If composting isn't the number one thought in that part of your brain that controls the gardening impulse it better get there soon, ask most any gardener and they'll probably go on and on about how important compost is to their life as a gardener. If you don't have a composting system......shame on you. Build one, buy one, just get one. It can be a simple pile, an expensive compost tumbler with a crank that you turn every other day, a 3 compartment bin system made out red wood 2x4's or just an inexpensive chicken wire enclosure. The key words here are Nitrogen and Fertilizer- au natural. These things are the magic that is gardening. So if you don't have some sort of compost pile get started soon, your garden is gonna love you for it.
remember...........
RULE #1 no meat,bones, processed left-over foods like pasta, fats, oils, grease,
diseased plants, infested plants or herbicide/pesticide treated grass clippings. I think it goes w/out saying....no kitty or doggie stuff in there, okay? okay.
RULE #2 do use, untreated grass clippings, kitchen vegetable and fruit waste, coffee grounds
and egg shells. Throw in some of last falls shredded leaves. Your pile will need some brown matter to go with all that green stuff.
RULE #3 turn your pile..... The little organisms that are responsible for breaking the
compost down need oxygen to breathe and a little H2O never hurts.
A word about animal waste and Temps-- if you use the droppings from an animal that
doesn't eat meat you should be okay. A good pile should reach at least 105*F, however 115*F-120*F is even better because there are beneficial bacteria that don't come out to play in your pile till the temps get to at least 105*F. Fresh manures can supply your pile with much needed heat to burn up the weed seeds and decompose all that good green matter. If you know someone with a horse or cow or two,offer to take the droppings, your garden will reward you for your effort, it's a small sacrifice you must be willing to make for healthy plants. Besides, if given a choice wouldn't you much rather be behind a horse than a city bus? And don't fret if you can't be the world's best compost maker, Mother Nature will do the job for you, it'll just take her longer.
remember...........
RULE #1 no meat,bones, processed left-over foods like pasta, fats, oils, grease,
diseased plants, infested plants or herbicide/pesticide treated grass clippings. I think it goes w/out saying....no kitty or doggie stuff in there, okay? okay.
RULE #2 do use, untreated grass clippings, kitchen vegetable and fruit waste, coffee grounds
and egg shells. Throw in some of last falls shredded leaves. Your pile will need some brown matter to go with all that green stuff.
RULE #3 turn your pile..... The little organisms that are responsible for breaking the
compost down need oxygen to breathe and a little H2O never hurts.
A word about animal waste and Temps-- if you use the droppings from an animal that
doesn't eat meat you should be okay. A good pile should reach at least 105*F, however 115*F-120*F is even better because there are beneficial bacteria that don't come out to play in your pile till the temps get to at least 105*F. Fresh manures can supply your pile with much needed heat to burn up the weed seeds and decompose all that good green matter. If you know someone with a horse or cow or two,offer to take the droppings, your garden will reward you for your effort, it's a small sacrifice you must be willing to make for healthy plants. Besides, if given a choice wouldn't you much rather be behind a horse than a city bus? And don't fret if you can't be the world's best compost maker, Mother Nature will do the job for you, it'll just take her longer.
7 comments:
I compost everything in the garden, and add horse manure to get it 'going' sometimes.; do you have any suggestions as to what to do with the little parcels the cats leave?
Gardens,
i heard a vicious rumor that due to all the trees coming down with Katrina there is alot of mulch available dirt cheap, no pun intended. The warning I got was that termites are embedded in the cheap mulch that will show up at home improvement centers. Any truth to this?
clairesgarden I don't use cat dropings or litter from their boxes on anything I grow or compost, It's the urine thats bad, it's very bad and toxic to humans. I try to discourage my cats from even stepping into my flower beds or worst yet my vegetable patches.
joe tornatore I just got an e-mail from Master Gardeners of Burlington County.....It's a rumor, the mulch is okay. The critters in question are subteraniun termites as in under ground, if they are in the mulch they'll quickly die.
my ususal for the 'cat parcels' is to keep a bag handy when I am weeding and drop them all in that as I go, then it goes in the bin, I'll keep doing that then. they dont often get onto the vegetable part as most stuff is covered in fleece, thanks, Claire
Thanks for the comment! Great blog, you've got here. Any interest in adding it to Garden Voices over on GardenWeb? I happen to know the editor (wink, wink).
nice post.. i mean compost.
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