Making Compost For Your Garden By Benedict T. Palen, Jr.

1. Making Compost For Your Garden By Benedict T. Palen, Jr. A good way to practice sustainability where you live is to make compost each year from items that you might otherwise throw in the garbage.  If you are a gardener, you will find that the compost adds a lot of organic matter to the soil, and improves its overall productivity and water holding capacity.   Even if you are not a gardener, you can no doubt find a neighbor who is, and who would gladly use your compost to amend the soil.

2. Making Compost For Your Garden By Benedict T. Palen, Jr. Here is a way to build a simple compost “factory.”  Get five wooden pallets.  Many places, such as warehouses, will give these away, or they can be purchased for a nominal price.  Buy five steel T posts, about five feet in length. They can be purchased at a garden or home supply store, for about $3 each.  Pick a well drained area near your house, and put three of the posts in the ground, in a straight line, with spacing just wide enough for two of the pallets to be supported by the posts.  Use wire or twine to secure the pallets to the posts at the top and bottom.  Then, using two more pallets, make the sides of the compost bins, and tie one corner of them to the back post, and then to a post that you put in the ground near the front of the pallet.  The last pallet will go in the middle, to create two “bins” for the compost. Use the last post to secure the front of that pallet.   The result will be two bins for compost, each roughly the width and height of a standard wooden pallet.

3. Making Compost For Your Garden By Benedict T. Palen, Jr. Basically, you can put pretty much any organic material in the bins.  That includes such things as egg shells, leaves, plant residue, trimmings for vegetables, and so forth.   It is best not to put woody materials, such as branches, into the compost bins as they will not easily decompose.   We put the materials into the bins in layers, and then every three weeks or so during the year when temperatures stay above freezing, we take a hose, and allow water to seep very slowly into each bin of compost, usually for about 2-3 hours at a time. The water aids in the creation of the compost. You can also buy a tool that allows one to aerate the compost. It is inserted into the bins several times during the year, turned, and then pulled out.  We do that about every six weeks.

4. Making Compost For Your Garden By Benedict T. Palen, Jr. We find that the best compost usually take 9-12 months to make.   The cycle starts in the fall, when we fill the bins with leaves and other plant debris after our garden is finished.  Over the course of the next 9 or so months, we add other organic materials, and water and aerate as noted. Then, in the following fall, we remove the compost, and spread it around our flower and vegetable beds, and incorporate it into the soil.  By the following spring, the soils are healthy, as evidenced by the number of earthworms, and ready for planting. The cycle then repeats itself. Once you get into a rhythm, you will find that it is easy to make compost, and that you are doing your small parts to create a more sustainable planet.

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