Composting is an essential part of any serious gardener's routine. It's an easy and necessary way to create good nutritious soil for use in planting. Many gardeners take pride in their composting and think of it as a type of art form.
Composting is a process of humans using natural processes to achieve a desired product. With mounding and composting contraptions, we are only speeding up what would happen on its own in nature. By composting, you are creating a win-win situation. You are getting a valuable gardening product, while cutting down on how much gets thrown into your trash can, and ultimately dumps and incinerators. By composting, not only that the municipal dump has less "stock" to worry about, but it also aids in increasing the soil fertility, which happens to be the main purpose of composting. Composting will, in the long term, save you money by providing a valuable plant medium.
There are really no set rules on how to go about composting perfectly. It is a learned art form, and you will figure out what works as you go along. Really there are no set right and wrong answers. The first thing you'll need to determine is where to place this somewhat unattractive and smelly pile of rotting debris.
Selecting a proper location is essential, taking into consideration the accessibility and asthetics. You don't want to choose a place which is too far away from your main source of composting materials. Will it be easy to get the kitchen scraps to the pile? At the same time, however, a location too close to the house will result in an unpleasant odor.
Another key factor in location is the mound's relationship to water. Water is a key element in triggering this process to take place. Whether near a ditch, gutter drip, or hose, your compost heap needs water in order to decompose properly.
Meanwhile, the sight should not be oversaturated and sloppy. It should be level and well drained, but with access to water.
Once your location has been selected, you'll need to determine what kinds of compost materials you are going to use. You might think that you'll just throw everything onto the heap, but this might not be such a good thing. Weeds, for example, do not make a very productive compost material, and should be avoided. One must also consider the carbon:nitrogen ratio. A perfect 30:1 ratio is ideal for rapid decomposition. The higher the carbon level, the slower the process will happen. Meanwhile, if the nitrogen gets too high, an odor problem will occur.
To clear this up, you can think of carbon as brown materials and nitrogen as green ones. Carbon materials for your pile include paper, dead branches, and other dead wood ingredients. Food scraps, manure (even though it's brown), and grass clippings.
When adding to the pile, add the new composting materials, some soil, and give the heap a sprinkle of water. The soil will house microorganism, which will help to heat things up. Keep your pile moist but not too damp. Good air circulation is also key for optimum productivity. This can be achieved by turning the pile occasionally to provide fresh air to the internal regions. The infusion of this air should also help to keep bad odors under control.
Your compost heap should maintain a temperature of between 100 and 140 degrees F. Any higher and the microorganisms could die. You can use a soil thermometer on occasion to check the temp of your pile.
Once your compost is dark, crumbly and has that earthy smell, it should be ready to use.
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