Compost Vegetable Gardening
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/garden/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/garden/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/garden/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/garden/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/garden/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Composting according to Dictionary.com states as follows: (a mixture of various decaying organic substances, as dead leaves or manure, used for fertilizing soil).
Compost vegetable gardening is the natural decay of organic matter converting yard trimmings into a product that can then be returned back to your garden. The final result is a rich dark acrobatic soil through the process of decomposition. At this point, bacteria and other organisms feed on the material to break it down with the help of such creatures as earthworms eating the bacteria or decomposed material to create a perfect compost.
Compost vegetable gardening improves the quality of your soil. When added to your garden, the compost breaks up the hard clay type soils, helps sandy soils to retain the water and releases important nutrients that help your vegetables to grow into healthy plants.
Fallen leaves, pine needles, flowers, grass clippings and your remaining garden plants are all organic trimmings you use for your compost. It is not recommended using any trimmings that have been treated with herbicides and pesticides for your vegetable garden. Compost is also made up of kitchen food scraps such as vegetables and fruit pieces, eggshells, tea and coffee grounds and turns them into every nutrient your vegetable garden will ever need. It is not recommended to add any meat by products into your compost.
Compost vegetable gardening contains carbon and nitrogen. The leaves, straw and sawdust are high in carbon and the grass clippings, manure and vegetable scraps are high in nitrogen. This is often referred to as “greens and browns”. Greens as in grass clippings are high in nitrogen and the browns such as the leaves or sawdust are high in carbon.
Composting needs the right amount of greens and browns to break down quicker. If you were to take sawdust alone and expect it to decay, it could take years. But if you were to add greens such as grass clippings or food scraps, it would decay more quickly and produce compost in much less time. You need to just experiment with compost to learn what works and what doesn’t.
Your compost is finished when the original material has broken down into a dark crumbly product. There may be some woody chunks remaining, but can easily be screened out and returned to another pile of compost. It is a good idea to stop adding to your compost pile once it gets to optimal size and let it continue to decompose while starting a new pile.
Adding the compost to your garden is done in different ways. One of the ways is adding about 6 inches the compost to your garden in the fall, watering it good and covering with burlap sacks to hold in the moisture to allow it to continue to decompose until spring. Another great way is by adding your decomposed compost to your garden in the spring and tilling it into your garden soil or you can hand till it gently into the top 6 inches of the soil. Allow it to sit for a few days before planting.
There is no right way or wrong way to learn how to compost. You will gain knowledge to what works best for you by experimenting with the organic matter. You can alter the process to suit your needs to find out what best works in your home situation.
