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Composting |
Composting is the process of recycling garden and vegetable 'waste'. A good finished compost will be a blackish-brown crumbly material without any particles that resemble the original organic material. Compost improves soil structure and moisture retention, adds nutrients to the soil and is good for the enviroment. Best of all it can be produced for FREE.
Pretty much anything that was once alive can go in the compost with the exception of onions, citrus, meats and dairy. Also avoid any chemically treated wood products, pernicious weeds or diseased plant material.
A number of compost methods are available but whatever the system it is best to situate it in full sun to help speed up decomposition (although compost can still be made in the shade but will take longer). In almost all cases the compost system should be on bare dirt to enable access by the organisms that break down organic material. However organically active dirt, manures, or compost can be added from a previous heap to introduce these to the pile.
The easiest and cheapest form of composting is a freestanding pile. More commonly some kind of structure like a bin or a box is used to help hold the material, to contain heat, or to exclude pests, or for aeasthetic reasons.
While each gardener will have his or her own special recipe, the basic principle of compost is to get a balanced mixture of 'green' (nitrogen) and 'brown' (carbon) materials.
'Brown' material is dry or dead such a straw, autumn leaves, paper or cardboard. This kind of material normally needs to be moisted before or when adding to the heap. 'Green' materials are fresh, like vegetable scraps, grass clippings, tea bags and coffee grounds, egg shells, and so on.
As well as placing the compost sytem in full sun, the process can be sped up by cutting or mulching the material into small pieces. The smaller the material the larger the exposed surface area and the faster the decompostion.
While you can add a variety of 'accelerators' to speed up the composting process -- such as matures, seaweed, lime, finished compost or soil -- it is important to aerate the pile by turning it at least once a month and making sure it remains moist, but not wet -- if the pile dries out the microbal activity will cease, just as it will if it gets waterlogged.
Tumbler type compost systems make the work of aeration much easier making it possible to produce compost in approximately a month in warm weather. Of course the same result can be achieve in a freestanding or box style system provided the compost is turned every couple of days.
A pile that is turned infrequently or that contains an unbalanced mixture of material will still decompose, but it may take up to 18 months to reach its final state.
Alternatively, for gardeners with children, who those can't be bothered turning the pile, or who only have a small garden a worm farm can be a good alternative. |
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