7 Easy Steps to Composting

Will mixing large amounts of homemade compost enable me to plant in hard clay soil? Home compost is excellent for improving soil structure. It will break up clay soils and allow better drainage and provide air spaces whilst incorporating vital nutrients for the plants to absorb.

What Can Be Composted? Fruits, vegetables, dairy products, grains, bread, unbleached paper napkins, coffee filters, eggshells, meats and newspaper can be composted. If it can be eaten or grown in a field or garden, it can be composted.

1. Choose Your Type of Backyard Compost Bin. You can use either an open pile or a compost bin.
2. Choose Your Composter Location.
3. Alternate Layers.
4. Add Kitchen and Yard Waste as They Accumulate.
5. Continue to Add Layers Until Your Bin is Full.
6. Maintain Your Compost Bin.
7. Harvest Your Compost.

Let’s get started! To maintain healthy soil, you should add a thick layer of compost – at least 2-3″ – every year. If you’re using homemade compost, it’s best to add it in early fall so that by spring, it will have broken down and worked itself into the soil.

If you have well-decomposed compost that looks like loosely textured earth and has a rich, dirt scent, then you can typically plant seeds and seedlings immediately after blending the compost with your garden soil.

Topsoil contains organic matter but not as much as your plants will need to grow to their full potential. The higher the percentage of compost in a topsoil, the better the topsoil is for growing great gardens.

You can mix compost with topsoil to create your own potting compost, as many of the nurseries do, which gives you the advantages of soil – namely that it dries out more slowly and holds its structure better – together with the benefits of compost – organic matter and more nutrients, a compost made with loam or soil is …

Deciding Between Compost and Fertilizer Others prefer to use fertilizer to supply plants with specific nutrients that may be lacking in the soil. Often, however, the best solution is to use both. Compost works well with fertilizer, sponging up and storing the nutrients until they’re needed by the garden plants.

Compost and gardening soil are hard to distinguish from one another. Gardeners generally use potting soil when starting seedlings or growing plants inside of the home. Compost is favored in the garden to add nutrients to depleted soil.

By turning more frequently (about every 2-4 weeks), you will produce compost more quickly. Waiting at least two weeks allows the center of the pile to heat up and promotes maximum bacterial activity. The average composter turns the pile every 4-5 weeks.

Decomposition will be complete anywhere from two weeks to two years depending on the materials used, the size of the pile, and how often it is turned. Compost is ready when it has cooled, turned a rich brown color, and has decomposed into small soil-like particles.

Shredded sticks and other dried material like wood chips and corn stalks will help your compost develop quickly by aiding aeration but may not decompose completely themselves. Don’t wait for them to finish. Use a screen to separate compost that’s crumbly and ready for the garden from these other materials.