If you love gardening, making your own compost is also a good option to make your own organic fertilizer and helping you produce healthy foods from your garden, being chemical free. It will also help you save some cash by not anymore buying commercial fertilizers, and also helps you recycle garden as well as kitchen waste. Fertilizer from compost also restores the health of your garden soil that will allow you to plant any type of vegetables.
Composting is basically making a pile of mostly garden waste, kitchen waste, animal manure moistened with water to allow it to rot. Making your own compost is actually easy and it involves no cost at all except just for your time and labor. You don't even need to purchase your compost bin - you can make one from the materials you have at home that you don't need anymore such as your old wood slats from your fence or you can make a compost bin out of mesh wire. You can even make a compost pit if you have a little space in your backyard or garden.
To start making your own compost, it is important to know the materials that you have to pile up into your compost heap. It is essential that you have a good proportion of the materials in your compost to make it successful.
The two main groups of waste that can go into your compost heap are those waste that are rich in nitrogen, or those called 'greens' and those waste materials that are rich in carbon or the 'browns'. Good examples of the 'greens' are garden waste, from grass clippings, to vegetable waste, shrub cuttings, leaves and kitchen wastes such as vegetable peels and fruit waste. It also includes manure from farm animals as well as poultry.
Materials that can go into your compost heap that are rich in Carbon are cardboards and paper, sawdust and wood shavings, as well as straw. Aside fro the greens and the browns, water is also essential in making your compost.
When you have collected enough materials to go to your compost, you can now start making your own compost.
1. Chop or shred some of the materials you got that are too big for your compost bin.
2. Mix your waste materials together. Having more or less the same amount of 'greens' and 'browns' in the bin can help you achieve better results. You may want to mix the soft materials with the hard ones and make a balance of the greens and the browns as you pile them up. Add animal manure as you go.
3. Add water to moisten your compost. Make sure that you are just making it moist and not wet. You can also do this by moistening the materials as you add them to the compost.
4. Cover your compost bin to keep it moist, although you can also leave it open.
5. Check your compost in a week. You will notice that the pile gives off heat. Using a shovel, you can then turn the heap until the materials are all mixed up again. Add water if the pile is too dry or add more materials if it is watery.
You can repeat mixing the pile again the next week until there will be lesser heat given off. You can then leave the compost for nature to do its work. After the composting is done at about one or two months' time, you will then have a dark colored compost for your plants and vegetables.
Start with these easy steps in making your own compost and enjoy the benefits of good soil for a long time.
Author Resource:-
Carolyn Anderson is a freelance author and a gardening enthusiast. If you love gardening, check out this guide in making the http://www.dp-db.com/worlds-best-compost. Also check out http://www.dp-db.com/orchid-care-expert, where you can find effective tips in growing Orchids. hostgator promo code
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