Starting and Maintaining a Compost Pile
Pile it On: Starting and Maintaining a Compost Pile
Using compost for your organic garden has many benefits!
First, it is a natural way to return minerals and nutrients back to the soil. It is inexpensive to make, saving you money on buying nutrients from outside sources, and it helps the environment, both by eliminating the need for synthetic fertilizers and by decreasing the amount of waste you will be sending to the landfill. Garden Composters really make a difference in helping our environment and human physical health maintenance.
What Do You Use to Build a Compost Pile?
Mainly a compost pile is made up of vegetation that is left to decay. Occasionally, there are a few other items that are added in such as fish waste.
- Never add meat or anything with a high fat content to your pile as it will slow the decaying process, can create an very unpleasant smell, and attract certain animals you may not want roaming near your home.
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Some things that work great in compost piles are:
- Kitchen waste, lawn clippings, chopped leaves, shredded branches, shredded paper including newspaper, weeds, straw and hay, tea leaves, coffee grounds, and vegetable peelings and waste.
How Do You Build a Compost Pile?
Many people build a composting bin to start and contain their Compost Bins, others simply pick an area of the garden or unused portion of the law and build their pile there. Whichever, method you choose make sure that there is enough room for a 3 foot square by 3 foot high pile.
You begin by placing a layer of your vegetation materials, grass cutting, leaves, etc. in your 3 foot square area. When your pile reaches 6 inches, you then cover it with a layer of soil or manure that is 3 to 6 inches thick. Then keep alternating the layers until your pile reaches about 3 feet high.
You want to make sure that your compost pile is in a semi shaded area because you don’t want it to get to dry. If it does get dry dampen it with a hose but be careful it also does not get to wet. Turning your compost pile regularly will help it to decompose faster. A regularly turned compost pile will take 4 to 8 months to decompose enough to use it in your garden.
How to Use the Compost
Once your compost pile is ready it is advisable to use it as quickly as possible.
- You can either mix it right into the soil as you are turning it to begin planting, or you can spread the compost around the growing plants to add nutrients, either way the compost will help your plants to grow while retuning nutrients to the soil.
A compost pile may seem like a lot of work to a beginning gardener, and it does take work.
- However, when you think of all the health benefits you will reap from eating vegetables and herbs that contain no chemicals, as well as money you will save on not having to purchase fertilizers from outside sources you will agree that the work is well worth the benefits.
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I love compost gardening! Thanks for the tips, I just made my own compost bin and pile last week, I will send you some pictures once it gets a little further along.
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