Rich, nutritious compost feeds hungry plants
Last week we learned that mulch is a layer of material, preferably organic, placed on the soil surface to retain moisture, protect the soil, and in winter, to protect plants from freezing.
Compost — which can, indeed, be used like mulch — is however, soil/plant nutrition. When you create a garden, you concentrate lots of hungry plants into a small plot. Nature’s life cycle, which feeds plants with decomposed organic matter, can’t keep up and the nutrient demands are too high.
You can compensate by making and using compost — a concentration of decomposed organic matter and create the perfect food for your garden, plus providing humus to improve soil texture and help neutralize soil pH.
Compost should be comprised of “greens” and “browns.” Create a compost pile of greens — wet grass clippings, rotten tomatoes, last night’s leftover salad (NEVER meat, fish or bones), and browns — dry leaves, straw, feathers, hair, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds, tea leaves, tobacco (but NOT cigarette filters), chopped stems and cornstalks, shredded newspaper, and even soil and soil/grass clumps from digging/tilling. Farm animal manure (chicken, cow, horse, rabbit) is OK, but not domestic pet feces — (cat, dog, parrots — can carry disease), and all additions should be forked in to layers and mix all ingredients well.
“Activating” ingredients will speed up decomposition; these include fresh compost like lettuce or cabbage leaves, potato peels, weeds, fresh grass clippings, manure, and even alfalfa meal and blood meal.
Turn in to the existing compost, remembering never to use items that have been sprayed with herbicides or pesticides, and in just a few days, beetles, worms and bacteria will have begun the work of turning your compost into “black gold.”
Once you have usable compost, shovel some of it from time to time to the adjoining bin to use first. You’ll find that after time, the “first use” bin will be unrecognizable as “compost” and look like beautiful purchased potting soil.
To use it in the garden, simply pull the mulch (if any) or soil away from areas you wish to “feed” and apply the compost. Then rake the soil/mulch back in place.
This, by the way, brings about another possibility, that of trench composting, a quick and easy concept. Simply dig (carefully) a shallow trench directly in the garden along or around a row of veggies or individual clumps of ornamentals, and bury compost ingredients directly into it. Cover, and voila! — nutrients are released at root level so plants get quick benefits and the buried wastes provide a feast for earthworms and soil microbes.
The market abounds with compost containers from the little covered kitchen pails for leftovers to outside barrels you can turn to mix the contents.
However, simple heaps on the ground will do. Some containment is preferred, though, to keep unwanted scavengers out of the pile. I made mine by myself, years ago.
The epitome of both humbleness and efficiency, it’s comprised of seven upright pallets: two at the back, one at each side, one through the middle to separate old and new compost, and two at the front, all roped together for stability with the two front ones serving as “doors” that open for filling and/or removing compost.
I left bare ground underneath, and over the years that bottom soil has become so rich I dig some of it out from time to time to pot up special plants. If your pile is open to the rain, good; if not, water it well frequently.
The day will come when you’ll walk to the compost pile, spade it over, and be rewarded with soil that crumbles apart — rich and humus-y, dark-looking and sweet-smelling — food for your garden and satisfaction for your soul (and a blessing for your wallet) — free, elegant fertilizer for your gardens for the next growing season. Well done!
(Editor’s note: For many years, Valle Novak has written gardening and cooking columns for the Daily Bee. “Weekend Gardener” and “Country Chef” became renowned for their humor, information and common sense advice on how to do everything from planting to cooking. While she recently retired, she has shared a number of columns to delight her many fans. This is one such column, originally published on July 29, 2007.)
