Compost makes excellent fertilizer.
Composting is a simple, eco-conscious way of creating DIY organic fertilizer for your home garden or backyard flower bed. Compost is a nutrient-rich substance resulting from the natural decomposition of organic materials and can be added to ordinary garden soil to boost plant growth and overall health. Does this Spark an idea?
Containers
Buy a commercial compost container (available at home improvement and hardware stores or through municipal organizations) or make your own. Containers should be big enough to hold continuous additions of lawn clippings, dead leaves or kitchen waste, but you should still be able to reach in with a rake or pitchfork to turn the matter around. Compost bins should retain moisture and heat, which helps the microorganisms that turn organic waste into compost. Some compost bins feature a door at the bottom, making access to finished compost easy.
Setup
When beginning your compost pile, fill the container at least a third full with organic material, then wet the material with a garden hose to aid decomposition. Sift the pile with a rake to make sure all the matter is moistened. The best starter materials are dead leaves, grass clippings, shredded newspaper and regular potting soil. Do not add food scraps first. Always cover food scraps in the pile with a layer of dead leaves or newspapers to keep smells and vermin at a minimum.
What to Add
Composters categorize organic material into "browns" and "greens." Ideally, your compost pile should contain an equal amount of both. "Browns" are materials rich in carbon, such as fall leaves, dead plants, newspaper and cardboard, straw and hay, pine needles, wood chips or shavings, egg shells, corncobs and stale bread. "Greens" are rich in nitrogen and include fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, green grass clippings, fresh weeds or flowers, cornstarch, feathers and seaweed.
What to Avoid
Do not add fish, meat or dairy scraps, dog or cat waste, cat litter, pressure-treated wood, seeds, sand, charcoal or ashes, or colored and glossy paper. These items will upset microbial activity and attract vermin or harmful microorganisms.
Turning
Every month or so, aerate the pile so the microorganisms can continue to turn the organic material into compost. "Fluff" the matter with a rake or pitchfork, bringing the most decomposed material to the surface and burying the fresh material.
Testing
It takes between three months and a year, depending on temperatures and the pile's ingredients, for compost to finish maturing. To see if the compost is cured, do a "bag test:" put a handful of compost in a sealed plastic bag. After a week, if the compost smells sour or like ammonia, the composting is still in process. Test again in a few weeks.
Uses
Your DIY organic fertilizer can be added to garden soil all year long. Work an inch or two of compost into the top 3 to 5 inches of soil in vegetable gardens, or less in flower beds and window boxes. You can never have enough garden compost, and there is no danger of burning or harming plants as with some chemical fertilizers.
Tags: dead leaves, organic material, with rake, compost pile, food scraps, garden soil