Composting for Your Garden

If you want to have rich, dark soil to enrich your garden's existing soil mixture, try composting for your garden. By creating a compost pile or container in your back yard, you can get rid of lots of wastes easily and recycle it naturally into compost that will help your garden grow well.

Compost is simply a dark, crumbly mixture of organic matter that has decomposed. It can be created from grass clippings, leaves, twigs, branches and other organic matter. It isn't difficult to create compost. It is simply a matter of science and a touch of art.

Composting for your garden can incorporate items you have removed when weeding and trimming and performing lawn care as well as some food items that would ordinarily go into the garbage. These include the items mentioned above as well as plant stalks, hedge trimmings, old potting soil, weeds that do not have seed heads on them, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and filters, tea and tea bags. Do not add diseased plants, weeds that may have seeds attached or invasive type weeds such as nut grass or morning glory, any type of feces, dead animals, bread or grains, meat, fish or diary products, grease or cooking oil or any type of oily foods.

Composting for your garden requires the organic material you have collected and will continue to add to the compost as well as air, water, nitrogen and microorganisms. The microorganisms break down the organic matter and turn it into the rich compost you want. To obtain these organisms, you can add a small amount of garden soil to the compost to get things "cooking".

The purpose of the nitrogen, air and water are to provide an environment in which the microorganisms can live and break the organic matter down into compost. Add a very small amount of nitrogen fertilizer to your compost when starting to provide the nitrogen required. You can find this type of inexpensive fertilizer at any nursery, hardware store or large superstore. Do not add very much fertilizer or you will kill the microorganisms.

You can begin composting for your garden using a pile of material in your back yard or you can create your compost in a 55 gallon garbage can with a lid or cover that you have cut several drainage holes in the can's bottom. The garbage can method will avoid odors but it is not the fastest method however, because the more surface area you have in your compost container, the faster the breakdown will occur. The best way to compost in the suburbs is to build a wooden box, three feet by three feet by three feet or four feet by four feet by four feet which has drainage holes and a solid cover that has a much larger surface area and will work just as effectively. This will provide an optimal composting container for the suburbs.

As you first begin composting for your garden, bacteria will perform most of the breakdown of the organic matter. As the compost develops, however, fungi and protozoa, and later centipedes, millipedes, worms and beetles will help the composting process.

Chop the organic matter you're planning to add to your composting for your garden. A clipper, shredder or hoe can be used to break the matter into small pieces before adding to the compost. Vegetable scraps coming from your kitchen are probably already small enough to add but if you happen to add a whole vegetable, slice or chop it into smaller pieces. This will speed the composting process.

Composting generates heat. The three foot square container is the best size to generate a hot, fast process for composting. If you attempt to compost a pile or container that is larger than five feet in any dimension, you almost certainly will not get sufficient air circulating to allow the microorganisms at the center of the compost to survive.

Composting for your garden requires moisture. The compost pile should be about as damp as a sponge that has been wrung out. The pile also needs many air spaces and passages. The compost must be turned and mixed occasionally to allow air and moisture to mix throughout the compost. This also helps control the odor of decaying matter. The best temperatures for compost piles are between 110 and 160 F. This allows the composting process to work quickly.

Once the matter has broken down into a rich, brown, soil-like material, it is ready for use. It contains nutrients for your plants and will help hold the nutrients in the soil near the plant roots for effective use by the growing plants. It is especially important in clay and sandy soils. Clay soils do not all air circulation and the addition of compost aerates the soil. Sandy soils do not retain water and the addition of compost will improve the moisture retention greatly.

To apply the matter you have been composting for your garden, add two to five inches of finished compost to your garden each year before planting. If you are working around existing plants, carefully work small amounts of compost between the plants. Do not apply it directly to the roots of existing plants because it can burn the roots and damage the plant. To enrich potting mixture, add one part compost to two parts potting soil and one part sand or perlite. To use compost as mulch, just spread an inch or two around annual flowers and vegetables and spread a thick layer, up to six inches, around the base of trees and shrubs. To add a provide nutrients for your lawn, create a mixture of sifted compost and sand and apply as a top dressing by sprinkling the mixture evenly over your entire lawn.

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