COMPOSTING THE EASY WAY

Having an ample supply of good rich compost is the gardeners dream.

It has many uses, and all of those uses will result in nicer plants. However, composting can act as time immoderate and hard work. we place a reasonable value on my time, so spending hours and hours turning compost piles doesn't validate for a suitable exercise, at primary in my book. Nonetheless, I perform compost, but i do and so on my terms.

I built two composting bins. Each bin is five feet wide, 5 foot deep, and four feet high. I built the bins by sinking 4' by 4' posts in the ground for the corners, also then nailed 2 by 4's and 1 by 4's, alternating on the sides.



I left 2' gaps between the boards for air circulation. The 2 by 4's are rigid enough to keep its sides from bowing out, and in between any 2 by 4 I used 1 by 4's to save a little money. the bins are only 3 sided, I left the front of the bins open so they can be filled and drained easily. Photos of my compost bins are on this page: freeplants.comcomposting.htm

I started by filling just individual of the bins. I put grass clippings, dried leaves, and shrub clippings monopoly the bins. I try not to put further than 6' of each material on a covering. You don't long 24' of grass clippings in the bin and you should swap layers of green and brown material. If necessary, keep a few bags of dry leaves around inasmuch as you can alternate layers of brown debris and green waste.

When we root cuttings we welfare coarse sand in the flats, for when it's time to pull the distant cuttings out of the flats, the old sand goes on the compost congeries. In our little backyard nursery we also reckon on some plants fame containers which do not survive. fairly than pulling its dead embed and the weeds external of the container, and then dumping the potting spot back upon the blacken pile, we just dump the outright container rule the compost bin. This adds more brown material to the mix, and is a lot easier than separation the soil and the weeds.

Once the bin is full, its 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 settle that, then this is what i do. I pack as much material moment the bin being I can before I start filling its second bin. I pile the material as high as I possibly can, and even let sensible spill outer pull front of the bin. then i cover integrated the fresh material with mulch or potting soil, whatever brown material I can discovery.

Then when I'm out working influence the garden I set a small sprinkler on top of the pile again become it on very low, so the small spray of water runs on the material. thanks to I accredit a good water well, this doesn't cost me anything, so I let legitimate run for at least two hours as often as I can. This keeps the material damp, again the moisture consign cause the pile to heat up, which is what makes the composting action take stick.

Once I have the first canister completely full, I start using the second bin. As the material in the first bin starts to fracture down, it will accord and the bin is no longer heaped up, forasmuch as 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 starting point of the huddle. Then I just consign it alone, except to water it once ascendancy a while. the watering isn't necessary, it just speeds its process.

Because I don't turn its pile, I can't expect all of its material to rot completely. The material in the center is going to break down additional than the material on the edges, but most of it does tear down quite efficiently. The next step works great for me because I've got the small nursery, and so I keep a pile of potting soil on hand at all times. But you can really do its same thing by belonging buying dual or three yards of shredded mulch to dispatch started, again piling it up near your compost bins. If you do this, you will always have a supply of proper compost to work with.

Shredded bark, left in a pile will eventually break down and become great compost. The potting soil that I good is about 80% rotted bark. I make potting soil by purchasing shapely textured and dark hardwood bark mulch, and I seemly stabilize it in a pile and let it rot. The secret is to livelihood the pile disconsolate and flat, hence that it does not shed the rain water away. You want the mulch to stay thanks to wet through possible, this will cause it to break down fairly quickly.

So I keep a pile of rotted bark mulch near my compost bins. When both bins are completely full, I empty the bin containing the oldest material through piling it on day one of my rotted bark mulch. I make categorical the pile of rotted mulch is wide further unexciting on top for that when I put the material from its compost bin on top of the pile, the compost material is only 5 to 10 inches thick.

My mulch pile facility be 12' wide, but it may only be 24 to 30 inches high. Once I conclude all the compost on genesis of the pile, then I go around the edge of the pile with a shovel, and move some of the material from the edges of the pile and toss de facto up on top of its pile, covering the compost with during least 6' of rotted bark. This will cause the compost material to decompose the rest of the way.

Once you gain this system started, you never want to use imperforate of the material in the pile. Always alimony at least 2 to 3 cubic yards upon hand accordingly you've got something to mix with your compost. If you use a lot of compost material like I do, then you should buy supplementary material and add to your congeries in the late summer or fall, once you are done using it for the season.

via here many of its supply companies sell a compost material that is already damaged down quite well. This is what we admit to add to my stockpile. But I try to make sure that I have at beginning 3 yards of hackneyed material on hand, then I'll add another 3 yards of fresh material to that. Then in the spring I'll empty one of the compost bins and supplement its compost to the top of the pile.

The congeries of usable compost will be layers of material, some more composted than others. cordial of like a sandwich. So what I do is chip off a section of its pile from the edge, spread it extrinsic on the ground thus it's only about 8' deep, afterwards run owing to it with my small rototiller. This mixes it together perfectly, and I shovel it onto the potting bench.

Having a pile of rotted compost ulterior your compost bins is great because if you have a lot of leaves or grass clippings, you can throw some rotted compost in the bin in order to maintain that layered effect that is necessary drag order for the composting process to work well.

Sure this process is a little work, but it sure is nice to have a place to get rid of integrated waste anytime I like. Then down its road when i have beautiful compost to add to my potting soil, I am grateful to have consummated the right thing earlier, and i know that I have wasted nothing.