Composting is a great way to kickstart an amazing garden. It is an incredible fertilizer and will give your plants lots of food for the upcoming Summer. Some people think that composting is too hard, or gross, to do it. It doesn’t have to be either! Composting can be simple and clean if you do the job right. When you’re done, put the compost on your flower bed, your lawn, or your vegetables. Then watch how much your plants love it!
What Is Composting?
Composting uses decaying food to create a fertilizer that is rich in nitrogen and oxygen. Basically, it’s just rotting food. But that rotting food does wonders for your garden! Composting is just a bin of your old table scraps that you leave alone for awhile, and bam! You have your own fertilizer!
Image Source: Pixabay
Preparing to Compost
Get a big storage bin or tote, one with a lid that can click on. Drill 8-10 holes in the bottom of the bin. The holes help with aeration. Then put old leaves or newspaper at the bottom of the bin to create a barrier. Leaves will also add to your compost, so they are a good choice. Then put dirt on top of the leaves or newspaper. Fill the container with dirt until the container is half full.
Starting to Compost
Add old food scraps on top of the dirt in your bin. Things like apple cores, eggshells, and banana peels work great! Paper products work too! Old lint from dryers can also be tossed in. Pretty much everything can go into the compost pile. Things that are acidic like lime, shouldn’t go in. Keep animal feces out, it can carry disease. No plastic goes in the compost pile. Most things that are biodegradable will work. After you’ve added in your food scraps, give your mixture a good stir. Try to cover all the food scraps with dirt. When everything is nice and mixed spray your mixture with lukewarm water. You want the mixture to be moist not soaking wet. The compost will be really stinky if it’s soaking wet. Drill 8-10 more holes on the lid of the bin and close it up. Put the bin somewhere cool and shady so the compost doesn’t dry out.
Continuing to Compost
It takes about 2-3 months for your compost to be ready to use as fertilizer. Put a little extra trash bin by your trash or recycling especially for compostable items. When the bin is full take it out to the big bin and add in more food scraps. Make sure to give the compost a little stir each time you add more food scraps. This helps everything to break down quicker. After 2-3 months you’re done!
Summing Up
It’s cheap and easy to make your own compost. Composting may be the difference between a regular garden and one that all the neighbors stop to look at. Anyone can compost and it doesn’t take a lot of effort. Give it a try and see how much your garden loves it.
Image Source: Pixabay
