Learn how to use compost to make your garden healthier and more productive....
- Composting utilizes garden waste to create healthy fertilized soil that can be added back to the garden to provide additional nutrition. Once a plant is past its useful life or the gardening season ends, we discard them. By adding them to a compost pile, we're recapturing some of the nutrients that plant has absorbed.
- Composting occurs when plant waste begins to break down from its plant form into its smaller components like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the same nutrients we get in a fertilizer bag. It also breaks down what's known as trace elements, which are small chemicals essential to healthy plant growth. Once a compost pile has completely broken down all of the garden waste you've added, you're left with what looks like black dirt.
- Compost needs 4 main ingredients to work: green waste, brown-dry waste, water and microorganisms. The ratio needed is 2 to 3 parts green waste, such as lawn clippings, over-ripe fruit or veggies, green leaves or peelings to 1 part dry waste like dried leaves. Once you've started layering in the waste, add water to the compost and mix everything together. This will get the process started. It takes beneficial microorganisms to cause the breakdown of all that you've added. These are naturally occurring in green garden clippings, so most of the time you don't have to add them. If your compost doesn't seem to be breaking down your garden waste as well as it should be, buy a compost starter at your local garden center. Compost starter is made up of enzymes and microorganisms that'll make your compost pile start working again.
Cost Guide: Depending on the amount you need, buying compost starter at your garden center or home improvement store will cost between $5 and $20.
- Another way to jump-start a compost pile is to add a very small amount of fertilizer. The nitrogen found in fertilizer and green waste is what helps the compost get started. You can begin by adding a few tablespoons of fertilizer and working it in with a pitchfork to get it to the center of the pile. Wait a few days and see if the temperature in the pile is rising, if not add another tablespoon of fertilizer and repeat the process until the temperature rises again. Remember to wear gloves and a mask when working with fertilizer.
- Compost needs heat to work. A compost pile can get higher than 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Microorganisms that release heat as they break down waste create the high temperatures. You have to keep turning the pile to make sure all parts of the compost get hot enough to decompose. Once the pile cools off, the compost process is finished and you can add it to your garden.
- The best ways to use compost is to spread it around plants that are already growing or you can work compost into the ground before you plant. Organic gardens use compost instead of chemically created fertilizers to get more vegetables from their plants. To create this type of organic environment a lot of compost is needed, that's why compost is often sold by the bag or by the truckload. If you want to grow organic vegetables, a compost pile will be one of the most important tools in your garden.
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