Maintaining a Compost Heap
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Maintaining a Compost Heap
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.
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