How to Compost
Read more articles on Life.September 16, 2009
Posted by ken sharp
September 16, 2009
Posted by ken sharp
180 Views
Compost is very important for your garden. It provides all the natural
minerals and nutrients your plants need to grow. Composting is very
hard work and time consuming, depending on the size of your garden.
You should have a compost bin by your garden. This will be a great
place to keep all of the composting materials you will collect. Making
a bin is easy. You will need to make it out of boards, 2×4’s and 1×4’s,
alternating them as you build the compost bin. You can use big 4×4
posts to put on each corner of your bin to keep it supported. Be sure
to leave a 2 inch gap in between each board for air circulation. The
bin should be about 5 feet wide, 4 feet tall and about 5 feet deep.
Making the bin with only 3 sides is a great idea, keeping the front of
it open for easy filling and removing of composting materials. You can
use the clippings from when you cut your grass, trim hedges or rake up
leaves. Put these materials in the bin, placing them into 6 inch
layers, alternating between them. Keep alternating between the green
and brown materials. If you have plants that have died, you can dump
them and their soil right into the bin too. When the bin is full, you
will need to buy potting soil or mulch and cover the compost materials.
You will need to turn the compost over every few weeks.
Composting works by heating up the material, turning the leaves, grass,
soil and hedge clippings into a composting material. This process will
break down the material, infusing them together. Water and other tricks
of mother nature help with this process. If you have a garden hose and
sprinkler, you should spray the compost with water for about 2 hours
every day. Keeping the material moist will hasten the composting time.
By turning the compost over every three weeks, this will ensure that
the material on the edges will break down completely. The material in
the middle will break down easily, but the stuff on the edges is what
needs to be turned into the center.
One of the great ingredients for a good compost is to use shredded
bark. You can buy rough, hardwood bark from your garden dealer. Put the
bark into a low pile, not very high, because if it is too high, it will
shed off rain water. The point is to keep the bark very wet at all
times, this is what helps it to rot and break down. The more wet the
bark is, the faster it will break down and the faster you can put in
in with your other composting material. Do not use up all the rotted
bark completely, because you will need to use it to mix it in with your
future compost. As you use up a portion, get more bark and start the
decomposing process over again.
Composting is hard work indeed, but will benefit your growing garden.
For more information, please go to:
http://containergardening.awardspace.com
gardening, compost, composting, garden, flowers, plants, vegetable,
tomato, weeds, soil, potting
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