Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Build A Compost - Advice

Gardening is a great activity that is either a hobby or a way to provide fresh food to the table. The quality of your harvest will depend on the kind of soil you have in your garden. If it is not very good, then you will want to build a compost.

A compost will give your garden soil the nutrients it needs to make sure that what you grow there will be the best in can be. No garden is truly complete without having one. It is just what your soil needs. A compost will bring the nutrients and the fertilizer your garden needs, and all done from the area of your backyard. It will also make sure that there is a good moisture balance for your soil.

Decide where you are going to build your compost pile. Make sure it is out of sight so the neighbors don't complain, but put it close enough so that you have easy access to the garden and the kitchen. You will be adding organic material from your kitchen as well as your yard.

Chicken wire and a few stakes will build you a nice compost pile. It will hold enough organic material and also will be large enough for you to turn it over with a pitch fork or a shovel. You want enough stakes to hold it up so it won't sag under the weight of the contents.

Add grass clippings to your compost. Grass weighs a pretty good amount, so make sure that if your compost pile is large, it is staked up well. Make is at least a few feet in diameter.

You can even make an old bin from wood and pallets that won't be used anymore. Make it the size you need and, for easy access to the compost, add a lid with a hinge. It will keep the weather out too.

The main part of compost is grass clippings, dry leaves, and other material such as annuals that have passed one. Make sure they are mixed well in the compost. But, don't add too much green material since that will make a smell that is unpleasant.

Do not add meat or dairy into the compost. The bacteria and harmful other germs from fecal matter will potentially harm your garden and you. Take care when you build a compost for your garden.

Build a compost and get off of store bought fertilizers. The fertilizers themselves frequently contain chemicals but they also use energy to make and transport them to the store. Build a compost, the planet and your garden will love you for it.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Build A Compost - Secrets

Building a compost is not very difficult. The main thing that you will need is patience. It does not happen over night but it is worth the wait.

There are tumblers the can be used to speed up the process. Even the best tumbler takes about three to four weeks.

Just pick out an unused part of the yard, maybe out of sight even. A compost pile does not produce any odor, if it is done right. It can be unsightly though.

Once your spot is picked out then it's time to start composting. Begin with a nice layer of sticks or some kind of course material. This will supply good aeration from the bottom of the pile.

The next layer start with green matter. There is really no good reason to start with green matter you can just as easily start with brown matter but you are going to alternate to make layers.

Green matter items from your kitchen, vegetables, fruit peels, coffee grounds and there filters, nut shells. Just about any kitchen waste will qualify.

Brown matter is the items that will come from outside. Leaves, sawdust, wood chips, paper items (simple black and white print only), and sticks laying around in the yard.

After these two layers add another aeration layer. hay, sticks, straw or anything else course you can think of.

After the materials have been added put a little moisture on the pile. Not to much, think of a damp sponge.

You might add a handful of dirt every once in a while as dirt contains microbes that will help kick the compost process into gear.

Then after you build a compost stack you will just need to be patient. You will have rich compost to spread over your plants in no time.

When the items begin to break down compost will be formed. But it does take a while so you should be patient. Your garden plants will love compost fertilizer, it's well worth the wait. Click here for Free information on how to build a compost.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Composting Your Scraps Can Keep The Planet Green

Gardening can be lots of fun and very rewarding. You get to plant little seeds in the ground, and if you're lucky, watch them grow into big plants with lots of flowers, fruits, or vegetables. Your green thumb can help your plants to grow and that is a nice reward. But along with your planting comes a need to prune, thin out, and cull as well as get rid of the spent plants.

Should waste be put in garbage to be hauled to the landfill. The diseased plants and the weeds should, but everything else can go in your very own compost pile. Composting is an excellent way to take care of your garden pruning, tree trimmings, grass clippings, and even kitchen scraps.

There are two good reasons why you should be composting your scraps.

It keeps the kitchen and yard waste out of the landfills where it has a hard time breaking down with all the plastic and other non-compostable stuff around it.

Composted scraps break-down and turn into a gardener's secret weapon for next year's crop... "black gold". This nutrient-rich compost is just what your tired topsoil needs and is the perfect way to keep the cycle of life going.

To start composting, you use a bin or two, rather than open piles. Bins help the piles to heat up longer and quicker, which helps the waste to decompose quicker. Closed bins also will discourage little critters from coming along and feasting on all the goodies that make up your compost.

You can find a compost bin at your local garden store or online, and while they tend to be on the expensive side, they may make you some good compost faster. You can also make your own compost bins with instructions you can fine online or using your own imagination. You can even drill some holes in a plastic garbage can for aeration and use that. When the pile needs turning, fasten the lid down with a bungee cord, lay it on it's side and roll it around some.

Once you have your compost bin, you need to create a pile of brown, green, and soil with manure. Brown is Dead leaves, prunings, spent plants, smallish twigs. Green is Veggie scraps, coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, used tea bags from the kitchen.

Bones and other meat leftovers do not belong in your compost pile because they attract wildlife.

If your compost pile smells, then you need to adjust the amounts of what you have in it. The rule of thumb is to add equal amounts of the green, brown and dirt. When you throw something on the pile, like peelings from your carrots and potatoes, plus the broccoli your son refused to eat, then add some dirt and brown leaves as well.

It might take some time for your compost to break down, so you might want to have two bins going. One will be the bin that is older and is busy turning into compost, the other is a bin for the newest stuff.

When composting your scraps is done, you will know it. It will have a dark color, smell good, and look like the best top soil you've ever seen. Go ahead and spread it around your plants and garden and watch it grow. Compost is a natural fertilizer that your plants will love.