Creating Compost for Gardens and Yards

Turn Organic Garbage Scraps into Nutrient-Rich Soil

Nov 1, 2009

Yards and gardens produce bags of grass clippings, mounds of leaves and buckets of spent flower blooms. Turn this organic garbage into a usable product for the landscape.

Think of composting as a form of garden recycling. The process can turn organic garbage into a wonderful soil that can go back into the garden or yard. Here are some tips for building a backyard compost pile.

Gathering Materials for Composting

First, create an 8-inch layer of a good mixture of small-sized organic materials. Items such as grass clippings, leaves, old mulch or straw, dead plants, spent flower blooms, twigs, sawdust and fruit and vegetable scraps are ideal candidates for composting.

Next, add a 1-inch layer of garden soil to the organic materials. Sprinkle one cup of 10-10-10 or 6-10-4 fertilizer on top. Repeat this procedure, layering organic materials, soil and fertilizer again, then sprinkle the mixture with water so that the compost pile becomes moist but not soggy. To speed up the decomposition process, keep the compost pile moist.

Keeping Compost Aerated

Oxygen is essential for proper decomposition, so every week or two, turn the compost pile inside-out. Aerating makes the compost pile decompose much faster than one that is turned less often. If your compost bin is a simple 3-sided wire or wooden enclosure, you can use a pitchfork to turn the mixture. Or, to make aerating easier, use a commercial composting system like a barrel compost bin or compost tumbler.

Using a Compost Tumbler

With a compost tumbler, you'll use the same mixture of materials, soil and fertilizer, but you won't need to add the items in layers. Add a little water and close the door to the tumbler. Openings in the barrel allow air to mix with the organic materials located inside. Give the barrel a turn or two to stir up the ingredients.

Once the tumbler is half full of leaves and other organic matter, don't add any fresh materials to it. Adding more materials will only slow down the decomposition process.

It's best to make compost in batches. This ensures that you'll have only enough compost that you need and can use at one time. When the decomposition is complete, you won't recognize the ingredients that you originally added. They will have turned into a loose, crumbly soil.

Compost has many uses in the garden. It adds nutrients to the soil, making it a great soil amendment for nutrient-starved soil. It can also be used as a top dressing for a garden bed.

No matter how compost is used, it's a great organic material that the home gardener can make using organic garbage scraps.

The copyright of the article Creating Compost for Gardens and Yards in Gardening Techniques is owned by Michael Vyskocil. Permission to republish Creating Compost for Gardens and Yards in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.