If you want the best results from your garden, you should think of making compost for it yourself. With compost, you can create rich humus for the soil, adding nutrients to the plants and retaining soil moisture. It is known as the single most important supplement to your garden and hailed as ‘Black Gold’ owing to its nutrient-rich qualities. Web.com Reviews believes that using compost is a better alternative to chemical fertilizers. Now, let us discuss ways to make compost for your garden.

The Steps

1. Correct balance in compost – Before you start making compost, make a note of the secret to a healthy compost pile. All the materials put in for creating the compost should be either carbon or nitrogen-based and it is essential to maintain a correct working balance of both. Carbon-rich matter includes brown paper bags, dried leaves, branches, wood ash, coffee filters, etc. These make compost light, airy, and fluffy. The nitrogen-based matter are generally food scraps, kitchen waste, and green leaves that provide the raw material for making enzymes. A healthy compost pile should have two-thirds of carbon-based and one-third of nitrogen-based materials.
2. Strict no to these items – Not all items can be put in for the compost. Avoid putting meat bones, flesh, and fish scraps as they will give bad odor and attract pests. Do not put pet manures in the compost that is to be used for vegetable gardens. Diseased plants or weeds are also a strict no as they might spread the same disease when you sprinkle the compost in your garden. Thick peels such as banana peel, peach peel, or orange rind should be avoided as they may contain pesticides. All these items can be considered for creating compost, but you need a specialized composter for these.
3. Start composting – You can create the pile directly on bare earth to allow worms and other good organisms to aerate the compost. To help in proper drainage, lay a few inches of twigs and straws first. Now you can start adding your compost materials alternating with the moist and dry ones. You can add some green manure like grass clipping to activate the compost pile and speed up the process. In the end cover the pile with wood or plastic sheet so that while moisture and heat are retained, excess rainwater is stopped from entering.
4. Turn it at regular intervals – For the process of compost to work, oxygen is required. It is important to give the pile a quick turn each week with a shovel. You can keep adding new materials to your pile. Mixing and turning the compost is an important part as it speeds up the process. It also helps to aerate the pile and by exposing parts to the sun, excess moist materials are dried.

Conclusion

You should always try to provide your garden plants chemical-free nutrients. Web.com Reviews believes that besides adding the best nutrients to the soil, an advantage of composting is that it is completely free or much less expensive than buying chemical fertilizers.