Maintaining a Compost Heap

Several people maintain gardens have a large amount of organic waste, from grass clippings to leaves and dead plants. Unfortunately, waste time and money having these wastes transported to a landfill. It isn’t just a waste of good compost; it’s a waste of everything that goes into the process of transporting it (the garbage man’s time, the money you pay for the removal, etc). It is truly a travesty.

All this garbage that people are trying to get rid of can be a better supplement for your garden than any fertilizer or chemical. It will alter chemically until it is in such a state that it can be nothing but beneficial nutrition for other plants, if you properly facilitate the decomposition of all of the garbage. So you can rotate all the stuff you would have thrown away into top grade fertilizer for your garden.

Compost heap brings disturbing images your minds

Generally compost is maintained in a heap somewhere in your garden. Generally the thought of a compost heap brings disturbing images to ones mind; heaps of decayed garbage emitting an unpleasant smell. However, if you maintain it correctly you’ll be able to produce great compost without producing an unpleasant smell. When I first began my compost heap in an effort to improve environmental health, I made several major errors. These included preventing the heap from the oxygen it truly needed, and keeping it to dry. It ended up decomposing in a very non-beneficial way, and producing an odor so foul that I had government agents knocking at my door.

When you are choosing your spot where you will be putting all of these materials, you should aim for a higher square footage. Having a really profound heap of compost is not a good idea, because generally the deeper sections won’t be exposed to anything that is required for the process to work. It is better to spread it all out over a large area. If you have a shed or a tool shack of some sort, it is a possibility to spread it over the roof (with boards to keep it from falling off, of course). I have seen this done several times, and it helps keep the heap out of the way while still maintaining a large square footage.

A compost heap can consist of any organic garbage from your yard, garden or kitchen. This includes grass, leaves, any leftover food that won’t be eaten, or newspaper (no more than a fifth of your heap should consist of newspaper, due to it having a harder time composting with the rest of the materials). Usually if you have a barrel devoted to storing all of these things, it will fill up within several weeks. It is quite easy to obtain compost, but the hard part truly comes in getting it to compost.

After you have begun to get a large variety of materials in your compost heap, you should moisten the whole heap. This encourages the process of composting. Also chop every element of the heap into the smallest pieces possible. As the materials start to compress and meld together as they decompose, frequently head outside and ventilate the heap. You can use a spade to mix it all up, or a ventilation tool to jab dozens of tiny holes into it. Doing this will increase the oxygen flow to each part of the heap, and oxygen is required for any decomposition to take place.

Suppose, if you maintaining compost heap than sounds like something that would interest you, start considering the different placement options. The hardest part about maintaining a heap is choosing a spot that provides enough square footage without interfering on the rest of your yard or garden. As usually you can prevent the horrible odors that most people associate with compost heaps, it’s still not a pleasant thing to have to look at whenever you go for a walk in your garden.