Composting is Wise

The dos and don'ts of composting can be viewed at VegWeb.com's site. Following are wise tips and rationale for composting.

Why composting is wise?

• It's free. It's actually less than free, it saves money. By recycling those corn cobs and spoiled vegetables and fruits, one is recapturing some of the cost of having purchased these items, even if one doesn't get to eat them initially. Adding home made compost means purchasing less fertilizer and turf builder for lawns and flower beds at your home. Finally, it means less garbage being hauled off for a fee. If half of all homes in America composted their vegetable wastes, garbage collection demand would drop significantly enough to lower the cost by a small amount for garbage collection and disposal across the nation.
• Composting is very healthy for flowers and other living vegetable things. It improves aeration in the soil, allowing plant roots to breathe, opens the soil and feeds earth worms who add their own compost and aeration to the soil. It fertilizes the soil in a very PH neutral way.
• Composting is easy, once you have your compost site in place. (See below)

Compost materials must be protected from rodents, and other garbage divers. There are many compost designs commercially available for between $100 and $450. But, if that sounds high, and it is, about $24 of materials from your local hardware and 2 hours of your time can create a compost bin that will last for years, out of wire mesh, and 1.5 inch PVC pipe.

Essentially, all you need is a box frame (pipe) 3 feet high, 3 feet deep, and 3 feet wide, covered with a wire mesh screen that will keep rodents out, and the compost in (holes in wire mesh about 3/4" square). You can use clothes hanger or some other wire to attach the screen to the PVC pipes. The last element is a lid of some kind, 4'x4' plywood sheet will do, to fit over the 3'x3'x3' box to keep overhead driving rain from washing out your compost pile.

You will need one side of the box to open left or right, to give you access to turn your compost pile once a week. In other words, you will want to hinge one side (use loops of clothes hanger wire) on one side, and another loop on the other side to act as a latch to hold it closed. Using a shovel, you will turn the pile once a week or so, bringing the bottom of the compost pile to the top, and turning the top layer under, then lightly watering. This is essential, as the composting process requires oxygen and some moisture to compost quickly, about 4-6 weeks.

You can read the complete details in the link above. I have been composting for years, and have never experienced any problems, and there is no question, that my landscaping plants receiving compost 3 times a year, fare far better than those that don't. And we maximize our grocery shopping dollar by insuring nothing goes to waste, not nut shells, corn husks, or broccoli stems. Even our pet's hair from brushing goes in and becomes enrichment for our vegetable and flower gardens. Piece of cake.

Your questions or comments are welcome.