It's Composting Time
Composting for Beginners
May 29th is national learn about composting day. I thought I would take this opportunity to celebrate the holiday and learn a little about how to compost. This is a great way to be greener and do something good for the environment while also seeing benefits at home. First, let’s start with the benefits:
Composting creates rich organic matter that greatly helps to improve the overall soil quality in your garden. Whether you sprinkle the compost on the surface or work it into the soil your garden will become healthier and stronger. Composting can benefit your garden in the following ways:
Incorporates organic matter to feed microorganisms and macro organisms that maintain a healthy soil food web
Enriches soil with nutrients for plant growth
Releases nutrients slowly so they don’t leach away as some synthetic fertilizers do
Improves soil structure
Promotes drainage and aeration in clay soil
Enhances moisture and nutrient retention in sandy soil
Reduces soil compaction
Inhibits erosion
Suppresses soil-borne diseases and pests
Attracts earthworms, nature’s best soil builders
Now that you know all of the amazing benefits of compositing how do you get started? The three basic tools that you need to get started are a hose, a shovel, and a pitchfork. Make sure that you get tools with a comfortable size and weight for you to use over an extended period of time. The pitchfork will be used to help you mix organic matter in your compost area. The hose is necessary because water is essential to the process. The shovel is needed to mix your new compost into your garden soil.
Since we now know the benefits of composting and what tools we will need the next step is to know what you can put into your compost. Composters use two different kinds of organic matter that they refer to as browns and greens. Browns are organic matter that are high in carbon and will help to provide energy for decomposer organisms as they consume and break down the contents of your compost. Greens are organic matter that are high in nitrogen and supply the decomposers with protein. The trick is to have a good mix of both browns and greens in your compost. Here are some examples of both organic matter types.
Browns: Greens:
Dry leaves Kitchen scraps
Woody plant trimmings Coffee grounds and filters
Straw Leafy plant trimmings
Pine needles Grass clippings
Sawdust Manure
Paper products Feathers, fur, and hair
There are also some types of organic matter that can hurt your compost. Here are some things that you want to avoid putting into your compost.
Ashes from charcoal barbeque
Ashes from wood stoves or fireplaces
Diseased or insect infested plant material
Meat, bones, fats, grease, oils, or dairy products
Waste or feces
Weeds with seed heads
Finally, you want to make sure that you are monitoring your compost. Compost can decompose at any rate of speed based on how you manage it. If you are looking to speed up the process here are a few tips to help with that.
Increase the surface area of your ingredients. Before adding it to your compost, chop, shred, crack, whack, and smack organic matter into small pieces. Your effort increases total surface area and creates open wounds in the materials, allowing soil organisms easy access to begin consuming and breaking them down.
Take the damp sponge test. Starting a compost pile with too-dry ingredients or allowing ingredients to dry out without remoistening is a direct route to slow decomposition. Fast-acting compost piles contain about 40 to 60 percent water. Squeeze handfuls of compost from various sections of the pile to check its moisture level. Everything should feel like a wrung-out sponge. Turn and rewet materials as needed to maintain this level of moisture.
Air it out. Soil organisms require oxygen just as you do. When air supplies are depleted, the organisms die without reproducing in sufficient numbers to keep decomposition zipping along. Keep the little critters in your compost pile well-supplied with oxygen by turning the pile completely every week or two (or three).
If your time is limited, stick a compost fork or aerating tool into the pile to stir things up. This action doesn’t generate as much oxygen throughout the pile as a total turnover, but it does an acceptable job and only takes a minute or two.
I hope that you have learned a lot about the benefits of composting and seen how it can help you in your home garden. There is so much information about composting on the internet. Take some time and learn more about it. Visit our sources below for more information and ideas on how to create your own successful compost.
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