Composting the Easy Way
|
Article by: Michael J. McGroarty Having an ample supply of good rich compost , Attracting Birds to Your Garden is the gardeners dream. It has many uses, and all of those uses will result in nicer plants. , Mexican pine furniture care and maintenance tips However, composting can be time consuming and hard work. I place , More Than Just Flowers – Fun Garden Accessories a reasonable value on my time, so spending hours and hours turning compost , A Hedge for the Children piles doesn't qualify as a worthwhile exercise, at least in my book. Nonetheless, I do compost, , Oregano: Joy of the Mountain but I do so on my terms. I built two composting bins. Each bin is five feet wide, five feet deep, and four feet high. I built the bins by sinking 4" by 4" posts in the ground for the corners, and then nailed 2 by 4's and 1 by 4's, alternating on the sides. I left 2" gaps between the boards for air , Bonsai Tree Forum: Bonsai Basics circulation. The 2 by 4's are rigid enough to keep the sides from bowing out, and in between each 2 by 4 I used 1 by 4's to save , A Great Shrub For Solebury Township a little money. The bins are only 3 sided, I left the front of the bins open so they can be filled and emptied easily. Photos of my compost , 8 Easy Steps to Find Your Perfect Toilet bins are on this page: http://www.freeplants.com\composting.htm I started by filling just one of the bins. I put grass , Orchid Flowers Basics clippings, dried leaves, and shrub , Buying flowers in bulk for best prices clippings in the bins. I try not to put more than 6" of each material on a layer. You don't want 24" of grass , How to Select the Proper Pond Pump clippings in the bin and you should alternate layers of green , Vegetable Plants that Don't Play Well Together and brown material. If necessary, keep a few bags of dry leaves around so you can alternate layers of brown waste and green , Mexican pine furniture care and maintenance tips waste. When we root , Hydroponic Gardens cuttings we use coarse sand , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Athens Pa. in the flats, , Guide to Servicing your Chainsaw so when it's time to pull the rooted cuttings out of the flats, , Black Haw Viburnums will grow in Feasterville Pa. the old sand , Should you Feed Wild Birds in the Winter goes on the compost , Wilted Hangups pile. In our little backyard , 8 Easy Steps to Find Your Perfect Toilet nursery we also have some plants , Buying flowers in bulk for best prices in containers that do not survive. Rather than pulling the dead plant , Whack-O-Matic and the weeds , A Hedge for the Children out of the container, and then dumping the potting soil , Selling Your Own Home – Pet Issues back on the soil , The Advantages of Canopy Gazebos pile, we just dump the whole container in the compost , Guide to Servicing your Chainsaw bin. This adds more brown material to the mix, and is a lot easier than separating the soil , Mexican pine furniture care and maintenance tips and the weeds. , Why Teak Wood is so Popular as Garden Furniture Once the bin is full, the rules of composting say that you should turn the material in the bin every few weeks. There is no way that I have time to do that, so this is what I do. I pack as much material in the bin as I can before I start filling the second bin. I pile the material as high as I possibly can, and even let it spill out in front of the bin. Then I cover all the fresh material with mulch or potting soil, , Start Planning for Your Backyard Garden whatever brown material I can find. Then when I'm out working in the garden , Orchids – Growing Exotic Beauty At Home I set a small sprinkler on top of the pile and turn it on very low, so a small spray of water , Hydroponic Gardens runs on the material. Since I have a good water , Bonsai Tree Forum: Bonsai Basics well, this doesn't cost me anything, so I let it run for at least two hours as often as I can. This keeps the material damp, and the moisture , Attracting Birds to Your Garden will cause the pile to heat , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Athens Pa. up, which is what makes the composting action take place. , Five Rose Garden Ideas Once I have the first bin completely full, I start using the second bin. As the material in the first bin starts to break down, it will settle and the bin is no longer heaped up, so I just keep shoveling the material that I piled in front of the bin, up on top of the pile, until all the material is either in the bin, or piled on top of the heap. Then I just leave it alone, except to water , Five Rose Garden Ideas it once in a while. The watering isn't necessary, it just speeds the process. Because I don't turn the pile, I can't expect all of the material to rot completely. The material in the center is going to break down more than the material on the edges, but most of it does break down quite well. The next step works great for me because I've got a small nursery, so I keep a pile of potting soil , A Kids Tree on hand at all times. But you can really do the same thing by just buying two or three yards , Supplying Water to your Cabin with a Driven Well of shredded mulch to get started, and piling it up near your compost , Caring For Your Bed Linen bins. If you do this, you will always have a supply of good compost , The Secret To Healthier Plants? Le?’s Ask My Grandfather. to work with. Shredded bark, left in a pile will eventually break down and become great compost. , Buying flowers in bulk for best prices The potting soil , Mexican pine furniture care and maintenance tips that I use is about 80% rotted bark. I make potting soil , Mexican pine furniture care and maintenance tips by purchasing fine textured and dark hardwood bark mulch, and I just put it in a pile and let it rot. The secret is to keep the pile low and flat, , More Than Just Flowers – Fun Garden Accessories so that it does not shed , Growing White Pine Trees In The Harrisburg Pa. Area the rain water , Oregano: Joy of the Mountain away. You want the mulch to stay as wet as possible, this will cause it to break down fairly quickly. So I keep a pile of rotted bark mulch near my compost , Wilted Hangups bins. When both bins are completely full, I empty the bin containing the oldest material by piling it on top of my rotted bark mulch. I make sure the pile of rotted mulch is wide and flat , Hurricane Emergency Power on top so that when I put the material from the compost , Choosing the Best Plants for Your Garden bin on top of the pile, the compost , Why Teak Wood is so Popular as Garden Furniture material is only 5 to 10 inches thick. My mulch pile might be 12' wide, but it may only be 24 to 30 inches high. Once I have all the compost , Why Teak Wood is so Popular as Garden Furniture on top of the pile, then I go around the edge of the pile with a shovel, and take some of the material from the edges of the pile and toss it up on top of the pile, covering the compost , Wind Chimes Go Great With Gardening with at least 6" of rotted bark. This will cause the compost , INSURANCE CLAIM: COLLECTING FOR YOUR LOST WAGES material to decompose the rest of the way. Once you get this system started, you never want to use all of the material in the pile. Always keep at least 2 to 3 cubic yards , The Container Vegetable Garden on hand so you've got something to mix with your compost. , Black Haw Viburnums will grow in Feasterville Pa. If you use a lot of compost , Guide to Servicing your Chainsaw material like I do, then you should buy more material and add to your pile in the late summer , Selling Your Own Home – Pet Issues or fall, , Top 10 Blog Writing Tips once you are done using it for the season. , Attracting Birds to Your Garden Around here many of the supply companies sell a compost , Wilted Hangups material that is already broken down quite well. This is what I buy to add to my stockpile. But I try to make sure that I have at least 3 yards , The Secret To Healthier Plants? Le?’s Ask My Grandfather. of old material on hand, then I'll add another 3 yards , Vegetable Plants that Don't Play Well Together of fresh material to that. Then in the spring , 8 Easy Steps to Find Your Perfect Toilet I'll empty one of the compost , 8 Easy Steps to Find Your Perfect Toilet bins and add the compost , Five Rose Garden Ideas to the top of the pile. The pile of usable compost , Oregano: Joy of the Mountain will be layers of material, some more composted than others. Kind of like a sandwich. So what I do is chip off a section of the pile from the edge, spread it out on the ground so it's only about 8" deep, then run over it with my small rototiller. This mixes it together perfectly, and I shovel it onto the potting bench. , Supplying Water to your Cabin with a Driven Well Having a pile of rotted compost , Garage door openers--Buy the best gagage door opener only near your compost , Hydroponic Gardens bins is great because if you have a lot of leaves or grass , Gardening Tips: Avoiding Summertime Fungus clippings, you can throw some rotted compost , Top 10 Blog Writing Tips in the bin in order to maintain that layered effect that is necessary in order for the composting process to work well. Sure this process is a little work, but it sure is nice to have a place , Start Planning for Your Backyard Garden to get rid of organic , Growing White Pine Trees In The Harrisburg Pa. Area waste anytime I like. Then down the road when I have beautiful compost , Whack-O-Matic to add to my potting soil, , Buying flowers in bulk for best prices I am grateful to have done the right thing earlier, and I know that I have wasted nothing. Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening , Top 10 Blog Writing Tips newsletter. Article provided by gardening-articles.com |
  
|
mygarden.net.au Gardening | Landscaping | Climate Change | Home Improvement | How To DIY | Home Garden | Interior Design | Home Security | Home Finance | Forum | DIY | Add Your Link |