Making your own compost heap for your garden is a great way to save money, as well as being a good educational exercise for your kids. Composting is often thought as as being difficult and for the more accomplished gardener, but it doesn't have to be so.
Home and Garden on Female First
Compost bins can quite pricey, but they're worth the money, as you'll use them for years to come. If you can't justify the expense, you can easily make your own by attaching a big bin with a lock-on lid to a wooden crate, and then make a few holes in the sides and bottoms of the bin to let the compost 'breathe'.
You need to know what you can and can't put in your compost. Things that are safe to go in include leaves, tea bags, cardboard, and vegetables. You can add grass shavings if you want, though these are best left on the ground where they were cut, they'll help give nutrients to the lawn.
You can't put in any meat or milk, as these will quickly start to smell and attract insects and animals. You also can't put in any diseased plants, cooked food or pet waste. As a rule of thumb, anything that was once 'alive' is generally OK - plants and the like.
You need to put your compost bin in a relatively sunny part of your garden. This is only a project for those with bigger lawns, not little backyards. You should mix the ingredients as much as you can before they go in the composter, as this will hurry up the process. You may need to add water, depending on how damp it gets. Over the next few days, the pressure of the compost should cause it to heat up. This is good, as compost needs to be hot to work properly.
After about a week, you'll need to mix the compost up again, and add any water if it needs it, or dry ingredients if there's too much water. Keep going and after a couple of months, your compost heap should have produced some lovely dark soil, that your plants will love.
For any more tips, you can visit the Envionmental Protection Agency's website. Turns out they're a real government agency in America, and not just a joke from the Simpsons movie.
Emily Bancroft
Tagged in Garden