Composting Essential for a Great Garden
Many people like to spread mulch on top of the soil in their gardens. It helps maintain a fairly steady temperature and moisture level, and usually assists in blocking out some weeds. I strongly recommend it for the soil surrounding trees, bushes and shrubs, but there is something I much prefer for my garden: compost.
I realize it can smell bad, but it can be a miracle worker when it’s mixed into the first several inches of your garden’s top soil. I like the fact that it is NOT made up of harmful chemicals, which I believe are unhealthy for children, grandchildren and pets that might be playing in the area. Not to mention the fact that chemicals pollute groundwater.
Compost – a combination of greens that provide nitrogen and browns that provide carbon, will add important nutrients your plants need, help retain enough water and be a positive influence on the soil’s drainage.
You can keep it in good condition by monitoring the water, air and temperature that interacts with it. Just designate an area for your compost pile and start piling it up.
Greens vs. Browns
For your greens, you can include lawn clippings, plant prunings, houseplants, fruit peels, vegetable scraps, feathers or hair, bone meal, coffee grounds, hay or alfalfa meal, and others.
Your browns can consist of chipped wood, shredded paper, coffee filters, dry leaves, newspaper, sawdust, pine needles, cardboard egg cartons, aged hay or straw, and more. Try to have approximately twice as many greens as browns.
Moisture
Occasional rains should keep it damp enough, but if you get a lot of rain, cover the pile with a tarp. And if you get very little rain, you’re going to have to water it regularly.
The best way to monitor the moisture level is by grabbing a handful and squeezing. If a few drops of water come out, great. If more than that, it’s too wet; if less, it’s too dry.
Air
It’s very important that air circulate in your compost pile. Place large sticks at the bottom of the pile in order to ensure an airflow from below, then add a brown layer followed by a green layer followed by a brown layer and so forth.
They’ll get mixed up when you use a pitchfork to regularly turn the compost and create air pockets where things have become clogged, but in the meantime it’s a good way to ensure that you’re getting enough of both.
Temperature
A composting thermometer will be helpful in keeping the temperature of your pile where it should be. It should have a stem of about two feet in length to reach well into the pile. It the temperature is between 80 and 100 degrees, your pile needs a pitchfork.
If it’s between 100 to 130 degrees, your material is being broken down pretty well. If it’s between 130 and 160 degrees, your pile is performing admirably and is even killing the seeds that could eventually produce weeds in your garden.
Break It Down
Make sure the items in your compost pile are being broken down completely before you add them to your soil. If compost has not been broken down all the way when it enters the soil, it will steal the available nitrogen from your plants to break itself down. Without some of that much-needed nitrogen, your plants will not prosper as they should.
Like what you read? There’s more where that came from. See how your stockpile stacks up… Click here!
Cotton Seed Meal is another great additive for a compost pile. It will feed the worms and also help keep any “smell” down.
If you spread cotton seed meal around fruit trees in the fall and water it in good, you will get larger, tastier fruit.
If you spread cotton seed meal under a pecan tree in the same manner, the tree will bear fuller, tastier nuts and will bear every year instead of every other year.
Thanks for that addition to the list. Much appreciated.
A compost pile is a great idea for everyone to have in their backyard, no matter how large or small.
As you will read there are several types of compost piles. A smell free compost pile is made of vegetation byproducts like dead leaves, bio matter from the garden, coffee grounds and egg shells. Oh yea lets not forget about grass cuttings.
You will need to know how to mix this compost to really make it work. One layer of green cuttings, like grass, followed by one layer of brown, like dead leaves. You can include shredded newspaper in this compost pile, crushed egg shells and coffee grounds. The finish product will be a nice compost that you can add to your garden as a supplement to adding dirt and nutrients. Why? Because when this compost breaks down the by products are perfect for your plants. An added benefit to your compost pile is the hoard of WORMS that will be attracted to it. It is the worm that you want in your compost pile. It is the worm that breakdown the vegetation and provides castings that is truly beneficial to your garden. Every now and then you will have to keep your compost moist and aerated by using a pitchfork or shovel to turn the compost over. By allowing oxygen into your compost it allows the bacteria and worms to do their jobs.
For further information look at YouTube.com for visual instructions.
Other people have stated that they have added manure to their compost pile. This being said this is no longer a compost pile but an manure pile; whether or not you use chicken, horse or cow manure. Anything with manure byproduct is a manure pile matter how you slice it. A manure pile is also beneficial, but, that is a story for another day.
The reason a compost pile is so beneficial is that it renews the soil and our environment. If everybody had a compost pile we would have bigger and tastier foods which in turn will ease the food problems in your area and your wallet. So how about starting a compost pile today? Think GREEN.
I have found if you don’t have good soil another good additive is just leaves. I pick mine up with the mower in the fall & put them on the garden & till them in. research suggests that the first year you may see a decline in production, but every year after an increase. I also use manure tea on the garden for fertilizer.
I have started composting and I have a garbage can and a burn barrel full of “stuff”. It’s getting darker and richer, from what I can tell, but… my question for the rest of you is: How can it turn the can and barrel if I don’t have them on some kind of turning thingamajig, other than laying it down and rolling it?
We have a lot of horse stables around me, so I use AGED horse manure to mix into the soil and use as a mulch to keep weeds down. It is an excellent material when aged. I add about 6, five gallon buckets to my compost pile once a year, and the richness of the soil is remarkable.
Dad made Mom and I a split compost pit about four feet deep and we have a chipper/shredder that we run everything through. It breaks everything down in half the time. When one side get full we flip it over.
I have read a lot of articles on composting. Non of them have mentioned whether or not to add ashes from a wood burning stove to the compost pile. Is it a good or bad idea to put ashes into the compost.
You can add the ashes right into the garden. If you want to add them to the compost it is OK but it doesn’t help with the break down of material. Adding lots of nitrogen to the pile will makes sure the woody stuff breaks down quicker. You will get more of the ashes by adding right into the garden.
Check out “The Humanure Handbook” by Joseph Jenkins. It puts the whole thing into perspective. I’ve been using his recommendations for about a year & half and have had no difficulties with smell, animals, or disease.
Hi guys, I have chickens and goats. I add their manure to my compost pile. I don’t mix it up very regularly, I just keep adding food scraps (no meats), leaves, grass clippings, egg shells and manure. I leave it for long periods like about a year. I do buy compost also every other year. Another note, my compost pile does not stink, it has an earthy smell. If it sinks somethings wrong, it’s growing the wrong bacteria. Be sure to avoid adding meats.
I agree Alexander. If it stinks , something is amiss. But what may “stink” to one person, may smell OK to another. Egg shells are an excellent source of calcium, and calcium is a “wonder drug'” for tomatoes. I grind up the egg shells for my compost piles and they work great. I have been told you can also make “eggshell tea” for an all around tonic for any garden. Make sure you don’t add things like left-over pizza, or as you say meat or meat scraps.