Creating garden soil is addictive and contagious!
While most homeowners support the idea of composting, some are reluctant to start because it seems messy, time-consuming, or complicated.
The beauty of composting is that nature does all the heavy lifting. A little knowledge and effort will kick-start your compost pile into high gear. Once you start, every banana peel, paper towel, and fallen leaf will contribute to next year's bumper crop.
Chemical fertilizers feed the plant; compost feeds the soil
The Basics
Follow these easy instructions, and you will transform your kitchen scraps and yard waste into the most fertile garden soil nature offers.
Step 1: Have an organizing principle.
Objective- achieve a "zero waste" backyard and kitchen
Step 2: Find the ideal spot for your compost pile.
Find a shady spot, near your garden, with bare ground to allow expansion.
Step 3: "The Mix"
The ideal mix to activate your compost pile is:
- 2-part carbon
* Autumn leaves
* Shredded paper or cardboard
* Sawdust or Wood chips
* Dried yard waste
* Paper towels, tissues
* Soil from garden
* Wood Ash from fireplace
- 1-part nitrogen
* Fresh lawn clippings
* Kitchen scraps
* Coffee grinds
* Tea bags
* Fruit and vegetable peels
* Eggshells
* Weeds or fresh (green) yard waste
Step 4: Keep the pile moist
An active compost pile requires water to launch the chemical reaction that transforms yard and kitchen waste into organic fertilizer.
Build your pile in a shady area to avoid having the pile dry up.
Step 5: How fast do you want it?
"I want compost as fast as possible":
- Chop ingredients into small pieces
- Mix carbon and nitrogen materials thoroughly
- Keep moist (like a damp sponge)
- Turn (mix) the pile with a pitchfork or spade 2 or 3 times per month
- Mix pile when adding new ingredients
"I'm Ok with waiting for my compost":
- Mix the ingredients
- Moisten with a hose
- Add new material when available
- Use compost in the spring
What should not be added to the compost pile
Meat, bones
Dog/cat waste
Grass clippings from "treated" lawns
Yard waste that has been treated with chemical fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides
Sawdust or wood chips from treated wood
Wood ash from treated wood
Treated mulch
Don't get hung up on the nitrogen/carbon ratio. There will be periods when either is abundant or scarce.
Let nature take the wheel
The 2:1 carbon-to-nitrogen ratio starts a chemical reaction that heats your compost pile up to 150 degrees over two weeks. This temperature kills weed seeds and undesirable garden pests hiding in the compost. As the pile cools, composting allies such as pill bugs, earthworms, beetle grubs, centipedes, and millipedes feast on the decaying matter to create the rich soil your plants love.
Benefits for the keen-eyed gardener
Composters also benefit from kitchen scraps germinating in the pile's heat. Learn to recognize the "volunteer" seedlings such as peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, lemons, avocados, and tomatoes popping up in your compost. If your climate does not support tropical plants, such as avocados or lemons, plant them in a large container and take them in during the winter.
Exercise caution
There are aspects of composting that require caution. The warmth of the pile creates an ideal habitat for ant colonies. You will find disturbing an ant colony is one of the many reasons you should not wear sandals when working in your compost pile. Your uncovered feet are the first point of attack for a "triggered" ant colony's stinging bites. When you disturb an ant nest, walk away for an hour or two to allow the ant colony to move its brood away from the disturbed area.
The heat from the compost pile also offers cold-blooded garden allies such as snakes, turtles, and toads a place to raise their body temperature. While these "beneficials" pose no danger, your shovel, fork, or rake can injure or kill a vulnerable reptile or amphibian warming up in your compost.
It's not complicated!
Composting harnesses nature's energy to increase your backyard's productivity. Be confident that your compost pile will yield results. Nature will eventually reclaim all the material in your compost pile. The tips above synergize your efforts with the natural processes that turn organic matter into black gold!
A neighbor's chicken is turning my compost pile!
All photographs, unless otherwise noted, were taken on our one-acre property in eastern PA.
Photographs by SuperNaturalist.net
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