Your step-by-step guide to making compost that will enrich your garden

It is the gift that always gives. You can turn your leftover food and garden waste into "black gold" that will feed your plants and improve your soil.

All image credits: www.alikna.blogspot.com

Some common misconceptions about home composting are that it is too complicated, smells weird, and is messy. All of this applies if you compost incorrectly. Fortunately, good composting is really easy: layer organic materials and a splash of soil to create a mixture that turns into humus (the best soil improver out there!). You can then upgrade your flower garden with compost, coat your lawn, feed your growing vegetables and more. Once you set up your compost pile, you will find that it is an easy way to convert kitchen waste and other organic materials into something that can help your plants thrive.

Types of composting

Before you start stacking, realize that there are two types of composting: cold and warm. Cold composting is as easy as collecting garden waste or removing the organic materials in your waste (such as fruit and vegetable peelers, coffee grounds and filters and eggshells) and putting them together in a pile or bin. Over the course of a year, the material will disintegrate.

In hot composting, you have to take a more active role. The return, however, is that this is a faster process. In warm weather, you will receive compost within one to three months. It takes four ingredients to cook hot compost quickly: nitrogen, carbon, air and water. Together these items feed on microorganisms that accelerate the decay process. In the spring or fall, when there is a lot of garden waste, you can mix in a large amount of compost and then start a second while the first is "cooking".

Vermicompost is made with the help of worms. When these worms eat your leftover food, they release castings rich in nitrogen. However, you cannot just use old worms for this: you need red worms (also called "red wigglers"). Composting worms can be purchased inexpensively online or from a gardener.

What to compost

Composting is a great way to use up things in your fridge that are a bit past their prime, avoiding waste. Having a container like this white ceramic compost bin ($ 20 World Market) in your kitchen is an easy way to collect your composting materials. If you don't want to buy one, you can make your own indoor or outdoor compost bin. Gather these materials to get your compost pile right:

• Fruit residues
• Vegetable leftovers
• Coffee grounds
• Eggshells (although it may take a while to break down)
• Pruning grass and plants
• Dry leaves
• Finely chopped wood and schnitzel
• Shredded newspaper
• Straw
• Sawdust from untreated wood

Test Garden Tip: 

Think twice before adding lemon zest, onion, and garlic to your homemade compost pile. These materials are believed to repel earthworms, which are an important part of your garden.

What NOT to compost

Not only do these items cause problems in your garden, but they can also make your compost stink and attract animals and pests. For a successful compost pile, avoid these items:

• Anything that contains meat, oil, fat or fat
• Sick plant material
• Sawdust or chips of pressure-treated wood
• Dog or cat poo
• Weeds that sow
• Dairy products

How to Make Hot Compost

Step 1: Combine Green and Brown Materials

To make your own hot-compost heap, wait until you have enough materials to make a pile at least 3 feet deep. You are going to want to combine your wet, green items with your dry, brown items. Brown materials include dried plant materials; fallen leaves; shredded tree branches, cardboard, or newspaper; hay or straw; and wood shavings, which add carbon. "Green" materials include kitchen scraps and coffee grounds, animal manures (not from dogs or cats), and fresh plant and grass trimmings, which add nitrogen. For best results, start building your compost pile by mixing three parts brown with one part green materials. If your compost pile looks too wet and smells, add more brown items or aerate more often. If you see it looks extremely brown and dry, add green items and water to make it slightly moist.

Step 2: Water Your Pile

Sprinkle water over the pile regularly so it has the consistency of a vapor sponge. Don't add too much water, otherwise, the microorganisms in your pile will become waterlogged and drown. If this happens, your pile will rot instead of compost. Monitor the temperature of your pile with a thermometer to be sure the materials are properly decomposing. Or, simply reach into the middle of the pile with your hand. Your compost pile should feel warm.

Step 3: Stir Up Your Pile

During the growing season, you should provide the pile with oxygen by turning it once a week with a garden fork. The best time to turn the compost is when the center of the pile feels warm or when a thermometer reads between 130 and 150 ° F. Stirring up the pile will help it cook faster and prevents material from becoming matted down and developing an odor. At this point, the layers have served their purpose of creating equal amounts of green and brown materials throughout the pile, so stir thoroughly.

Test Garden Tip: In addition to aerating regularly, chop and shred raw ingredients into smaller sizes to speed up the composting process.

Step 4: Feed Your Garden

When the compost no longer gives off heat and becomes dry, brown, and crumbly, it's fully cooked and ready to feed to the garden. Add about 4 to 6 inches of compost to your flower beds and into your pots at the beginning of each planting season.

Some gardeners make what's known as compost tea with finished compost. This involves allowing fully formed compost to "steep" in water for several days, then straining it to use as a homemade liquid fertilizer.

Every gardener is different, so it's up to you to decide which composting method best fits your lifestyle. Fortunately, no matter which route you choose, compost is incredibly easy to make and environmentally friendly. Plus, it's a treat for your garden. With just a few kitchen scraps and some patience, you'll have the happiest garden possible.