Kitchen scraps make good compost.
The benefits of using compost pile fertilizer are that it increases and supports essential microorganism populations in the soil, creates strong soil structure, releases nutrients slowly, and is free when made in the backyard compost pile. Compost also neutralizes acid and alkaline soils to bring about the optimum pH balance. Compost fertilizer is easily made in a home garden compost bin, and there are several tricks to making it a successful process. Does this Spark an idea?
Location
Leftover vegetable trimmings will be carried from the kitchen to the compost pile so it should be in a convenient location in the garden. Place the bin near a water source and in full or partial sunlight. Water and sunlight initiate the chemical processes that create the heat to decay the materials in the pile. A compost pile begins to decompose when the temperature in the middle reaches 130 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix of Materials
The smaller the compostable materials are cut, the quicker a pile decays and turns to rich compost fertilizer. A 50-50 mixture of brown and green materials cut or shredded into 1-inch pieces creates a fast-decaying pile. Brown materials such as dry leaves, old newspapers, shredded yard trimmings, sawdust, straw or pine needles make good compost. Kitchen scraps, green leaves and grass, livestock manure and coffee grounds are all green materials that supply the nitrogen to create the heat to start decomposition.
Turn the Pile
The decomposition rate increases when the compost pile is turned by moving the materials from the center to the outside edges, and vice versa. Turning the pile every other week creates finished compost fertilizer in one to three months. Turning the pile every two days creates finished compost in four weeks. Finished compost is crumbly to the touch and smells sweet. Drum-style compost bins that pivot on a stand make it easy to turn the pile regularly.
Compost Starters
The compost process is given a jump-start by adding a shovelful of garden soil to the layers of plant materials as the pile is created. Soil has over 4 billion microorganisms in each teaspoonful, and many of them assist specifically in the decomposition process. It is not necessary to purchase commercial compost starters if you have garden soil. Fungi and bacteria are the major decomposers in the compost pile. Earthworms help digest plant materials and produce nitrogen and phosphorus-rich castings.
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