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Build a Compost Pile
A Compost Pile will aid easy composting of your garden and household
waste. A Compost Pile is a collection of various organic materials that
serves as a habitat for a variety of friendly microorganisms. A Compost
Pile is natural composting at the most basic level. However, it is very
effective in turning large amounts of garbage into nutrient-rich compost.
Compost piles can either be unconstrained heaps or can be contained by
a compost bin.
Step-by-Step Guide:
1. Select an appropriate site in your garden.
2. Begin a very elementary compost heap by just piling up leaves and
grass clippings. This pile will decompose naturally in six months.
3. The pile should be a minimum of three feet wide and deep. This allows
critical mass to heat up the center.
4. Aim for a right balance of browns or carbon material and greens or
nitrogen material. Try for a balance of one part green to two parts brown.
5. Layer your pile. Add 4 inches of leaves, then 1 inch of your garden
soil. Next add 2 inches of green, then brown, then green in alternate
layers.
6. Dampen the pile with water; it should be as wet as a wrung-out sponge.
7. Turn with a fork one week after building your pile. Continuously add
kitchen waste.
8. Keep turning the pile on a weekly basis for quicker composting. Turning
it often also aerates the center.
9. Dig out brown crumbly compost from the bottom of the pile. Leave partially
composted matter; it will shrink as it turns into compost.
The ultimate goal should be to make a uniform pile. It is best if everything
is dried up and completely dead before it is put in the compost pile.
Cold and Hot:
A Compost Pile can either be cold or Hot. Cold Composting involves throwing
an assemblage of dead material in an unwieldy pile and letting it rot
at its own pace. With cold composting you spend as much or as little
time, energy and money on your compost pile as you desire, where as a
hot compost pile demands constant management. This is controlled rotting
where you maximize the potential of your pile and acquire finished compost
at a faster rate.
Compost Tumblers
Using compost greatly improves your garden. One way of composting is by using compost tumblers. Compost tumblers are drum like devises in which organic material is stored and turned from time to time. The reason for turning compost is to aerate it....
Compost Systems
Compost making is an art, so is choosing the best system of making it. Good Compost systems keep compost confined so that they receive proper air and required temperature turning compost into a fertilizer.
Methods of composting
There are...
Compost Quilt
The term Compost Quilt refers to early frontier experience of American pioneers who colonized the United States of America. The quilt was a symbol of their hardscrabble existence, for it was composed of leftover cloth scraps. Food was also hard won...
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