COMPOSTING IS KEY TO BUILDING SUSTAINABLE GARDENS
It is a crime to place our vegetable wastes into the garbage cans for incinerating along with the rest of our trash. By doing so we are going against Nature. Everything from the earth needs to go back into the earth. Organic matter is what fuels the strength of our soils. Organic matter feeds the microbial activity that takes place in our soils and develops a food web that makes our property self sustaining. We can aid in this process by composting and adding finished compost to our soils.
There are many compost structures that can be built and many composters that can be bought. It is easy for us to set up a compost pile somewhere on our property. There are many composting options and I would like to introduce you to a few. If you view my promotional video Krautter’s Year Round Organic Vegetable Garden you will see how we built 5 compost bins to add to the back of the structure that I invented to grow vegetables off the grid all year round. This compost structure produces 180 cu. ft. of compost a year valued at 3.600 dollars if bought by the bag at 20 dollars a cu. ft.
It is a simple design built out of wood and chicken wire. Composting can also be done very inexpensively in small containers set up almost any place on your property. A simple but effective method is to use a 3’ high wire fence cut to 10’ lengths. Attaching a 10’ length in a circle creates a 3’ wide circle. This creates an ideal container allowing good air circulation into your pile. Place these simply made compost bins where they are hidden, possibly among your shrubbery where your soil will benefit from refurbishing. Fill them constantly with material as it becomes available. You want to build all your compost piles by adding narrow layers of small shredded material of 2/3 carbon materials and 1/3 nitrogen materials.
Follow the directions in my chapter on composting in my book ’12 Steps To Natural Gardening’. Once you understand how to build a compost pile, composting is easy. When you have filled a container, you can leave it there until you have developed rich mature compost. When your wire container is full, you can then add another similar container on another piece of your property. When you have developed rich compost, pull the wire mesh off and spread your compost.
Composting is a very cost effective way to build up your soils. This process will develop a great food web which will develop sustainable gardens. Your larger composting containers will usually be finished on a one year-cycle. When collecting vegetable scraps, I recommend a small 2-3 gallon plastic container with a lid that you place next to your garbage can under your sink. You can also add coffee grinds and hair to your nitrogen materials. When it is full, add to your compost pile. These are nitrogen products and if you are adding 2 gallons to the pile you will need to add 6 gallons of carbon at the same time. There are lots of carbon products available including leaves, wood chips, branches, straw and saw dust. When building the piles I like to add wood chips as the first ingredient to improve air circulation at the base and insure good drainage. Add Bio-tone accelerators to speed up the process. You may think this is complicated but once you set yourself up, you will be amazed how easy it is. Once you start adding compost to your property you will be amazed at the results.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO
Towards the end of the video you will see the compost bins we built. If you need directions on exactly how to build them purchase my $19.95 package which includes my book, my calendar, my 32 minute construction video and my construction pamphlet listing all the material needed to build them. Refer to the section Building the Compost Bins. All of this information is at the end of the video or on my website Naturalgardennews.com. There are literally hundreds of composters and compost container options. These are two that I have found simple and easy to work with.
When you have produced mature compost, you can make your own compost tea. Compost tea added to your garden 3 times a year can do wonders for your plants. I recommend that you apply compost tea in the spring, mid summer and fall. Apply ten gallons of concentrated compost per 40,000 sq. ft. You can dilute your concentrate in order to get proper distribution. Apply in the evening and use chlorine free water. You can create chlorine free water by bubbling water with an inexpensive aquarium air pump for 24 hours.
The advantages+ of adding compost tea to your property are extraordinary. Compost tea has the ability to produce huge amounts of microbes in a very short time. An example is bacterial populations grow from I billion in a teaspoon of compost to 4 billion in a teaspoon of actively aerated compost tea. These teas are made by brewing a finished compost product in chlorine free water by bubbling oxygen into the mixture for 24 to 36 hours. The end product will add huge amounts of microbial life to your soils. This is what builds up a good food web and leads to sustainable gardens. There is no better way to build up the microbial activity in your soil than by adding compost tea. Microbes in your soil work for you day and night. They break down organic and mineral material in your soil and release nutrients to the roots of your plants. No wonder people rave at the results when applying compost tea to their property. These products could cost you a fortune and are worth it but you can brew your own when you learn to compost. The brewing process is simple. Read my book and refer to page 86.
