Page 16 - Organic Gardening 3 Part Series

Making Your Own Compost

It's easy to make your own organic fertilizer by using your yard and kitchen waste.
It's an excellent source of organic matter and nutrients. It also contains many
beneficial organisms that help suppress plant pathogens in your soil.

Making Fast, Hot Compost

1. Start saving all the organic waste you normally throw away. This includes

grass clippings, leaves, kitchen scraps, rotted straw, and other organic
wastes. Decomposition will occur more quickly if the materials are already
shredded. You can shred the waste using a lawn mower or a leaf-shredding
machine.
2. NOTE: Do not add oils, meat scraps, or bones to your pile because these
items will attract scavengers and slow down the composting process. Never

add human and animal feces to prevent diseases, and avoid anything which
contains pesticides or other harmful chemicals. The goal is to make your
own safe, organic fertilizer.
3. You can purchase or make small bins to hold your ingredients. Chicken wire
works well for the purpose of aeration, and you can easily put together a
bin which is 3 ft. in diameter.
4. You'll need enough material to fill a pile, roughly 3 ft. on each side, smaller
piles just won't heat up as well. Build up the layers by alternating brown
woody materials like straw and newspaper with layers of nitrogen-rich

fresh grass, kitchen scraps, and manure. Several shovels worth of soil will
add organisms which will start decomposing the material.
5. Use a watering can or spray lightly with a hose to keep the material moist,
cover with a tarp to help maintain the right balance of moisture.
6. The simplest way to feed oxygen to the hungry organisms which are
feeding on your garbage is to aerate the pile by turning it every day or two

You can use a garden fork to move the material.