How to Compost and Get Heat

Tips To Really Get Your Compost Heap Cooking
By Julie Williams

It seems that most organic gardeners love the idea of making their own compost, but some gardeners have trouble making it really happen. Don’t give up! There are ways to give your compost heap a boost and get it heating up again – creating beautiful, nutritious humus for your veggie garden.

OK, so after six months your ‘compost’ has remained unchanged from it’s original state? Remember there are certain conditions your heap needs to be able to actively turn it’s ingredients into compost. They are air and moisture. Here are some things you can try.

1. Turn your heap over, exposing it to air, watering if dry.

2. If your heap dries out it will stop breaking down. Water the heap every few days in summer if conditions are hot and dry.

3. Add ingredients that are as small as possible. Use a shredder, mulcher or lawn mower to chop up larger ingredients such as prunings and larger leaves.

4. To speed up the composting process add lots of nitrogen-rich ingredients such as clover, manure laden straws, herbal activators (see below), washed sea-weed or fishmeal.

Herbal Compost Activators – some herbs are well known as particularly impressive compost activators. Add them to your heap to speed up your results.

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is rich in calcium, nitrogen, phosphates and potassium. It has large hairy leaves that break down very quickly.

Dandelion (Taraxacum sp) also accelerates the breaking down of materials in the heap. It is rich in copper, potash and iron, all valuable goodies in your compost.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) has a reputation for attracting earthworms to the compost heap. It’s leaves are also rich in minerals.

Yarrow (Achillea sp) can have the most dramatic effect in your heap, even in small amounts. It will enrich your compost with nitrates, potash, phosphares and copper, so is a very valuable addition.

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) has the ability to concentrate potassium from the soil where it grows. Adding Tansy to your compost means adding potassium.

If you have the room, it’s best to have two or more compost piles on the go. One that you are preparing by gathering materials, one that is semi-matured and one that has already turned into that gorgeous, black, earthy plant tonic – ready to use.

One more tip is to make sure air can get to the middle of your heap, especially if you don’t plan to turn it often. Place garden stakes or pvc pipes through the middle of your heap so that you can ‘jiggle’ them every few weeks allowing air to the centre.

Try some of these tips and I’m sure you will speed things up for your compost heap and you will be topdressing your veggies with your own compost in no time.

Hi, I am an avid organic gardener and am known by my friends as the recycling queen. I live on a small country property in South Australia. It is my mission to encourage as many people as possible to start organic gardening. This will improve both our individual lives and the wellbeing of our personal and global environments. Please visit my website for more great organic gardening tips & information. For Companion Planting info click here.
Happy gardening, healthy living…

Julie Williams

http://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/

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Compost, Composting, Composters

Garden Composters and Composting Basics

by Mark Falco

Why Compost?

Recent studies show that an average family throws away approximately 200 pounds of organic kitchen waste every year. Combine this with all the leaves, grass clippings and other organic garden waste accumulated over time and thats a lot of household waste being added to the already mountainous waste disposal problem. Some local authorities are refusing to take away green waste from gardening and others charge for the service in an effort to curb mounting costs and then when you add in the environmental costs of adding new landfill sites, road transport emissions from ferrying all this waste around and potentially incineration and the fumes that releases the environmental advantages of composting are clear.

In slightly more selfish terms, if you are a gardener then you will know the relatively high cost of fertiliser. Well, OK an average gardeners yearly fertiliser expenditure is not going to break the bank but when you can get fertiliser for free out of the stuff you throw away then it starts looking extremely expensive. Composting simply makes good environmental and financial sense and its so easy to do theres nothing stopping you.

What Do I Need To Begin?

A compost bin, box, enclosure or handy place to put an open compost heap. Cheap plastic composters and compost bins can be bought from all good garden centers and are quite inexpensive depending on your requirements. A plastic compost bin is generally the cheapest whilst wood composters are generally more attractive additions to your garden but a little more costly. An open heap (just create a pile somewhere) is also an option but it is advisable to have some sort of cover like a tarpaulin available for colder periods of weather.

Another slightly different alternative to composting in the traditional sense is vermicomposting or wormeries. These use a special kind of worms to break down kitchen scraps producing a fine compost-like material fromtheir casts and a nutrient filled liquid plant food which is ideal for feeding indoor pot plants. If do a lot of greenhouse gardening or have a lot of houseplants then a wormery may be the best choice for the disposal of household waste.

If you do not want to actually spend money on a composter then building your own isnt exactly difficult if you do not mind picking up a hammer and nails. Nail together a few wooden pallets for example and youve got an enclosure suitable for composting. For plans and ideas on how to assemble your own composter at little cost, simply head to your favourite search engine and type in phrases like 'build your own composter' or 'compost bin plans' for an endless supply of simple ideas typically costing under $30.

Where To Put Your Compost

Whether you purchase a composting bin or make your own composter you need to make sure you have a flat, well drained place in your garden not too far away that you begrudge taking your kitchen scraps out to it. Compost bins should not be placed on concrete, patio areas etc. as you want to allow the insects, worms and microorganisms which help degradation of your waste materials the freedom to migrate into and out of your compost without hinderance.

In addition, choose a site which suits your climate. Warmth and moisture helps the composting process so place your composter in a place which receives a fair amount of sunlight and shelter from the wind if you live in a cooler climate and if in a hotter climate, ensure you give it shade to prevent it drying out.

What Materials Can You Compost?

Pretty much all your organic household and garden waste is an elligible candidate for composting although there are a few exceptions. Things to particularly avoid are meat, fish, bones, fats and oils, dairy products like milk and cheese, dog and cat droppings as these can attract animals, create foul smells as they degrade and carry nasty diseases. Also, whilst weeds and plants can be added, it is advised to dry out persisent weeds and remove seed heads before adding these. Ashes are also best avoided, as are glossy magazines although shredded paper and cardboard are fine to add. Feel free to add waste fruit and vegetables, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds (worms love them!) and tea bags, hair, leaves, grass clippings and other organic waste. As a general rule, if in doubt, leave it out but most organic waste will rot down just fine and if you shred it or cut it up smaller, it will compost faster.

How Long Before It Becomes Compost?

This depends on the balance of materials in your compost heap, the weather and the amount of time you can devote to the project. If you want to take an active managed approach to your composting then you can have afully composted pile in 3 months but if your only desire is to dispose of kitchen and garden waste in a more green manner then it can take 6 months to a year or longer.

Managed composting can produce a hot rot with very fast results but it does require additional effort on your behalf to keep it going. A managed, hot compost heap with an excellent balance of materials can reach temperatures of 70 degree celsius but requires regular turning and nurturing with careful layering and balance of browns and greens in the mix, shredding materials and maintaining a good moisture level.

An unmanaged cool heap is however much easier to maintain and rots down at up to 30 degrees celsius with little input from you. Just throwing your waste on the heap will give you a cooler heap which will rot down more slowly but is fine for green waste disposal purposes.

There are ways to increase the rate of the composting process in both cases by, for example, adding composting worms, or by using an activator which help speed up the process. The addition of a handful or soil now and then or horse manure will also add micro-organisms to speed up the composting process free of charge.

For The Best Compost...

...use a wide variety of different materials. The more varied the materials you add to the compost pile, the nutrient rich your final compost will be. Compost made from kitchen and garden waste is the best food for your plants and at the same time you are helping the environment and saving yourself and your local government money into the bargain.

Mark Falco runs the British gardening shopping guide found at http://www.ukgardeningsupplies.co.uk where you can find low prices on composters and composting equipment as well as other garden tools, furniture and accessories.

Organic Gardening Compost

Composting Dos and Donts by James Allen

So long as they have a high surface to volume ratio, most plant materials from your garden will work beautifully in your compost pile. You want to use common sense when adding larger items like sequoia branches or giant rubber tree leaves - shread them or chip them up into smaller pieces - the more surface area available to you resident critters, the faster the decomposition process. Plant food scraps from the kitchen, shredded cardboard boxes, and sawdust from untreated wood will all contribute nicely to your organic potpourri, just dont put too much of any one thing in - it can throw off the N-P-K balance, not to mention the pH. Always remember to throw in a handful of good garden soil to innoculate the new pile with living organisms. A few earthworms and rollie pollies are a nice addition, too. Though it is not required, many individuals add compost starters and accelerators to help their pile along--this is fine, just avoid the synthetic additives and seek out natural and organic sources with minimal packaging.

Though all organic matter can be broken down naturally, some materials are just not suitable for the home compost pile. First and foremost, no human or pet excrement should be added to the bins. Feces can harbor harmful bacteria, and there is no guarantee that the high temperatures of your pile will sucessfully kill them. Second, stay away from greasy foods, dairy products, meat scraps and bones. Not only can their decompostion result in colorful aromas, they can attract rodents. Unless you are a seasoned composter, it is best to avoid them completely. Natural chemicals in citrus peels, eucalyptus leaves, and pine needles can actually slow down your compost pile - avoid mixing them into your artistic masterpiece. Ashes from your fireplace are basically worthless --- they are already broken down as much as possible (remember the heat and flames), and therefore have little potential energy to offer the micro organisms in your pile. Beside, ash can drastically alter the pH of the soil. If your prize tomatoes experienced their worst blight on record, you probably want to keep their diseased leaves and stems out of the pile, especially if the finished compost will be returning to your vegetable garden. Why propagate pestilence? Rocks, plastic and Styrofoam are not going to do much for your creation either, so keep them out.

For a HUGE selection of composters and supplies, and for a great selection of eco-friendly furniture visit http://www.composters.com/ and http://www.eco-furniture.com/.

Compost

Welcome to my new blog covering the many issues regarding compost.

I will be posting articles and tips on compost and composting very soon so be sure to check back.

Thanks


Rodger