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Making compost will help you reduce pollution and cut down that
landfill! Your plants will grow healthier and look happier for it and
it will save you money on fertilisers too. Our local council in
Manchester has now given us brown bins for us to add leaves, grass and
other compost matter into, which is then emptied every two weeks once
it has reduced to less than half its size.
What is compost?
Garden guides often describe composting as natures way of recycling.
Composting
is indeed a natural way of recycling, harnessing natural processes
rather than machinery and man-made chemicals, but it takes people to do
it.
Soil maintenance is at the heart of organic growing: dont feed
the plants, feed the soil - the plants will look after themselves. The
extremely complex subject of soil maintenance can happily be summed up
in one word: composting.
A smelly hole at the far end of the garden
filled with putrefying kitchen wastes and flies buzzing round. That's
what compost isn't. No stinks, no flies, though kitchen waste is welcome.
Compost
is not just decayed organic matter. Composting is applied microbiology
at its most complex, involving the interactions of thousands upon
thousands of different species of micro organisms in a highly complex
ecosystem.
What can I compost?
If it can rot it will compost,
but some items are best avoided. Some things, like grass mowings and
soft young weeds, rot quickly. They work as activators or hotter
rotters, getting the composting started, but on their own will decay to
a smelly mess. Recycle your plant-based, kitchen and garden waste by
making it into compost
Older and tougher plant material is slower to
rot but gives body to the finished compost - and usually makes up the
bulk of a compost heap. Woody items decay very slowly; they are best
chopped or shredded first, where appropriate.
A container or brown
bin is not an absolute necessity as you can make perfectly good compost
in a free standing heap as long as it is large enough. You will see
later why this may be a drawback. Assuming then that we need to make a
container we are faced with many choices.
Why not make or buy a
compost bin? They're usually cheap to buy, and are available in wood or
recycled plastic (that might otherwise be in your local landfill site).
If you.re keen you could combine it with a wormery or use a shredder
which increases the amount of compostable waste. Do not compost foods
such as dairy produce, meat, bread etc as these attract flies and
vermin.
How do I know when its done?
That depends. What
was a pile of plant material will gradually, from the bottom up, turn
into a pile of dark stuff that looks like brown dirt. Eventually, none
of the items you put in there will be recognizable. If you're using it
out in the garden, a few small recognizable bits wont hurt - theyll
finish composting in the garden. If youre using it for houseplants or
to start seeds, its better to wait until its well finished so you dont
have microbes attacking the fine rootlets of new plants.
Dig it
in to have a healthy, fertile garden and your fruit and vegetables can
be organic. Don't assume the waste is harmless and bin it. Putting it in
landfill costs money and it will produce methane (a global warming
gas); also it may pollute the groundwater.
Compost waste often comprises about 20-30% of your total household waste and the impact on recycling is significant.
Article Source
http://www.guidemegreen.com
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