Compost – It’s Simple

Save time and money by turning landscape trimmings into a valuable soil amendment. 

It’s as simple as placing disease and insect free plant debris into a pile and letting it rot.  Don’t add meat, dairy, weeds gone to seed or perennial weeds that can take root and grow in your compost pile. 

You can enclose the pile in a bin to keep the process neat, tidy and out of sight.  Some gardeners prefer tumbler composters for added ease. Speed things up by layering yard waste with soil, adding a bit of fertilizer or compost and moistening to a consistency of a damp sponge. 

Turn the pile as time allows, moving the more decomposed materials from the center to the outside of the pile.  It’s a great work out and speeds up the decomposition.  The more effort you put into composting the sooner you have rich organic matter for your garden. 

Use finished compost in containers, work it into garden beds to improve your soil’s moisture holding capacity and drainage or spread it over the soil surface as a mulch. 

A bit more information:  You may have heard the Composter’s Chant “Equal parts of green and brown help the microbes break it down”.  It is true that including equal parts of nitrogen rich (green) materials like herbicide-free grass clippings, fruit wastes, vegetable clippings and manure with carbon rich (brown) cornstalks, evergreen needles, straw and fall leaves will speed the process.  But don’t let this recipe prevent you from composting.  All plant waste will eventually decompose as weather, insects and micro-organisms digest the materials over time.  So put your landscape trimmings in a heap and watch the magic happen.

Tags

sustainable-gardening compost

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