How to Make Your Own Garden Compost
Every year, hundreds of thousands of tons of organic matter goes to land fills. These sadly wasted fruit and vegetable pieces, leftovers, etc. are full of nutrients and vitamins that your garden soil needs to stay healthy and productive (and to keep your plants healthy too!). Making compost is, simply, the act of taking organic matter (vegetable and plant pieces) and turning them into rich friable (crumbly) soil for your garden.
Beyond the important benefit of having produce that is chock-full of life-giving vitamins and nutrients (far exceeding grocery store produce), a vegetable garden that has been well supplied with compost will also yield a MUCH higher quantity of produce.
Why make compost?
- Applying compost to your garden soil has an almost immediate and direct impact on the health and well being of your family (by adding vitamins and minerals that your bodies need to your garden-fresh produce).
- Composting, as a form of recycling, greatly reduces the volume of garbage going to the landfills.
- You’ll reduce the amount of soil additives and fertilizers needed for your garden.
- It’s organic
- Your garden plants will be healthier
- You will get a higher volume of fruit and vegetables per plant in your garden.
In areas where you’re charged by the volume for trash removal, you can actually save money by composting your unused produce!
Adding compost to your garden soil improves the soil structure by providing better aeration and improving the soils ability to hold moisture. It is also a source of plant nutrients. Additionally, compost used as mulch (or mixed with soil) can help prevent plant diseases.
In simple terms, composting is the act of saving plant matter (whether from your yard or from your kitchen) and storing it an environment that speeds decomposition.
For example, you might include in your compost pile:
- clippings from your yard plants
- grass clippings
- vegetable or fruit ends or peelings
- leftover vegetables from a meal
- coffee grounds
- egg shells are often also included to increase the calcium content of the soil.
- shredded paper products can also be included, but be careful to include only those that won’t pass along any chemical residue to your garden.
- saw dust (make sure the wood was not chemically treated)
- leaves
- livestock manure
It is NOT advisable to include meat scraps or animal bi-products or dog/cat waste in your compost pile. These often contain diseases and parasites that you don’t want to spread to your garden patch.
Composting can be a simple, or it can be honed to a detailed science… depending mostly upon how much time you want to spend on it. When making your composting plans, you should also think about how much material you have to compost (space needed), and how quickly you want results.
For more information on making your own organic compost, click here!
