Composting is a great way to save money and the environment while also making your garden and yard look great! However, if you aren’t familiar with composting, then it can be a hard, intimidating, and messy task. Here are some must-know composting tips and tricks.
Must-Know Composting Tips And Tricks
First off, you need to know what can and shouldn’t be composted. Things like vegetable and fruit scraps, newspapers, coffee grounds, and grass clippings are all a great compost source. Don’t put meat, dairy, plastic, or processed foods in your compost pile, though. They don’t break down and will ruin the rest of the compost.
For the things that you do put in your compost pile, make sure they’re small and shredded! Don’t throw whole banana peels or entire sheets of newspaper in the pile. This will take it MUCH longer to decompose. If you cut things up and shred them, decomposing will happen much quicker, making your compost pile useful sooner.
Instead of having to walk out to your garden after every meal, just keep a bucket in your home to keep all those scraps. Then, when full, take it outside. This saves so much time. Most people keep these bins under the sink so they’re not in the way or smelly.
While you can make a compost pile in even just a hole in your backyard, that’s not even the most efficient way. Putting it in a black tarp or black compost bin will help to speed up the compost process.
If you’ve recently had a dry spell, it is a good idea to slightly water the compost pile. Compost needs to be damp, but not soaking wet. Usually it will maintain the right kind of moisture, but if it’s been excessively dry lately, you can add a bit of water to it.
You also want to make sure that your compost pile is on even and level ground. This allows it to drain properly (again, you don’t want it too wet or to dry) and also makes it easy for the worms to get in all parts of the compost pile.
Make sure you are putting an even number of green and brown products in your compost pile. Green things give the compost nitrogen while the brown items give it carbon. Both of these are necessary nutrients for your compost.
Before you throw grass clippings or leaves into the compost pile, make sure they haven’t been treated with pesticides or herbicides. If so, these chemicals can compromise the whole pile, making it useless (and maybe even harmful) to your garden.
Unfortunately, compost piles can quickly and easily become a smelly mess. If that’s a problem for you, then routinely aerate the compost. In fact, it’s a good idea to aerate the pile either way because it help speed up the process.
You can always try boosting the system in your compost if you want to make sure it gives a ton of nutrients to your garden. You can get compost activators and/or worms. Although, to be honest, if you’re composting right, then the worms will come anyways, so why spend money on them! However, you can do this and ensure that the compost pile is doing well.
I hope these must-know composting tips and tricks help you have the best garden ever!
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