Steps to Composting

  Organic matter tends to decompose naturally. But you can actually help make the process easier by learning the process of composting.

Having a compost may be easy or hard, depending on the way you do things and how you manage your time in doing so.

Hot or Cold?

There are basically two ways to do compost. It can either be hot or cold. The cold type is the easier route. You just have toplace the materials in a pile and leave the pile to rot. That is the idea. You gather useful materials for your compost. This includes matters like leaves, grass trimmings, vegetable peelings, fruit scraps and all the waste that can be seen in the garden. But this will take a long time because you are not really helping the materials on the pile to disintegrate much faster.

This is what makes your second option, the hot type, different. For this, there is an art and method being followed starting from the time that you put your materials in bags or compost bins. Some people recommend that you place the green leaves first, add soil, then you can add the kitchen waste.

Kitchen waste includes the peelings of vegetables and fruits, eggshells and other kinds of material. Just do not add the materials that will attract unwanted visitors to your compost. Do not throw in excess food especially meats.

You must keep the pile that is holding up your compost moist. But keep it at a moist level. Your pile must not be totally wet. To do this, you must add up just bits of water to the pile periodically or when you deem that it is necessary. Others will suggest using beer instead of plain water. Beers contain yeast that will increase the activity of the bacteria on the compost pile.

Your compost pile should always be maintained. Aside from keeping it moist, you must add new materials as well as soil whenever necessary. You can also add some manure to help advance the decomposition process. Aside from these, you should also take time to turn the pile every once in a while. This way, air circulation will improve and this will also make the process faster.

When will you know that the end result is ready to be utilized? If it already smells like earth and it already looks like dark soil, then it is time to get it out of the bin and use it on your gardens.

Some gardeners believe that the products of compost alone will not make your garden soil completely healthy. You must aid that with other materials and use the compost as a soil conditioner. It can be treated as an amenity but not the complete package.

To make the process easy on your part, you have to remember that you are recycling the nutrients from the waste plant mateial and returning them to the soil. You are only giving back what it has given to you. And look around you very closely before starting out the process. Choose a suitable location for your compost that will not adversly affect your family or your neighbors.

Composting is an excellent way to recycle waste plant materials and can be easily done. Composting waste plant materials will allow you to return the nutrients found in the waste materials to the soil.