GO GREEN WITH COMPOSTING!!
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 the way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes, and is a critical step in reducing the volume of garbage needlessly sent to landfills for disposal. Old time farmers refer to finished compost as “Black Gold”.
The necessities of composting are:
Air: To aid in the decomposition of your organic materials. Depending on the type of compost bin you are using you should either pitch fork your compost weekly or spin your compost tumbler.
Water: Your compost pile should be as moist as a ‘wrung out sponge’. If your pile is too dry, the microbes or composting rate will be slowed dramatically. If your pile is too wet, then your composting materials will become matted, thus lessoning the airflow = slow decomposition and bad smelling compost. If your compost bin is an open-air type, such as a screened in area and we are due for a significant, long period of rain, you may want to cover your compost pile with a tarp.
Food: “Browns” and “Greens”. These are the necessary ingredients in your success to composting. Just like baking a cake, flour and sugar or water are necessary, thus a ration that contains equal portions of both and is well mixed works best.
Definition of Foods:
Browns
Brown ingredients are dry and dead plant materials such as:
• Straw
• Dry, brown weeds
• Autumn leaves
• Wood Chips and Sawdust
• Cardboard & Newspaper, shredded
• Peanut Shells
.
Greens
Green ingredients are fresh (and are often green in color) such as:
• Green grass
• Green weeds, green leaves
• Kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps
• Coffee ground and tea bags
• Fresh horse manure
• Vegetable peels
• Eggshells
Items not suitable for composting are:
• Chemically-treated wood products
• Avoid diseased plants
• Human & Pet wastes
• Fatty foods and milk products
• Bones
• Morning glory/bind weeds, sheep sorrel and ivy.
Types of Composters
There are many options today for containing and processing your compost from home made bins using untreated lumber, recycled pallets, wire caged containers to commercial bins which are upright, tray form or compost tumblers.
STARTING A NEW COMPOST PILE?
Try adding any of the following to the pile:
Aged Manure
Cottonseed Meal
Alfalfa Meal
Blood Meal
Compost Starter or Compost Accelerator
WHEN IS YOUR COMPOST FINISHED COOKING?
There is no set time when a compost pile should be ready or done ‘cooking’. The process is heavily dependent on the organic matter you put in the bin/heap, the airflow, temperature of the bin and the aeration. Usually, if all these factors are prime, than your compost should be complete and ready to use within three to 12 months.
Finished compost is dark in color and has an earthy smell, like rich soil. Usually it’s hard to identify any of the original ingredients that you put in the bin other than fine bits of straw if you’ve used that.
Where to use your new compost?
Many will turn compost into their gardens prior to spring plantings giving the soil a rich organic matter content. In clay soils, compost helps to add tiny holes and passageways into the soil; making it drain more quickly thus not making it waterlogged and doesn’t dry out like a brick like substance.
On lawns, you can sprinkle it on as a top dressing to improve the soil for better grass growth.
It is also a great idea to add a small portion of compost to houseplants occasionally.
You can mulch with compost, but bear in mind that it will decompose further into your soil, thus if you’re mulching for aesthetic reasons, while it will look great in the beginning, as it decomposes it will not look as fresh as the day you originally spread it. This would also be considered “top dressing” your plants.
Composting is a cheap and easy way to create your own fantastic fertilizer and it's totally natural!
So instead of throwing out your food you can put it to good use. This will save some space in landfills. You also can save money not having to pay for fertilizer and save time by putting some of your grass clipping and leaves into your compost bin.
