If the weather is warm enough and your pile is heated up inside (ie. warmer then the weather outside), and if you have maintained your composter within a month it should be ready to go into your garden. Now that the steps have been explained, how do you know when your compost is ready?
You can tell when the compost is ready when its brown in colour, earthly smelling, and crumbly. If you find some old cobs of corn and leaves, it’s because they take longer to break down. You can sift them out of your pile and put them back into the composter. You can even add the compost as a mulch in your garden as the top layer, or you can mix it in.
Common concerns with composting are that they smell and attract rodents or raccoons. These concerns can easily be maintained without too much work. For the smell concerns, keep dried grass clippings or small pieces of mulch beside the composter. When adding a new item, cover it with the dried grass or adding a layer of soil, you can also try aerating the pile. For our raccoon friends, get a good sturdy lid and add chicken wire at vents. Many other problems are simply solved by turning or adding materials as needed. Hopefully you are on your way to soil gold this season.
Composting is an easy, organic, environmental method to improving your garden crops. As little as one inch on the top of your existing soil will help the soil hold air and water, and drain more efficiently while providing organic nutrients from your own fertilizer. It’s cheap and recyclable. The easy choice is to compost more, throw out less.
