Home Composting
Starting A Compost Pile

Starting a compost pile is an easy thing to do. There is a few things you should know about the different compost ingredients though.

Making your own compost has many benefits: you are creating a great product that will help improve your soil fertility and you are getting rid of your organic rubbish and garden waste!

Photo courtesy of annethelibrarian

Home Composting

by Carolyn Anderson

Home composting is one good activity you can do if you love gardening. Indeed, you can make your own compost and save a few dollars buying synthetic fertilizers. Aside from being cost-efficient, it is an excellent way to restore the health of your garden soil.

If you are into organic gardening, making your own compost is also a good way to ensure that your vegetables are chemical free and are fertilized naturally. Of course, you need to stay away from pesticides and other chemicals as well.

Home Composting is basically an easy task. All you need are the right materials and the right amount of water, a composting bin, your time, and of course, your labor. It may also need some patience as it can take a month or two to be able to make a good compost.

Composting mainly involves collecting garden and kitchen waste including animal manure, mixing them, and putting them into a compost bin to decompose with the help of moisture.

Wastes such as twigs, paper, sawdust, wood shavings and straw are rich in carbon and are also important for your compost. Keep in mind that there are also wastes that should not go to your garden compost. Kitchen scraps and meat should not be included in your compost because they can possibly introduce diseases into your compost and into your vegetables.

Plants and weeds with diseases such as mildew should not also go to your compost and definitely not waste from your cats and dogs as well as synthetic fibers.

In making your compost, be sure keep a balance of the 'greens' or those materials rich in nitrogen with the 'browns' or those rich in carbon. This will hasten rotting of the wastes.

You can also put your compost bin on direct sunlight to speed up decomposition. In putting water into your compost, make sure you are not making the compost wet but moist. It is a good idea to moisten the materials as you put them into the compost bin.

You can also put your compost materials in piles, alternating a layer of greens and browns or mix them together in your bin. Just make sure you have almost the same amount of materials with nitrogen and carbon to make a good compost.

Animal manure into your compost and nettles can also speed up the composting process so you may want to add more of them in the heap.

You can also cover the heap with tarpaulin or old carpet to retain the heat of the decomposed materials.

Composting at home can be indeed simple and cost-effective. You just need to learn the basics and off you go with your organic fertilizer.

Carolyn Anderson is a gardening enthusiast. For a guide you can use in composting at home, check out this guide in http://www.dp-db.com/worlds-best-compost. Also check out http://www.dp-db.com/bonsai-gardening-secrets, if you are interested in successfully making bonsai trees.

Wandering Jew Plant

Geranium Care

Bleeding Heart

Tomato Growing

Lawn Care Tips

Growing Daffodils