Composting Made Easy
Gardeners are constantly trying to cut costs in their gardening hobby. Improving soil and adding nutrients means composting. Composting not only is a great way to improve your soil and cut costs, but composting is also means of recycling items that otherwise would be rotting in a landfill somewhere.

Posted Thursday, April 6, 2006

Understanding the basics of composting:

Where will you place your composting pile? Any level area that is going to allow your pile to be worked, turned, and stacked is going to be a great place for composting. You might want to keep your pile away from windy areas; doing this will keep grass clippings, leaves, paper and other items from blowing away. Protecting your compost pile from the wind also prevents heat loss. Heat is an essential ingredient for decomposing.

You can use just about anything to build your compost bin. You can use chicken wire, an old crate, anything that has enough openings that air can get through and speed up the process of decomposing while holding the pile together. You want to keep a mixture of two "types" of materials in the composting pile; one green and wet while the other dry. Some of the materials that you use in composting are coffee grounds, corn cobs and corn stalks, bean or pea stalks, eggshells, grass clippings, garden clippings, hair, hay, leaves: all green. Manure from any animal, pine needles, sawdust, bits of wood, wood bark, sweepings from your home or barn, peelings from vegetables and fruits, weeds from the gardens, and ashes from your wood burner. Mix your compost pile so that you have a variety of green, wet and dry materials throughout. You can do this with a shovel or pitchfork. Add about a half gallon of water to the materials to start the decomposing process. If you have a very dry summer, about once a week or once every ten days adding a bit more water to your compost pile is a good idea unless it has rained.

A good sized compost pile it at least three feet high by three feet wide, this is large enough so that the decomposing in the middle of the pile creates heat and works the process faster than if laid flat in your yard. You really only need to turn the pile, poking around a bit, mixing the outside into the middle where the decomposing is taking place about oncee a month. After a few weeks (or months depending on the size of our pile) you will have a great mixture that you are plants will love!