Composting How To’s

Garden composting and backyard composting are the two most popular ways of taking advantage of the natural wonders of rich, fertile compost. These are probably the most popular because they’re quick and easy to get started with, and they take little to no time or maintenance.

Any yard and garden waste can be composted. Many people don’t realize just how rich of a resource their garden debris can be, and even “everyday” yard waste such as grass clippings and fallen leaves are excellent items to add to the compost pile too.

All waste products that come from the yard and garden are usually 100% organic. And anything organic can be recycled by composting it into rich soil for future use. And when I say everything can be composted, I’m serious. Here are several excellent examples of things all of us have in our gardens and yards…

In the front or back yard: grass clippings, fallen leaves, sticks and tree branches, pincones, dead flowers, bush trimmings, and more.

When you mow the grass for instance, do you normally gather up all the clippings and throw them into the trash? If so, you’re not only wasting a valuable resource but you’re also depriving your lawn of rich nutrients and minerals it needs to be healthy and beautiful. If you simply leave the grass clippings laying where they fall, they’ll automatically break down and decompose for you. This decomposition is vital to the health and beauty of the lawn over time.

The same applies to fallen leaves. If you rake them up and throw them away, you’re wasting rich nutrients. The simplest way to use these for compost would be to let them lay where they fall. Over time they’ll naturally decompose and add their nutrients back into the ground where they’ve decomposed at.

If you want to concentrate on making compost of course though, then you can rake up these grass clippings and leaves, and add them to your bakyard compost bin along with all the other things mentioned above. We’ll get to the specifics of that in a moment, but for now let’s look at garden waste…

In the garden: Whether you keep a small vegetable garden, kitchen herb garden, or pretty flower gardens, all the waste from these areas can contribute towards making wonderful compost. Weeds that you pull from your flower beds can be composted. Dead flower heads and leaves pulled off, cut branches and stems that come from trimming your bushes and flowers, rotten bruised or problematic vegetables, unused fruit or vegetable stalks leaves and stems… all of these items can be added to a compost bin or compost pile, and they’ll decompose to create rich composting materials you can use to enrich your future flower beds and vegetable plots.

Making compost in the backyard is not difficult to do at all. You don’t even need a container or bin, but these can be helpful to keep everything contained.

Backyard composting without a compost bin is just a matter of creating a compost pile. And all this means is that you’re going to stack all of the organic matter together so that it makes a pile, or heap, which can start decomposing naturally.

It’s easiest to create a compost pile if you have some sort of way to contain the pile into a specific area. One popular way to do this outdoors is to make a three sided structure on the ground using wooden pallets. You simply stand the pallets on their sides in a manner that makes a square box like containment area. There’s no need to have a bottom, or floor on this structure, and there’s no need for a top cover or roof either. You can use a fourth pallet if you’d like to complete the full square, but that’s optional.

Once you have the composting area defined, then you simply start adding your yard and garden waste. When you mow the lawn, if you don’t want to leave the grass clippings lay then just gather them up, and dump them into your compost pile area. Spread them out a bit so the layer is somewhat even and you’re done. The same steps are taken when you’re weeding the garden, deadheading flowers, or disposing of fruits and vegetables. Just gather up the material as you’re working, then take them back to your compost pile and dump them on top. Spread the new material out a bit so that it makes a somewhat even layer and you’re done.

If you’re worried that a compost pile may look too messy or ugly in your backyard or you’re worried about having a smelly compost pile, there are plenty of composting bins and containers which can be used instead. In fact, there are many excellent commercial compost bins on the market these days which are quite attractive too. Some of these commercial compost bins even come with built in tumblers, so that you can mix and turn your compost pile regularly. When you mix and turn your composting materials regularly, it helps all the organic material break down and decompose much faster.

Using a commercial compost bin, tumbler or container doesn’t change the steps noted above though. You still add your yard and garden wastes to it as you go, and spread it out a bit to make an even layer. The only difference is that composting bins and containers tend to be covered or closed instead of open to the sun, air, and elements.

One word of caution about garden composting though: If you use dangerous chemicals on your lawn, trees, or in your garden areas, composting those materials may not be wise. Many of the chemicals used for fertilizing or pest control are quite dangerous, and they may not break down completely for many, many years. If you put chemically treated garden waste into your compost pile you may run the risk of contaminating the compost you’re creating, as well as any ground and plants you use that compost on in the future. The best, and safest way to maintain any yard or garden now and for years into the future, is to deal with fertilizing and pest control naturally. Don’t use those dangerous chemicals at all.

Take the small amount of time required to create a backyard compost pile. If you’d rather have things look prettier and neater in your yard, buy one of the nice commercial composting bins instead. Then be sure to add your yard and garden waste as you have it, and in no time you’ll find yourself with lots of rich, fertile, all natural compost!

Link To This: How To Compost Garden & Yard Waste