Composting For Beginners: Why You Should And How To Do It!

Here is your introduction to composting for beginners. Having a compost pile of some sort is definitely a must in an organic garden and a definit benefit in any garden.

Why is that?

When you throw away plant residues and weeds into the garbage can, you also throw away nutrients and organic matter. If you keep on doing this you will slowly bereave your soil of these important components. Instead you should put all the plant material into the comost pile, and thus recycle nutrients and organic matter in order to enrich your garden.

What biodegradable waste can I put in the compost?

All plant parts or residues go into the simple compost pile, but if they are contaminated with some plant disease or other, burn them or throw them in the garbage. Stems and branches should be cut to pieces, preferably in a compost mill, otherwise they will need years to degrade.

I don’t know if I should choose a container or just set up a pile?

If your garden is somewhat spacious you can put a compost pile in a hidden and shady part of it. In order to add oxygen to the mix you need to turn it over every now and then. Even if this is a really simple way to start composting it looks a bit slatternly.

A more neat way of composting is to buy a bin with two, or perhaps more, separate sections. When the first section is filled up with composting material you can leave it to decompose, and meanwhile fill the second.

Speedy composting

Adding food scraps to your compost will enrich it with nitrogen. To be able to do that you need a closed compost bin, and preferably one that can be rotated each time you add new material. The purpose of rotating the bin is that the material will get well aired and mixed, making your compost degrade really fast and be ready to use in few weeks.

Perhaps the best way is to combine a closed compost bin with an open pile where you can put the most voluminous waste. Then you can really take advantage of all your biodegradable residues and waste.