Composting ~ produce nutrient-rich fertilizer for your home garden
Turn all of your leaves, grass clippings, garden debris and kitchen waste into nutrient-rich compost that your home garden will love! We are all familiar with the deep, rich smell of the soil in a forest. In this soil, you will find layers which have been deposited on the ground over many years, in various stages of decomposition.
Decomposed organic matter from plants and animals is compost. The original organic matter is no longer identifiable and you have the rich, black, soil-like substance referred to as humus.
Benefits of Composting
Composting your organic wastes from your home not only keeps them out of your local landfill, but when applied back into your lawn or garden, it improves the health of your soil. Nutrients were stored in the decaying organic matter, and compost retains these nutrients in a form that is easily absorbed by plant roots.
Composting is a Natural Process
Home composters use nature's process to reduce yard trimmings and organic matter to compost. After a plant or animal dies, bacteria goes to work to decompose the remains. Bacteria initiates the decomposition of organic matter. Various types of bacteria thrive in environments with specific conditions. In order to speed the composting process, the environment in the compost pile or in a home composter is adjusted to attract bacteria which will decompose the pile with greatest speed.
What to Compost:
- Kitchen Waste: ie.,fruit and vegetable peels, tea bags, coffee grounds, eggshells
- Grass Clippings: add in light layers
- Hay: well-moistened
- Straw: well-moistened
- Weeds and Garden Clippings: avoid weeds that have gone to seed
- Leaves: add in light layers
- Wood Chips and Sawdust: NOT from chemically-treated wood
- Manure: horse, cow, sheep and poultry
What NOT to Compost:
- Chemically-treated Wood Products
- Human Wastes
- Meat, Bones and Fatty Food Wastes
- Pet Wastes
- Pernicious Weeds
- Diseased Plants
