Composting: An Organic Gardeners Best Friend

Composting: An Organic Gardener’s Best Friend

Organic in nature, compost is one of the best substances any gardener can use to help plants grow strong and healthy without exposing them (and the people who eat the food and handle the flowers plants grow) to chemicals present in most fertilizers and pesticides.

The concept behind organic garden is simply this: For uncounted millennia before humans began to intervene in the process, the earth has known how to take care of itself. What is planted grows, matures, then dies and is returned to the earth through the natural process of decomposition. This organically decomposed matter ? compost - is rich in soil-enhancing nutrients that bolster the strength and health of future plant generations.

Compost is the end product of a complex feeding pattern of hundreds of including bacteria, fungi, worms, and insects.
What remains after these organisms break down organic materials is the nourishing, wholesome substance that your garden plants will love.

Two more great features of compost are that is easy and cheap to make and recycles material that would otherwise decompose in landfills where it would do no real good. Shockingly, nearly a third of the matter found in landfills is organic material that could have been composted and returned to the land in a more positive fashion by using the compost to increase the health of garden soil and encourage the growth of stronger, less disease-prone plants.

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You can start composting by building a small pile of leaves and other lawn detritus, and adding to it coffee grounds, tea leaves, orange peels, eggshells and other garbage that will decompose. As it matures this organic matter will decompose, and become compost that can provide nourishment for the microorganisms necessary to maintain garden soil in a healthy, balanced condition. These microorganisms, in their turn, will produce nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus necessary for soil and plant health.

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Almost any organic material is suitable for a compost pile, though you do need to balance the carbon-rich materials such as dried leaves, straw and wood chips, also known as ?browns,? with the nitrogen- rich materials like lawn clippings and kitchen scraps also known as “greens.”

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Garden Tip...

There are a great variety of opinions as regards the most effective way of planting flower-beds. Some prefer to mix plants of different colors and varieties, others prefer the ribbon-style of planting, now so generally in use in Europe. If the promiscuous style is adopted, care should be taken to dispose the plants in the beds, so that the tallest will be at the back of the bed; if the leader is against a wall or background of shrubbery, the others should graduate to the front, according to the hight. In open beds, on the lawn, the tallest plants should be in the centre, the others grading down to the front, on all sides, interspersing the colors so as to form the most effective contrast in shades.
~ James Vick
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The carbon provides energy for the microbes, and the nitrogen provides protein; using too much carbon material will cause the materials in your compost to take longer to break down, while too much nitrogen will make the pile smelly. Many gardening experts consider the best ratio between these two to be 25 parts ?browns? to every one part of ?greens.? (Tip: If you can grind up yard waste prior to putting in your compost heap, it will disintegrate more quickly.)

One word of caution: Some leaves and branches contain natural toxins and should not be included in your composting process.

All parts of black walnut trees should be excluded, as should leaves from eucalyptus trees, poison ivy, poison oak and sumac.

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Garden Tip...

It is a mistake to crowd too many plants into a basket, if they grow they will soon become root-bound, stunted, and look sickly. If the hanging basket be of the ordinary size, one large and choice plant placed in the centre with a few graceful vines to droop over the edges, will have a better effect when established and growing, than if it were crowded with plants at the time of filling. Hanging baskets being constantly suspended, they are exposed to draughts of air from all sides, and the soil is soon dried out, hence careful watching is necessary in order to prevent the contents from becoming too dry. If the moss appears to be dry, take the basket down and dip it once or twice in a pail of water, this is better than sprinkling from a watering-pot. In filling hanging baskets, or vases of any kind, we invariably cover the surface of the soil with the same green moss used for lining, which, while it adds materially to the pleasing appearance of the whole, at the same time prevents the soil from drying out or becoming baked on the surface.
~ James Sheehan
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