What Is Compost?

Compost is one of nature’s purest soil amendments. You can use compost to condition your soil, as a mulch to prevent weeds and retain moisture, and most importantly, use it to avoid using commercial fertilizers which are usually derived from nasty chemicals and minerals. Chemical fertilizers can actually do more harm to your soil than good. Once you begin adding chemicals to your soil, the natural organisms that occur within the soil are killed. These organisms assist in the breakdown and availability of nutrients to plants. Conditioning your soil with all natural, organic compost is the best way to achieve healthy, rich soil for your garden.

Compost can be made quite easily, and without spending any money. Most kitchen scraps, with the exception of meats, can be added to your compost container or heap. About a third of the space in landfills is taken up by these scraps, and they are quickly filling up across the planet. Just think about how much great composting materials you’ve already wasted and thrown into the trash, and sent to the landfill!

What Are The Main Composting Materials?

Compostable materials come in many forms, and are readily available around the home and garden. The process of composting is simply the decomposition of organic materials over time, with the outcome being a rich, nutritious medium that resembles earth. Some readily available compost items are:

Kitchen Scraps

Grass Clippings

Pine Needles

Small twigs and branches

Yard Waste

Ashes from your fireplace

Manure

How Do I Start Composting?

Beginning your compost container is simple. First, you must choose the container you wish to use. There are many containers available from garden centres that have been designed specifically for composting. The size of the container will depend on the amount of space you have and the amount of compost you wish to produce. You can easily construct a compost container on your own as well. There are many websites with designs for compost containers ready for a do-it-yourselfer to tackle.

Start by adding various compost materials such as those listed above. The pile will quickly begin to shrink as the materials decompose and rot in the heap you have created. The finer that you have chopped or sliced up the materials, the quicker they will break down and decompose.

You can add more organic materials to the container as they break down, but it is generally a good idea to allow your first heap to begin decomposing before starting to add new materials to the mix. To tell how well your compost is moving along, simply feel it. If the material feels warm, or hot, everything is working as it should, and decomposition is occuring. If the pile feels cool, or the same temperature as the air or surrounding items, you should consider adding more green materials such as grass clippings or manure to restart the decomposition process.

When And How Can I Use Compost?

Finished compost at its best is a dark brown colour, has a very pleasant earthy aroma and should crumble in your hand. Compost is used mainly as a soil conditioner, and can be used in vegetable gardens, flower beds and can also be used in containers both outside and inside. Many people recommend adding compost to your gardens in late fall or early spring. This is because the organisms in the soil will have time to break down the compost further and assist in distributing the nutrients throughout the soil. However, there is no right or wrong time to add compost to your garden!

Other interesting composting methods are using a Composting Toilet and Composting with Worms, or Vermiculture