Each year in the spring people venture outdoors to begin planting their gardens and flower beds. The allure of warm, gentle days seems to call out the winter hermits in an act of reseeding the world with beauty and divine scents.
One thing that does not make sense is the amount of money spent on commercial fertilizers and compost. Composting yourself is free and makes some of the best fertilizer in the world. Sure, it does take some time but if you start work on it early you can have rich, dark soil by the time planting season comes around.
Composting is environmentally friendly and once you know what can be composted and what cannot, you will be on your way to being eco-friendly. In this article the basics of composting will be covered such as what it actually is technically and how you can begin your own compost heap in your own backyard.
What is composting?
Composting is the process of taking organic material and breaking it down through a variety of chemical and animal processes to achieve fertilizer and plant building material that is both cheap and highly effective. It is very environmentally friendly and is a great way to avoid paying those high costs of bags of fertilizer.
You can utilize those leftover food wastes, animal wastes, grass clippings, branches and other organic materials to create a loamy material that will help your plants grow to their maximum potential like no other commercial grade fertilizer possibly can. The best part is that it is free!
What can I use to help the material break down?
If you want your compost heap and material to break down faster you are going to need to keep it aerated, moist and broken into smaller pieces. You can also help break down the material by adding worms and other small insects into the pile that will help eat the organic material.
Their waste products are filled with great nutrients for the soil and before long you will have a compost heap that is ready to hit the garden to begin the cycle all over again. It is a circle of life that is a great example of Mother Nature at her finest and shows what recycling can do for the environment.
How does compost improve the soil?
Composting adds valuable nutrients back into the soil such as Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen. There are other essential elements that are added that will all work together to add the depleted minerals from the growth cycle back into the soil after a plant has used them. Consider it a natural cycle that is essential for plants, grasses, trees and flowers to grow and thrive.
How do I prepare the materials for composting?
Start preparing your compost pile by breaking up the materials into manageable pieces. The object is to help the materials break down or decompose faster. Larger pieces will hinder the process. A shredder works wonders for yard trimmings.
If you are using manure you will want to take a pitch fork and break up the clumps before adding them into the pile. Try to keep the pieces to sizes around the shape of a leaf if it is at all possible.
If you can keep them even smaller to help speed up the process that much faster and before long you will have a mound of fertilizer to use however you see fit.
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