Composting

Compost for your Garden

2007-08-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

Composting to a successful garden

by Robert Schpok

Have you ever had really great soil for gardening around your house? Few do. In my case, the clay-like soil prevented good water drainage and was difficult for cultivating new plants. At other times the sand content was too high, providing the opposite problem - water retention. Additionally, proper soil nutrients for great plants can be missing. One could replace all the soil - a very expensive time consuming process, build raised bedsor work to improve existing conditions. To do this, composting is the answer.

Composting is the decomposition of plant remains and other once-living materials to make an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that is excellent for adding to houseplants or enriching garden soil. It is a great way to help the environment. Composting is natures process of recycling decomposed organic materials into a rich soil known as compost.

Composting is a lot like cooking, and the easiest compost recipe calls for blending parts of green or wet material, high in nitrogen and brown or dry material, high in carbon.

Materials

Materials that are excellent for composting are kitchen waste, like coffee grounds, canning wastes, things you might throw down the garbage disposal. Meat, bones, eggs, cheese, fats and oils are not recommended for backyard composting because they attract animals. Composting materials are divided into two types, green and brown. Green materials include green leafy plant residues like weeds, grass clippings, vegetable tops and flower clippings. Brown materials include fall leaves, straw, sawdust, wood chips and shredded newspapers. To speed up decomposition, use two-parts green material to one-part brown material. For best results, mix materials high in nitrogen such as clover, fresh grass clippings, and livestock manure and those high in carbon such as dried leaves.

Compost Bin

First, choose a location for your compost bin. Place the bin at least 20 feet away from the nearest house. Avoid placing the bin against a tree or wooden building; the compost could cause the wood to decay. Bins can be built from scrap lumber, old pallets, snow fence, chicken wire, or concrete blocks. When building a composting bin, such as with chicken wire, scrap wood, or cinder blocks, be sure to leave enough space for air to reach the pile. Usually when building a composting bin, one side is left open or can be opened to facilitate turning the materials. Once your bin is in place, you can begin immediately to fill it with yard wastes and kitchen scraps. While a bin will help contain the pile, it is not absolutely necessary - some prefer to compost in a large open area.

Process

Basically, backyard composting is an acceleration of the same process nature uses. If left alone, these same materials will eventually break down, decompose and produce soil rich materials. Eventually, the rotting leaves are returned to the soil, where living roots can finish the recycling process by reclaiming the nutrients from the decomposed leaves. Home composting provides ideal conditions to greatly reduce the time it takes

Cooking refers to the process where the compost heats up and breaks down, which is necessary before you can use it as soil additive in the garden and on your house plants. The cooking process takes about 4-8 weeks once you stop adding to the bin. Dont be surprised by the heat of the pile or if you see worms, both of which are part of the decomposition process. If you want accelerate the process, turn it every four days, but more frequently than that is not recommended.

Carbon

Carbon and Nitrogen are the essential elements of a compost pile. Carbon rich materials are referred to as 'browns'. Carbon-rich, relatively low-nutrient material are slow to decay. The rate at which breakdown occurs depends on several factors - oxygenation, temperature, water content, surface area size, and the carbon to nitrogen ratio Soak high carbon materials with water before composting. Alternate six to eight inch layers of high carbon materials such as leaves and other dry plant debris, with layers of high nitrogen material such as grass clippings, kitchen waste or manure.

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is the most important food nutrient, because a nitrogen shortage drastically slows the composting process. Brown materials composted alone require supplemental nitrogen to feed the decomposing bacteria. Greens are quick to rot and they provide important nitrogen and moisture. Add one-quarter to one-half cup nitrogen fertilizer per bushel of brown material. If you are low on high-nitrogen material, you can add a small amount of commercial fertilizer containing nitrogen. In other words, the ingredients placed in the pile should contain 25 to 30 times as much carbon as nitrogen. Some ingredients with higher nitrogen content are green plant material such as crop residues, hay, grass clippings, animal manures.

Manure

Manure may be used to increase your compost piles nitrogen supply. Animal manure should only be collected from vegetarian animals, such as horses, cows, sheep, poultry, etc. Sheep and cattle manure dont drive the compost heap to as high a temperature as poultry or horse manure, so the heap takes longer to produce the finished product.

Moisture

Moisture and oxygen are important factors in the composting process as both influence temperature. An active compost pile will be warm - frequently between 75 - 85 degrees. Every time you add fresh grass or kitchen waste you add some moisture retention to your compost pile. Moisture is provided by rain, but you may need to water or cover the pile to keep it damp. To test for adequate moisture, reach into your compost pile and grab a handful of material and squeeze it; if a few drops of water come out, its probably got enough moisture, if it doesnt, add water.

Eliminate Odor

The most common problem is unpleasant, strong odors. To prevent this ensure a good flow of oxygen in the compost, dont overload the pile with food waste so that the food sits around too long, and if the bin contents become too wet add in more dry materials.

Home composting is both fun and easy to do, and does not require large investments of time, money and effort to be successful. Composting is an inexpensive, natural process that transforms your kitchen and garden waste into valuable food for your garden. Composting is a way to reduce the volume of organic wastes and return them to the soil to benefit growing plants. Your garden will love you for it

Robert Schpok is an avid gardener who has used his gardening skills to greatly enhance his culinary techniques and ability to create great new recipes. Gain valuable Gardening insight and make cooking fun at his newest site Got-Eats.

Why Compost? It can be fun!

2007-07-25T04:08:00.000-07:00

Compost Tumblers Make Composting Fun

by Duong Vicki

Before you start on your first composting project of the year, have you thought about what you were going to place your compost in? I dont mean, 'In my garden,' or even, 'In my houseplants soil,' those are all moot points. I mean, have you considered whether you were going to compost out in the open for anything and everyone to see, or perhaps in a compost bin or compost tumbler? After all, these are important points to consider and they may hold the key to a successful composting project.

There are quite a few methods when it comes to composting; some use the open composting method by building a pile of compost out in the woods or yard, others use compost tumblers and bins. I prefer the compost tumbler method out of all of them mainly because I lead quite a busy life and cant commit to watering down my compost constantly if its out in the open in addition to turning the pile on a regular basis. However, thats not to say that a compost tumbler is better than open composting; both methods produce the same amount of compost in the same amount of time so long as you keep your compost heaps aerated.

Moving forward, compost tumblers have a lot of great benefits, the most obvious being that if youre a busy person all you really have to do is toss all your food scraps and/or yard waste into your tumbler, turn it or flip it (depending on the design) about every few days and youre good. Tumblers of course, keep your compost aerated which is very important; you never want your compost to stay stagnant because that would bore the little microbes in your heap. They should be actively eating and decomposing all the matter in the tumbler or bin!

Another reason I prefer tumblers over other methods is that it keeps animals and rodents away from your compost. Your pile will stay securely in the tumbler until its ready to be removed, which can be easily done. But the big reason why I like compost tumblers is because theyre fun! Sorry to the folks who have open compost heaps, but I dont find using a pitch fork to turn my compost appealing at all. Something about spinning or flipping my compost tumbler while on a steady axis sounds easier. Call me lazy or what have you, but know this: my compost heap is still just as good as yours!

For a wide selection in compost bins and rain barrels be sure to stop by Composters.com.

Compost | Composting in a Big Way

2007-07-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

Composting - Doing it in a Big Way
By Darrell Feltmate

Three is the magic number for a compost pile, especially in a quick compost system. In order for it to work well it needs to be three feet, three feet wide and three feet long. For most people this translates into a compost bin three feet on a side or a pile three feet in diameter. What about the times when you simply have too much material for a small pile?

You could make more bins but that costs time and money and will likely leave you with lots of empty bins once the wind fall of organic matter is over. Lots of little piles are a possibility but there is a much faster and simpler solution. Go long.

One of my first compost piles came after buying a new home. The back half acre of the property was hugely overgrown with weeds and grasses. There was no real time to deal with the problem until fall so I let them grow, mature and dry. Come fall I had a half acre of field about 3 feet high in half dried grass and weeds.

Basically I cut and raked all the material into small piles around the half acre. My wife was not impressed with the look so I began a compost pile. My aim was to be three feet high and wide, but as long as I needed. This turned out to be 20 feet. So I ended with a pile 3 x 3 x 20. The height and width are necessary but the length is a 3 foot minimum.

The pile heated well. After three days I turned it to find that it had started to break down. Grass has a tendency to form clumps of matter and this had, but they were reasonable to break up at this time. For a pile like this it is best to simply have room to one side and turn it to the side. Try to get the outer matter to the center of the new pile. It was still 20 feet long and a lot of work to turn.

The next turning was about four days later. Again the heat had been good and it was starting to cool down. Material was much darker and the grass was no longer 3 feet in length nor was it clumping as bad. I simply flipped the pile back onto its first footing, trying once again to get the outer material into the interior of the new pile. I had lost about 3 feet of length due to the maturing of the pile. It was a lot of work to turn.

Each successive turning was easier. After the fourth turning I had a pile about 15 feet long but still 3 high and wide. It had taken about three weeks. I sifted the compost leaving me a starter pile still about 3 x3 x 3. The rest went on what would be next spring's garden. These turnings were much easier simply because the matter was breaking down so well. It was hard to tell what had started as grass and what as weed. Clumps broke as the fork went through. Sometimes it is simply necessary to make a large pile and work it. Incidentally, very few weed seeds made it through the hot composting process.

Darrell Feltmate is an avid gardener who has been composting and gardening for over 25 years with gardens up to 1/2 acre and compost piles for each. His composting site may be found at Compost Central. You can be a master composter in no time at all.

Much of his compost uses wood shavings from his wood turning hobby. The site for wood turning may be found at Around the Woods.

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Composting

2007-07-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my composting blog.

I will be posting articles and tips on composting very soon so be sure to check back.

Thanks

Rodger