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Practice Recycling In Your Garden---Compost!

By Faith Peppers
Reprinted with permission of the Georgia Extension Service
www.ces.uga.edu

Autumn leaves are beautiful on the trees. Now they're just brown masses in your lawn and other places you don't want them.

Learn More About Composting with a Cool Online Slide Show!

"Don't fret and don't burn," Wayne McLaurin, a University of Georgia extension horticulturist. "Just build a compost pile and recycle these leaves into valuable organic matter."

When you're helping clean up the garden, yard or flowerbeds, too, don't forget that almost all of that can be added to the compost pile. It's easier and cheaper to compost those materials than to have the garbage or recycling truck pick them up.

As a soil amendment, compost improves both the physical condition and fertility of the soil. It's especially useful for improving soils that don't have much organic matter. Although some nutrients come from compost, its main benefit is improving soil characteristics.

Here are some simple composting rules:

bulletThe best way to get new compost to break down is to add old compost.
bulletUse almost any organic material like leaves, grass clippings, hay, straw, some weeds, chopped corn cobs, corn stalks or even lint from your clothes dryer. Use kitchen scraps, too, except for animal fat and bones. Avoid weeds and grass with seed heads, too.
bulletGood kitchen scraps for the compost pile include coffee and tea grounds, peelings of vegetables and fruits, canning by-products such as tomato peels and cores, eggshells and corn husks. These kitchen scraps and others are completely degradable in the compost pile within 4-6 weeks.
bulletMaking compost depends on heat from the sun and the Earth to break down into dirt. So, don't make the compost pile smaller than 3 feet wide by 3 feet high. That's too small to heat up and decompose the material properly. It is best not to go more than 5 feet by 5 feet by 5 feet deep, either.
bulletThe sides of the compost bin should allow free air movement into the material. The best siding material is probably 2-inch by 4-inch fencing 3 feet high. If you don't want to use anything, just pile up the material. It will still work.
bulletYou don't have to build the pile all at once. Begin by spreading an 8-inch to 12-inch layer of organic material. On top of this, spread one cup of complete garden fertilizer or a couple of shovelfuls of manure. You can also add a light layer of soil. Continue to alternate these layers, watering each thoroughly. Keep the pile moist but not soggy.
bulletYou will speed the decomposition if you turn the pile every few weeks to stir it up. If you don't choose to turn or can't do it, don't worry. The decomposition will just be slower.
bulletCompost is ready to use when it turns dark and becomes crumbly. Finished compost will have lost much of its original identity and will have an earthy smell. Normally, it takes five to eight months to finish compost, depending on the material used and the heat and moisture available during the composting.

When the compost is ready, apply it to garden soil at about 4 bushels per 100 square feet.

New words this week:

  1. Compost - fertilizing material made mostly of decayed organic material.
  2. Organic material - anything from nature that is biodegradable, or will break down to form soil.
  3. Soil amendment - something you add to the soil to make it healthier for plants.
  4. Soil fertility - how nutritious it the soil is for plants.