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Organic Compost - The Easy Way

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Written by Tom Johnson

Tuesday, 15 April 2008

by TomJohnson

The very best thing you can do for your garden is to use organic compost. It's one of the safest ways to grow your plants. Not only that, but your entire garden will flourish from the liberal use of this fantastic organic material.

The basis of good organic compost is carbon, so you need to start there. This means using things like dried leaves, straw, shredded newspaper and dead flowers. These are the vital brown materials that many people forget to add, but that's not going to be you.

Green waste that's high in nitrogen is next. You should throw all of your kitchen waste, grass clippings and green garden clippings into your heap. Your kitchen waste can consist of all your green leftovers, fruit and vegetable peelings, but no meat!

To get your compost to start decomposing, it's very important to add ordinary soil from your garden to the heap as your next step, this will top off your pile.

So far you've started with a layer of brown waste to which you've added some green waste and then some garden soil. Now you start the process again with another layer of brown material. At this time you should also add some water to dampen your compost, but make sure it's exactly that... damp! It should be just moist, not soaking wet!

You continue adding layers in that order until you've got a pile about 3 feet square. As a rough guide you want to have about three parts brown waste to one part green waste. Keep adding more material to your pile as it becomes available until it's about 3 feet tall.

You will need to turn your compost with a garden fork to aid the decomposition. As you turn, you want to move the stuff from the center to the outside and the outer material to the middle. You should do this every couple of weeks at least.

As you're turning your pile, if the moisture level is correct, you'll see steam rising from your compost. This shows that decomposition is occurring and that you're using the right amount of water. The decomposing action ceases if you allow your compost heap to dry out.

You can accelerate the process by adding earthworms to your compost pile if you want to, they are readily available at any fishing bait store. The truth is that the resident worms in your garden will quickly find your pile anyway.

There are many good reasons for keeping a tidy garden, so you should think about building or buying a bin for your compost. You can now purchase bins that you rotate by turning a handle, this can speed up the process of turning over your compost.

You need to wait until your compost reaches an almost black color and smells fresh and sweet, this indicates that it's ready. Now you can use it for potting up your favorite plants, you don't need to add anything else to the soil. It's also wise to gradually mix it through your entire garden because it contains all the essential nutrients your plants will need. Your garden will be the envy of all your neighbors.

About the Author:

Want to load your small garden with flowers and fragrance? Tom Johnson has a Free Report for you called Container Gardening Secrets.

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