- Make your own garden compost.gants de jardinage image by Magalice from Fotolia.com
Compost is an essential part of gardening, and keen gardeners can save money and gain satisfaction by making their own compost. As long as you have a suitable place to put the compost, such as a compost bin or compost heap, all you need are the essential ingredients to make the perfect compost. - Gather up plenty of so-called "green" ingredients to put in your compost bin on a regular basis. Green ingredients are rich in nitrogen and rot down relatively quickly, so they are an essential part of compost. Examples of green ingredients include grass cuttings, hedge clippings, peelings from raw fruits and vegetables, used tea bags, tea leaves and coffee grounds. If you happen to have nettles that you've cleared from your garden or comfrey leaves available, then these are excellent sources of extra nitrogen. If you have access to a farm or animals, then you can also add manure from animals that are herbivores, such as cows or horses, plus bedding from poultry.
- Add a selection of brown ingredients to your compost on a regular basis. These items are rich in carbon, but are slower to rot down than the green ingredients. Ideally, you should aim to include two buckets of brown ingredients for every bucket of green ingredients you add. This will ensure you have the right balance of carbon and nitrogen in your compost. Examples of brown compost ingredients include shredded cardboard from egg boxes or cereal packets, shredded paper, broken-up cardboard tubes, such as the innards of toilet rolls or kitchen rolls, newspaper, wood shavings, tough or woody prunings, discarded bedding plants, sawdust and autumn leaves that have fallen from trees. Make sure you chop up any woody items that you add, so that they rot down more easily.
- Consider adding other compostable ingredients into your compost bin in moderation, mixing them in well each time you add them. For example, you could add crushed egg shells, natural fibers such as 100 percent wool or cotton, nail clippings or even hair clippings. Small pieces of egg shell may remain visible in your finished compost, but serve the added purpose of keeping slugs and snails away from tender young plants.
- Enhance your compost by adding in diluted urine. It's not to everyone's taste, but urine diluted 20:1 with water is another ingredient that is rich in nitrogen and can do wonders for the quality of your compost. Add occasionally if you wish, stirring it in well with a long stick or garden spade.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
