Many people who maintain gardens have a large amount of organic
waste, from grass clippings to leaves and dead plants.
Unfortunately, many waste money and time having these wastes
transported to a landfill. It isn’t just a waste of good
compost; it’s a waste of everything that goes into the process
of transporting it (the garbage man’s time, the money you pay
for the removal, etc). It is truly a travesty.
All this garbage that people are trying to get rid of can be a
better supplement for your garden than any fertilizer or
chemical. If you properly facilitate the decomposition of all of
the garbage, it will alter chemically until it is in such a
state that it can be nothing but beneficial nutrition for other
plants. Therefore you can turn all the stuff you would have
thrown away into top grade fertilizer for your garden.
Usually compost is maintained in a pile somewhere in your
backyard. Usually the thought of a compost heap brings
disturbing images to ones mind; heaps of rotten garbage emitting
a horrid odor. However, if you maintain it correctly you’ll be
able to produce great compost without producing an offensive
odor. When I first began my compost pile in an effort to improve
environmental health, I made several major errors. These
included preventing the pile from the oxygen it truly needed,
and keeping it to dry. It ended up decomposing in a very
non-beneficial way, and producing an odor so foul that I had
government agents knocking at my door.
When you are choosing your spot where you will be putting all of
these materials, you should aim for a higher square footage.
Having a really deep pile of compost is not a good idea, because
generally the deeper sections won’t be exposed to anything that
is required for the process to work. It is better to spread it
all out over a large area. If you have a shed or a tool shack of
some sort, it is a possibility to spread it over the roof (with
boards to keep it from falling off, of course). I have seen this
done several times, and it helps keep the pile out of the way
while still maintaining a large square footage.
A compost heap can consist of any organic garbage from your
yard, garden or kitchen. This includes leaves, grass, any
leftover food that won’t be eaten, or newspaper (no more than a
fifth of your pile should consist of newspaper, due to it having
a harder time composting with the rest of the materials).
Usually if you have a barrel devoted to storing all of these
things, it will fill up within several weeks. It is quite easy
to obtain compost, but the hard part truly comes in getting it
to compost.
After you have begun to get a large assortment of materials in
your compost heap, you should moisten the whole pile. This
encourages the process of composting. Also chop every element of
the pile into the smallest pieces possible. As the materials
start to compress and meld together as they decompose,
frequently head outside and aerate the pile. You can use a
shovel to mix it all up, or an aeration tool to poke dozens of
tiny holes into it. Doing this will increase the oxygen flow to
each part of the pile, and oxygen is required for any
decomposition to take place.
If maintaining a compost pile sounds like something that would
interest you, start considering the different placement options.
The hardest part about maintaining a pile is choosing a spot
that provides enough square footage without intruding on the
rest of your yard or garden. While usually you can prevent the
horrible odors that most people associate with compost heaps,
it’s still not a pleasant thing to have to look at whenever you
go for a walk in your garden.
