Super Simple Composting
Composting happens no matter how you make your compost pile or how much attention you give to it.
There are almost as many ways to make a compost pile as there are gardeners.
Each person has their own way of doing it, but all will work and give you rich fertile compost to add to your gardens.
Here are some simple ways to create your own fertile and rich soil-enriching compost.
One way is to just throw everything onto a pile.
No container, no bins, just a heap.
Ingredients to include are all yard wastes, including weeds, garden plants, dry leaves and grass clippings.
Then add kitchen scraps such as fruit and vegetable peelings, crushed egg shells and even used paper towels, but not fats, meat scraps or dairy products.
Now, just wait.
Compost will start forming, first at the bottom of the pile.
As the ingredients decompose, the microorganisms and worms will migrate upwards toward new food, and compost will continue forming from the bottom up.
Another way that works well right inside the garden is sometimes referred to as shovel compost.
This works well with small amounts of kitchen waste.
Simply choose any spot where you would like to enrich the soil, and dig a hole.
Dump kitchen scraps into the hole and cover them with soil, chopping with the shovel to mix the soil and scraps.
The organic matter will become compost, with no extra work on your part at all! You can do this in your garden beds also, and next year have a richer soil for your vegetables to enjoy.
If you have access to some straw bales, this can spark another way to make compost easily.
Make a simple bin to hold the compost ingredients by stacking the straw bales two high into a 3-sided enclosure.
You will probably need about 10 bales.
The bales will not only hold the material, but will help retain heat and moisture as the compost starts working.
Make loose layers of both brown and green ingredients, and every so often add a layer of soil.
In a couple of years, the straw bales will be partly decomposed, and will be ingredients in your new straw bale bin, made with fresh new bales.
Whatever your choice of composting methods, the ingredients for your compost pile need to be the right mix.
Always combine fresh green nitrogen rich materials, dried carbon rich materials and garden soil.
The green materials can include grass clippings, kitchen scraps, garden waste and even weeds that have not gone to seed.
The brown materials are generally tougher dry materials like dried leaves, sawdust, straw, newspaper and even chopped up stalks of corn or other dry stalks.
By adding some garden soil, manure or partly decomposed compost, you will be introducing the microorganisms and worms that do the work.
Build your compost with balanced amounts of these three types of materials and soon you will be using your own rich black compost to feed anything your garden grows.
There are almost as many ways to make a compost pile as there are gardeners.
Each person has their own way of doing it, but all will work and give you rich fertile compost to add to your gardens.
Here are some simple ways to create your own fertile and rich soil-enriching compost.
One way is to just throw everything onto a pile.
No container, no bins, just a heap.
Ingredients to include are all yard wastes, including weeds, garden plants, dry leaves and grass clippings.
Then add kitchen scraps such as fruit and vegetable peelings, crushed egg shells and even used paper towels, but not fats, meat scraps or dairy products.
Now, just wait.
Compost will start forming, first at the bottom of the pile.
As the ingredients decompose, the microorganisms and worms will migrate upwards toward new food, and compost will continue forming from the bottom up.
Another way that works well right inside the garden is sometimes referred to as shovel compost.
This works well with small amounts of kitchen waste.
Simply choose any spot where you would like to enrich the soil, and dig a hole.
Dump kitchen scraps into the hole and cover them with soil, chopping with the shovel to mix the soil and scraps.
The organic matter will become compost, with no extra work on your part at all! You can do this in your garden beds also, and next year have a richer soil for your vegetables to enjoy.
If you have access to some straw bales, this can spark another way to make compost easily.
Make a simple bin to hold the compost ingredients by stacking the straw bales two high into a 3-sided enclosure.
You will probably need about 10 bales.
The bales will not only hold the material, but will help retain heat and moisture as the compost starts working.
Make loose layers of both brown and green ingredients, and every so often add a layer of soil.
In a couple of years, the straw bales will be partly decomposed, and will be ingredients in your new straw bale bin, made with fresh new bales.
Whatever your choice of composting methods, the ingredients for your compost pile need to be the right mix.
Always combine fresh green nitrogen rich materials, dried carbon rich materials and garden soil.
The green materials can include grass clippings, kitchen scraps, garden waste and even weeds that have not gone to seed.
The brown materials are generally tougher dry materials like dried leaves, sawdust, straw, newspaper and even chopped up stalks of corn or other dry stalks.
By adding some garden soil, manure or partly decomposed compost, you will be introducing the microorganisms and worms that do the work.
Build your compost with balanced amounts of these three types of materials and soon you will be using your own rich black compost to feed anything your garden grows.
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