If you want to create fertilizers for your gardens and lawns, organic materials such as vegetables food waste, grass clippings and even your kitchen waste can be composted as fertilizers. There are several techniques for composting that are appropriate for gardens and lawns. It is important to choose the best method that will suit your lifestyle and gardening goals. Here are some of the methods that you can apply when making compost.
- A holding bin can be used as the place for your composting process if you lack of space. These bins can hold kitchen and yard waste, some for compact enough to fit in a small balcony, which is suitable for people who live in apartment. By using a holding unit, you don’t have to turn the pile, which will lessen the amount of time that you will need to spend for the pile. Instead, the amount of time for the composting process to be completed will be lengthened. For a holding unit, it can take until two years for compost pile to be completed.
- The best way to utilize the kitchen scraps are by using pit composting. This method consists of digging a 1 foot deep hole and burying compostable foods scraps that has been chopped into the hole. The waste will be covered by soil, which is about 8 inches. Within one month, the waste will be decomposed up until one year depending on the microorganisms present in the soil and the soil temperature.
- Vertical composting, which is another English system, is a more advanced method of pit composting. This method needs a garden space to be divided into three rows with each 3 feet wide. The sections will be rotated for composting usage and crop planting for a three-year period.
- If you want to prepare a compost pile within three months, the suitable technique is hot pile technique. The main thing about this method is to create a 3 to 1 ratio of carbon materials to nitrogen materials. The ratio will make the materials to compost quickly, and adding leaves to your hot pile is great as they were plentiful in fall season. For weekly basis, you can add chopped vegetable and fruit scraps. Water the pile about 40 percent of water once you have gathered the materials and turn the pile every week to keep the air in and out.
- To start the heap composting method, you will need to build a pile about 3 feet tall and 5 feet wide. The heat will be trapped by the width of the heap and will extend the composting process when started in the fall into the winter months. If you are using woody materials on a heap pile, cut them into smaller pieces to make the composting process faster. Avoid adding any food materials to the heap as it will attract rodents and pests.
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