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Garden Compost
Tips on preparing garden compost
The Answer Lies In The Soil
by Edward Rose
If ever there was a truism, this is the truism of all truisms.
I have gardened on a variety of soils including soot, gravel,
clay, sand and loam. Without a doubt, loam is the best for high
production tasty vegetable and fruit. The question is, can you
make soot, gravel, clay & sand more like loam and can you make
loam better? The answer is undoubtedly YES and the METHOD is
ADD COMPOST.
Sometimes you may be able to get well rotted horse manure from
a nearby stable. I was once lucky enough to get ten cubic yards
of four plus year old horse dung and rotted straw. It was as
black as the Ace of Spades and very crumbly. I dug it all into
a cleared sandy border which I then planted up. The plants
absolutely bombed away. Unfortunately I did not keep up the
treatment and each year the plants became weaker as the
goodness was leached away.
You can become independent of luck and good fortune and make
your own compost. You can then regularly add your own “top up”
to your soil, whatever type it is.
The first source of compost material is your own garden. Grass
cuttings, annual weeds, prunings, autumn leaves can all be
collected & recycled. Pernicious weeds should be set to one
side and burned.
The second source is your kitchen & home. Vegetable waste, old
flowers (cut & potted) and shredded news papers can all help.
But most important of all is METHOD. It has taken me thirty
(untutored) years to discover these “secrets”.
The first requirement is to control your MIX of potential
compost material between Green & Brown. How many of us have
piled grass clippings in a heap to be encouraged by early heat
and composting activity only to end with a half rotted &
layered sludge?
You need to aim for a mix of materials with about 1/5th being
Green and 4/5ths Brown.
Green/ Nitrogen
Grass Cuttings
Kitchen Waste
Farm Manure
Brown/Carbon
Dead Leaves
Straw/Wood shavings
Wood Ash/ Newsprint
I save my leaves in plastic bags to feed into my compost over
the following year.
Secondly you need MOISTURE. Your pile should be neither too wet
nor too dry. Brown material is often dry and needs to be watered
in after mixing. If you take a handful of your mix and squeeze
it you want it to ball in your hand without a runoff of water
and not being flaky. In rainy periods it can pay to cover your
compost to stop it getting sodden
Thirdly you need AERATION. Oxygen is essential as composting is
a burning process. You need to turn your heap on a regular basis
to ensure this happens. It is possible to achieve temperatures
as high as 70 degrees centigrade and 60 degrees should be a
minimum peak norm. Having two adjacent bins makes this easier
as you turn one into the other. It is also useful exercise for
your heart!
Fourthly control particle SIZE. Breaking up, cutting down,
shredding the potential compost is very helpful. The greater
the wounding and the smaller the particle size, the greater the
surface area and the quicker the rotting.
Finally you need VOLUME. The more the merrier. Given the above
four steps you will find that 2 cubic yards rots better than 1,
3 cubic yards better than 2 and so on.
So get out there, get on with it and GOOD COMPOSTING.
About The Author: Edward Rose writes for
http://www.gardenersessentials.co.uk a popular website offering
gardening advice, information and resources.
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