Composting For Beginners: Why You Should And How To Do It!
This text is meant to be an introductory guide to composting for beginners. Every organic garden, or in fact every garden, needs to have a compost pile.
How come?
Well, every time you take away a weed or plant residue of any kind from your garden, you also take away nutrients and organic matter. If you just let it go to waste, that is to the garbage can, you slowly deprive your garden soil of nutrients and organic matter. If you, instead, choose to put the plant residues in a compost pile you will recycle those goodies for your garden.
What biodegradable waste can I put in the compost?
Branches and stems need to go through a compost mill before being put into the compost pile, in order to degrade within reasonable time. Plant residues can of course also go into the pile, but beware of parts that are contaminated with any plant disease as that can spread from the compost pile. Take those parts and burn them or throw them away into the garbage can.
What is best to use, a container or just a pile?
If your garden is somewhat spacious you can put a compost pile in a hidden and shady part of it. In order to add oxygen to the mix you need to turn it over every now and then. Even if this is a really simple way to start composting it looks a bit slatternly.
If you purchase a composting bin with separate compartments, you can fill one compartment at a time and leave the other to decompose. Then you will have compost ready to use separated from the newly added material.
Composting in the fast lane
A fast and easy way to make compost is to use a closed compost bin that you can easily turn around with a lever every time you add material, to air the compost and mix it thoroughly. This makes the decomposition process develop fast, and your compost will be ready to use in a matter of weeks. In a compost bin of this kind you can also recycle food scrap, bringing plenty of nitrogen into the mix.
If you combine a simple pile with a closed, preferably rotating, compost bin you can take advantage of almost all the organic waste in your home. The garden residues go in the pile, and the food scraps in the closed compost bin.
