Organic Compost Gardeners Gold

Organic compost does more than feed your plants,
it feeds and improves your garden soil.

Growing nutrient rich soil is the foundation of organic gardening. Using chemical fertilizer will feed your plants while depleting your soil, your plants will be less nutritious, and less resistant to pests and your garden will need more chemicals every year. You will be destroying your soil and creating a vicious cycle that only benefits the chemical companies and agribusiness giants, giving them a short term gain and giving us all a long term loss.

Composting is a natural process that takes place in all natural environments all the time. It is the process where leaves and other plant materials fall to the ground and are slowly decomposed by soil organisms. The leaves, grasses, branches and even huge trees all go back into the earth to nurture and fertilize the trees, forests and grasslands they come from. Composting instructions for making a hot compost pile.

Composting can be fun, but this isn't what I meant by flipping your pile.

Try composting for kids they will have a great time helping you with your garden alchemy making kitchen scraps into "gardeners Gold".

Organic compost can be made using free standing piles, bins or tumblers.
Some methods are as simple as piling up a mixture of garden refuse, kitchen waste, grasses and weeds and letting them just sit and decompose for a year or so.
Other methods are as complex as using weighed mixes of carbon and nitrogen (C/N) materials and turning the piles every week or two to keep them hot and decomposing quickly.
Some people let earthworms also known as composting worms do the turning which is a very easy and good alternative. Earthworms create earthworm castings which is some of the best compost you can get! I say keep it simple and don’t worry, have fun, it’s a natural process and does not have to be too exact. Here are a few underlying principals of compost making.

All compost piles need: Moisture, air and a mixture of carbon “brown” and nitrogen “green” materials. Piles and bins should be square or round and between 3-6 feet at the base and 3-5 feet tall. This allows for a good break down of materials and ease of turning.
You can use free standing piles, bins or compost tumblers. Tumblers work especially good for kitchen waste and smaller amounts of your raw materials. Check out these great composters for sale here . If you would like to build a compost bin here are some free and simple plans for homemade compost bins.

Compost is the key to good garden soil. Most soil needs some improvement and or maintenance. Whether your soil is nutrient rich clay and compacted or easy to work and well drained but needing organic matter and nutrients, compost is the key. Our quick guide to organic compost will give you a good start and for more information on all kinds of composting check out my Organic Garden ebook.

Check out these hand garden tools and organic garden supplies to make creating your compost piles easy and fun.