How to Start a Compost Pile

Compost piles are a great way to make your own fertilizer. The fertilizer you get from a compost pile is good to put in a garden or circle a tree or plant. Compost fertilizer is good for both flower gardens and vegetable gardens. Depending on the size of your compost pile depends on how much you can fertilize. Compost piles are great for putting all those old vegetable and other plant matter like grass clippings into. It is better to put that old plant matter into a compost pile then it is to just throw them out in the garbage.

Compost piles can be very elaborate or very simple. You can buy a composting container at stores but I prefer a home made compost pile since it is so very simple to make. The composting containers that you buy in stores is great if you live in a place that you cannot make your own compost pile. But if you have the room for a big home made compost pile then that is the way to go.

A compost pile is just a place to let plant matter break down and decompose into fertilizer. Plants will decompose if left on the ground but if it is in a compost pile then you can gather it and use it for fertilizing your plants. You can also use a compost pile to put all the grass clippings and small branches that you gather.

To start a compost pile you will need a place to confine the plant matter. A square made of some boards will do or a snow fence put in a circle will do. You can make your compost pile as big or small as you want. It is a personal choice as to how big to make it. The idea is that you will have a nice pile of plant matter to start with and as it breaks down the pile will get smaller and you can add more. If you don't have much compost you can have a small compost pile about two feet by two feet. If you have a lot of plant matter you can get just about as big as you want.

After you have filled your compost container with plant matter you should let it sit for a year. As time goes by you can add new plant matter during that year. Household scraps are good to put in a compost pile. Things like banana skins, apple, orange and potato peelings. Anything organic and of a plant matter can go into a compost pile. When you first start your compost pile you may want to pour a commercial composting bacteria on the pile to start up some good enzymes to help decompose the plant matter. Or you can just add some commercial yeast to the pile. You also may have to water the pile if is gets dry.

After you have been adding to your compost pile for year you can dig out the good dirt looking compost and leave the rest to keep decomposing. The good dirt compost that you have dug out from your compost pile can be used to fertilize your garden, trees and shrubs.

Having a compost pile is good for the earth since it puts nutrients back into the soil that growing plants take out.