There is a secret to growing a magnificent garden. In fact, using the concept can make a novice gardener look like an expert. Composting is the secret to being a victorious gardener. It isn’t hard to do; anyone can compost and grow an awe-inspiring garden. To get started, you have to realize the purpose of composting and get a few tips about creating compost that will make an exceptional garden.
The purpose of composting
If you were to look up the word in a dictionary, you would find a straightforward definition for compost. It is simply a mixture or composition of decayed organic matter that is used to fertilize soil. By using compost in your garden, you will ensure that the soil is rich in nutrients without using chemical fertilizers.
The purpose of composting is to improve the quality of the soil in the garden naturally. Good garden soil is the foundation for a flourishing garden. Without quality soil, you will experience sick-looking plants that turn yellow or wilt. If your plants look like they are starving, they probably are, or perhaps the pH is off. If your soil isn’t too bad, but isn’t ideal for gardening, your plants may look okay, but they may not produce as they should, or they may not produce at all.
Adding organic matter to the soil makes it fertile and it also improves the texture of the soil. It will have adequate drainage with the ability to conserve moisture. Composting can be used to maintain pH and nitrogen storage which will help your soil to feed the garden.
How to make compost
You’ve heard the old saying, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure”. Well, here’s the opportunity to make your own trash your treasure. People waste so much, even if they are into recycling and protecting the environment. Tons of trash goes into landfills when we’d be much better if we reused it. Think about it…
- When you get up in the morning and make coffee, what do you do with the coffee grounds?
- When you rake your yard, do you bag the leaves and set them out by the dumpster?
- When you peel a potato, where do you put the peelings?
- When you use an egg, what do you do with the eggshell?
If you are putting them in the trash, you are depriving your garden. Start enriching your garden and depriving the landfill; after all, landfills are an environmental problem. All of these items – coffee grounds, leaves, potato peelings, and egg shells – are organic matter. They can be made into compost, instead of wasted. You can use the compost in your garden instead of buying expensive fertilizers. It’s free as long as you use your wastes.
Composting can be accomplished by making a compost pile and letting it decay, and then working it into your soil. This is the ideal way to compost, although some home gardeners choose just to bury waste in the garden. Either way is better than throwing your organic matter away.
There are several things that you can add to your compost. Fruits, vegetables, shredded paper, grass clippings, leaves, weeds, straw, dead flowers, tea leaves, coffee grounds, wood chips, sawdust, eggshells, dried manure, etc. It is also important to know what not to add. This includes meat products, bones and fats, dairy products, diseased or poisonous plants, chemically treated wood or sawdust from it, and wastes from humans or pets. Cow or horse manure is okay as long as it isn’t fresh.
The concept of composting is to add organic matter to the dirt to make your soil healthy and productive. You can build a compost pile right on the ground; however, some gardeners prefer to use composting bins, at least to get started. If you choose to build a pile, make sure that you have a good variety of contents including dried out greenery and vegetable peelings. Keep it moist so that the contents will decompose.
When you feel that your compost is “done”, work it into the soil in the garden. When your compost is ready to be put in the garden, it will be dark in color with most of the contents decomposed beyond recognition. If some things aren’t totally decomposed, they will continue to decay even after they have been buried in the garden. Composting is not hard do, in fact it’s almost impossible to mess up. Just make sure that the contents of your compost are wholesome organic items and it’ll be just fine.
