Learn How to Create Compost for Your Garden

Starting Your Garden with Healthy Soil

Creating your very own backyard vegetable garden is an exciting process, and there's a lot to learn including how to compost if you want to add some good nutrients to your garden. Composting is a great thing to implement when you are doing organic vegetable gardening. Starting a garden can be a daunting task, especially when you are just a beginner and don't have a clue where to start out. Like building a structure requires a good foundation, creating a healthy vegetable garden starts with good soil. To have the healthiest produce from your garden, you will need healthy soil that is rich in nutrients that contribute to your vegetable growth. Soil needs to have a balanced pH, just like our own bodies, in order for healthy vegetables to grow. Soil that is too acidic doesn't contain the proper nutrients for plants to grow, so it needs some more nutrients in it to balance it out.

What to Include in Your Compost

When you are starting a garden, it helps to get some compost or manure into your garden bed to enrich the soil. Compost is made from the kitchen scraps of all organic materials from your daily kitchen routine. So all things that are plant matter can go into the compost bin which is where the compost is stored. You can add in banana peels and other fruit peels, vegetable scraps, eggshells and even coffee grounds. Some paper products are able to go in the compost bin, but you might want to make sure that they aren't bleached paper products. Meat, however, cannot go into the compost bin. Meat products are far too acidic to go into the compost, and they take longer to decompose. You also don't want to throw plastic, styrofoam or any other non-organic items.

Keeping Your Compost Organic

If you want your compost to be 100% organic, it's best to try and keep everything you add to your compost bin organic. So only add organic food that hasn't had any chemicals added to it. You should also keep weeds or other invasive species out of the compost bin as these could quickly take over your vegetable garden making it hard for your vegetables to grow. The compost is created by the decomposition of the materials that are thrown in there. Heat assists this process and before you know it all of the materials have broken down into a soil-like material. It is really amazing when you try it out and see it for yourself. Usually, it takes six to twelve months to have a substantial amount of compost that can be used.

Balancing Your Compost Materials

You also want to make sure that you have a balance of wet and dry material in your compost so if you notice the compost getting too moist add some dry leaves or some mulch to it. You can build your very own compost bin out of wood; there are lots of DIY tutorials on how to build a compost bin out of recycled wooden pallets. This makes it an easy and affordable project. Just build your bin and start adding in your kitchen scraps and watch the magic start happening. You can also buy the plastic type of material compost bins, and even bins on a stand that turn which makes it easier for you to turn your compost. Turning your compost is something that needs to be done weekly to keep it aerated. For the wooden bins, all you would have to do is just simply take a large garden shovel and stir it up every week or two. Once all of the organic matter has broken down, and you have your compost ready to go you can spread it out over your garden plot and work it into the soil. Leave the soil for a few days to assimilate before you plant anything. In time, you will grow some of the healthiest, most beautiful plants ever.