A Basic Guide to Composting

If you're a sustainable gardener who cares about the environment, you know that the composting process is an important part of the life cycle. This concept is all about giving back to the land what it has given you. It is  about recycling, and the cycle that living things go through in order to grow.

It is an interesting cycle. If you just take a moment to take a deeper look into a pile of decaying things, you will see that some things that are slowly becoming part of the land. And you also see some beneficial results of the process.

Composting materials. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That's life, especially for those practicing holistic living. If you are in touch with nature, you will see such cycles as miracles, and something to be joyful about.

As you will come to realize, compost is so much more than just a using fertilizer on soil. This process is actually practiced by many farmers in all parts of the world. But ordinary gardeners or people who love nature and are passionate about protecting it can also easily benefit from this.

The organic residue that you collect when you gather different materials from the land and garden is converted into something black, somewhat fragrant, and crumbly (decomposing) - aka compost. The idea here is to arrange the materials so that the soil bacteria and fungi can survive and also multiply as the materials break down. The bacteria act as the converters of all raw materials so that they must be in a workable environment with proper moisture, food and air.

If you haven't made one yet, but are interested in starting a compost, you can begin by gathering both green and dry elements that you can see around your garden. You must think what you can feed the bacteria for it to thrive. Great examples include grass clippings, green weeds (before they flower), as well as the vines of pea and leaves and roots of old lettuce and other plants. What do they have in common? They contain sugar elements as well as proteins and they all can decompose fast.

Face cut of compost pile showing decomposition stages, 3 weeks bottom to top. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dry leaves and other small twigs must be mixed with the greens when decomposing. These materials take a lot of time in order to decompose because they contain little nitrogen. That is why they need to be combined with green materials in the process.

You can also build a rich compost pile by adding manure and garden soil between every layer of your gathered waste material.

You need not be a pro to be able to come up with your own version of this. Most things will compost well given the right conditions. What you have to remember is that you are doing the environment (and your garden) a great favor by being involved in such a process.

Practice makes perfect. This is also true with the idea of composting. Through time, you will be able to develop your own techniques, and your garden will thrive in the rich, nutritious environment you create through adding compost back to the soil.