Composting is the biological reduction of organic wastes to humus: a rich humus with a slightly sweet, earthy aroma.
Converting kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps, tea bags and coffee grounds into compost not only eliminates unnecessary garbage collection, but will help to improve your garden soil so that plants will be strong and healthy. If you don't have a compost bin or heap, dig a hole in the garden, fill it with kitchen scraps, sprinkle a cup of dolomite over it, lightly water and cover with soil.
After a couple of weeks or so earthworms will have the soil workable, giving you high-quality humus. Underground composting also works well when establishing new garden areas. Just mark each spot as you dispose of your scraps so that you don't dig there again. Once the designated area has been entirely composted, you can then establish your new garden.
To compost larger quantities of refuge, you will need to build a compost heap. Clear a patch of ground in an out-of-the way area of your garden, removing grass and levelling if necessary. Compost should always be built on level soil and never on concrete. Scatter a few bricks placed edge-down within the cleared area to allow air to circulate into the heap.
Put down your first layer of material – grass clippings, garden wastes, kitchen scraps, and so on in the middle. Next, dust over a layer of fowl or cow manure, dolomite or blood and bone to a depth of one centimetre over the material to be composted. Sprinkle with water, repeating this procedure until your pile is built. After a week, turn the pile over with a fork to speed up decomposition.
A compost pile about one metre in height should be broken down into humus after two months in summer, but longer in winter. Add compost to garden soil in spring and autumn at the rate of one kilogram per square metre, or a five-centimetre covering over the garden bed. Compost can also be used for container plants, raising seedlings and mulching around growing plants.
For those of you who end up with a seemingly endless number of tin cans to dispose of, they too can be composted. Simply crush each can to break the 'tinning' and place them in a shallow hole, then cover with a 15 to 20-centimetre layer of dirt. Keep building up alternate layers until approximately 30 to 45 centimetres above ground level, finishing off with a good thick layer of mulch over the whole of the mound. After about 12 months the tin cans will have completely decomposed, leaving friable compost.
Composting is easy and simple to do, and improves the health of our gardens.
