How to Create Compost for Your Garden
Creating your own compost is easy and provides an excellent natural fertilizer. Compost is a mixture of organic materials - leaves, manure, table scraps and more - left in a pile to decay. Naturally occurring soil organisms will work on the material and eventually break it down into a fine, homogeneous soil additive for your vegetable garden.
Making your own compost requires very little effort. It just takes a little time, effort and space to create a compost pile. Find an area about 10 feet (3m) on a side or a circle about 10 feet in diameter. You can rake up a pile of leaves in the fall and add some grass cuttings, straw, vegetable leftovers or any organic material you have around. Not only can you create a wonderful compost fertilizer with these items but also you have your own natural disposal system for unwanted food items and yard clippings.
Allow your pile to get 3-5 feet (1-2m) high. Then flatten the top and make a small indentation to trap rainwater. You want the pile to be moist but not too wet. Too much water blocks the air circulation that is needed for the material to compost.
That air provides oxygen that feeds the organisms that break down the material. At the same time, the pile shouldn’t be too loose. Once it reaches a certain size and stage of chemical activity, the pile will begin to heat. You don’t want that heat to escape too readily, since it helps keep the reaction going.
To increase the value of your compost you can add other items such as raw bone meal, ground rock phosphate and lime. These items won’t break down during the composting process but will help increase the value of the compost fertilizer in the end.
Layering the compost pile with vegetation and these additives is a good idea. When you have a layer about a foot deep, pour on some rock phosphate. For a 100 square foot compost a total of five pounds should be plenty, so add an amount proportional to how much compost you’ve accumulated. A pound of limestone will serve for the total pile.
Alternatively, you can add a layer of manure a few inches high for every foot of compost. However, if you have that much manure, you probably don’t need to go to the effort of making a compost. You already have in hand an excellent natural fertilizer with plenty of nutrients for your vegetable garden. If you want an extra rich compost, though, this is one way to enhance it.
When the compost pile has been active for a few weeks, you can stir up the material to keep it uniform. This helps distribute organisms throughout the pile. By rotating the layers it will give you a more even fertilizer.
Once the pile is ready to use, you can spread it over the entire garden area. If you have enough spread about 25 pounds for every 100 square feet of garden area. If not simply apply it to those area where the garden will be planted and watch your vegetables flourish with the help of this wonderful natural fertilizer.
