Home Composting: Go Green in your Garden

Are you ready to go green in your garden?  If you’ve been buying ready-made organic compost, it’s not too late to learn how to make your own nutrient-rich soil. Not only is it inexpensive, but when you feed your soil properly you’ll see all your plants truly blossom before your eyes!

Home composting is nature’s recycling service, allowing households to recycle a substantial amount of their waste – including vegetable peelings, fruit waste, tea bags, grass cuttings, cut flowers, paper kitchen towels, egg shells and cereal boxes – without it ever leaving your home.  Start with the following 4 steps to begin your home composting journey today:

Step 1: Start with a container

Nothing fancy here. Use a compost bin or wooden crate to make sure that your ingredients will hold together and that your pile will retain moisture and heat.

Step 2: Use a mix of brown and green products

Composting is rather low-maintenance. Make sure that your pile has a combination of brown and green plant matter, and enough moisture to keep the good bacteria happy. Newspaper, wood chips, and dry leaves make for excellent brown add-ins while kitchen waste and grass are great green additions.

Step 3: Activate your compost

Taking care of a compost pile is very basic, but requires a little effort on your end. Feeding and watering your compost every week or two by adding material and regular moisture is a great way to provide your garden compost the happy bacteria to consume and keep the process warm.

Step 4: Don’t forget to turn!

Turn your compost with a pitchfork to make sure that all of the elements are working together. After you’ve mixed your pile, check that it’s slightly damp. Too little moisture will slow the decomposition process. Too much will result in a slimy mess.

In a few months, your compost should be dark, crumbly and smell like fresh earth. Want to learn more about what to compost in your garden? Earth Easy provide excellent content with tips on what to add to your pile for the best results.  Happy go green gardening!