Composting is the Earth-Friendly and Natural Way to Recycle Kitchen and Garden Waste
Composting Uses Natural Resources and Keeps Them from Overloading Landfills
Passive composting occurs in the woods all the time. Nature is constantly recycling organic waste into rich soil. Just take a walk in the woods and discover the many places where rich black humus is soft and deep. Pause under some pine trees and examine the finished compost made from years of decomposing pine needles. The passive home composter uses the same method of natural composting and just adds organic waste into a pile and neglects it. It will decompose in time. It will just take longer than the carefully maintained compost pile in a bin.
Active composting?
Plan and build a compost bin in your back yard. Even an active compost pile does not have to be a complex venture. An ideal location is in full sun, near a water source and the kitchen and away from nutrient stealing tree roots. Add the ingredients: Chopped leaves, weeds, vegetable peelings, grass clippings, wood chips and sawdust, chicken manure, hay, pine needles, seaweed and kelp, vegetable and fruit peelings, coffee grounds, wood ashes, tea bags, egg shells, corncobs, nut shells, tree bark, even feathers and a lot more. The pile should be mixed, watered and turned to produce a compost in a faster time period.
Heat is the major factor working in the compost pile!
The decomposing vegetation will produce heat that then turns the matter into a nutrient rich soil. Heat speeds up in warm months and slows in winter, but the compost pile is always working.
The all-season compost pile!
The constantly decomposing and over-wintering compost pile will be ready to pay off in spring. The compost will be turned into rich loose soil ready to add to seed-starting mixes and amending into that garden soil. The warming months will be the perfect time to rake that dead grass from the lawn and start new compost piles. After the spring shrubs have bloomed, chip the prunings and toss them into the pile.
Mulching with un-chopped leaves?
Instead of bagging all of those fall leaves and paying the garbage truck to haul them to landfills, try using them as an earth-friendly mulch. Mulching with leaves is a slower composting method and will act as a weed suppressor between the soil and help to protect against heat, cold and wind. For a neater looking leaf-mulch, use a leaf vac/chopper to shred leaves or run the lawn mower over them.
How about some hardworking free labor - earth-friendly red worms?
Red worms will change food wastes into nutrient-rich castings in a short time and the finished product is a high-quality and cheap soil amendment. Be eco-friendly and use natural green wastes to produce some new soil for the living green earth.
Sources:
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/1612.html
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/compostandmulch/a
/leaf_mulch.htm
http://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm
Composting is the Eco Friendly Way to Healthy Soil
https://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/Environment/Recycling
+and+waste/Composting/Spring+Compost+Tips.htm
http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/winter-composting/index.html
http://www.howtocompost.org/info/info_composting.asp
Published by Rue Cooper
Rue Cooper is a free lance writer living in Pennsylvania. She watches a lot of television shows and old comedy movies. She is interested in homeschooling, religions, biography, science, history, world cultu... View profile
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5 Comments
Post a CommentWe gave away our leaves (17 bags) to a friend who has much more space to compost them. We could probably do well with a chipper/shredder in our treed lot.
Thanks for this info. We are starting a compost pile so it's good to read all I can on this. :)
Great article! Valuable information for the home gardener.
I'd like to have a compost pile. I'd also love a chipper/shredder. Some organic materials could be ground up before putting in the compost, to hasten breakdown.
I was earth friendly today - mulched all the leaves :) cheers