Composting: Good for Your Garden
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides the landfill data and more at its site about composting. The agency provides a variety of information about composting and reducing waste from its impact to how to make your own composting pile/system.
Another reason that composting is beneficial for both your garden and the environment is the the rich results produced by the process of natural breakdown of the compost components allows you to fertilize your garden without the use of chemical fertilizers.
The compost material will not only feed your plants and make healthy soil from nutrient-deprived dirt, it makes an excellent soil amendment. Working the compost materials into the soil provides texture. It will add moisture-retaining ability to sandy soil and decrease the density of clay soil.
Compost Materials
Some things should not be composted. This includes cooked food or scraps, meat and meat products, fish, cheese, human waster, used diapers, pet waste, diseased plants, glass, metal, plastic or synthetic material. While weeds can be composted, sufficient heat may not be generated in the compost pile to kill weed seeds. This could result in weed growth in your garden when the compost is used.
What can go into the compost pile include fruit and vegetable peelings, crushed egg shells, twigs and branches in small pieces, yard clippings, leaves, tea and tea bags, coffee grounds, shredded newspaper or other shredded paper, manure from chickens, horses or rabbits. When considering what to compost, think of the ability of the object to biodegrade.
If whole raw fruits or vegetables are going to be composted, cut them into pieces. This will aid in their speedy decomposition.
Compost is a renewable resource that costs you nothing, but you will reap the rewards year after year with healthy vegetables and flowers. One year of using compost in your garden will convince you--try it and see.
Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Mama's Health
The Garden of Oz
Virginia Cooperative Extension
Published by L.L. Woodard
Freelance writer/editor and freelance observer of life. Three decades of nursing experience in long-term care, from development of team care planning to hands-on patient care. View profile
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3 Comments
Post a CommentGreat info!
Marie Anne, that's great. Those chickens are the ultimate composters.
I take it one step further. I feed the fruit and vegetable scraps to the chickens, then use their waste in the garden.