Composting 101
By Zelpha A Boyd
Composting, or saving all organic waste is very doable, even in the City. I like to think of saving every bit of garden refuse and kitchen scraps, for the compost bin, the same as saving pennies in a piggy bank. We wouldn’t think of throwing away a penny, so why discard those valuable organic bits?
Why is this necessary, you ask. Is it worth the trouble? Composting is a way of returning to the soil what was taken from it; replenishing nutrients the plants have used.
With today’s emphasis on the environment, creating green spaces and conserving our resources, it just makes good sense to recycle, reusing all we can. Those kitchen and garden scraps will serve a much better purpose back in the soil, than sending them to the land fill.
Composting or decay, takes place all around us. Take a look at Mother Nature; she drops all her leaves, spent flowers, old grass and excess baggage everywhere. Take a walk through the forest, those decaying layers are providing for the growth of plants and trees for next season. And the very act of decay feeds jillions of microscopic creatures, animals, enzymes, worms and insects.
So how do we do this? How do we have a composting area in our small gardens? Look around and there’s bound to be an out of the way corner. The bin can be as simple as a wastebasket with the bottom cut out, or a piece of hardware cloth shaped into a cylinder.
What to put into this newly established “bin”? All sorts of organic matter; vegetable peelings, excess leaves from lettuce or cabbage, citrus peels and coffee grounds are all recyclable. (No grease or meat products.) From the garden the list is endless; blossoms, stems, weeds, trimmings of leaves, etc.
Grass clippings are perhaps the most abundant. They make wonderful mulch tucked in around plants, providing shade for the soil, and conserving moisture. When I had a lawn, I simply allowed the clippings to fall back into the grass. Either way, use them to your advantage—the land fill doesn’t need them!
In about a year all that material will be soil that can be put back into the garden. Even in the smallest of gardens, there’s a place for saving, and using all those pennies of organic matter.
Are there further questions? Please give me a call: 219-3534, or come by and see what I’m doing.