Forget paying for bags of store bought fertilizer. Instead make your own for free! Here is a guide to creating quick and easy compost for your garden.
Take those garden clippings and make them ready for the compost pile by running them over with a regular or mulching mower. You’ll want to use a bag attachment to make things easy. This will be the start of your compost pile. You can do the same with leaves in the fall.
A good compost pile is made out of layers. You want to alternate green layers and brown layers. Green layers are fresh things, from grass clippings to kitchen scraps. Brown layers are dry materials, such as old leaves.
When you add a layer to the pile, use a garden hose to wet them down. You want the pile to be damp but not soggy. Continue adding layers over time until your bin or pile is full.
One your compost bin or pile is full, it will have to do its thing. Some people refer to this as “cooking.” The compost pile will actually heat up. As the materials break down, you’ll need to turn them once a week. This will help even things out and bring the top layers into the center where it is warmer. The center of a compost pile can get as hot as 160 degrees F, believe it or not.
That is all that you need to do to create free compost for your garden. If you want to speed things up, you can purchase composting worms either at your local store or on the Internet. The worms will happily make quick work of your compost.
Now how about that composting bin? Look around for free materials. One friend of mine used an old playhouse as a composting bin. Another bolted together five wood pallets that he got for free at a lumberyard.