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Gardening
Tips >> Composting
- What to Compost
- * lawn clippings
- * weeds and garden plants
- * tea leaves and coffee grounds
- * limited amounts of wood ash from a fireplace
- * kitchen waste (ex. vegetable and fruit peels and scraps)
- * branches that have been broken or chipped into smaller
pieces
- What Not to Compost
- * meat scraps
- * fats
- * sawdust (which generally slows the decomposition of
the pile)
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- How to Make a Compost
- Despite beginning your compost project in winter, you should
have no problem gathering sufficient quantities of vegetative
matter to get started. The first layer should no more than
eight centimetres of kitchen scraps (maybe some leftover yams
and cranberries?), coffee grounds, fallen leaves, garden trimmings,
and broken branches. Cover with approximately six centimetres
of soil, and manure if available. Continue to alternate layers
in this fashion as you add to the compost throughout the winter.
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- The minimum size to initiate adequate decomposition is one
metre square. It is particularly important in the cold winter
months to begin with a large pile with a large core. This
is the powerhouse of the compost in winter. The warm centre
creates a perfect environment for the bacteria, fungi and
other micro-organisms, which turn "garbage" into "black gold".
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- Turn your compost once every two weeks to mix old and new
additions. A pitchfork is the easiest tool for doing this.
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- A compost accelerator is a great way to jumpstart decomposition
at this time of year. Alfalfa meal, manure, bone meal, cottonseed
meal, or a rot accelerator, available from most garden stores,
are the best choices. Each time you add a layer to the pile,
sprinkle on one of these activators and water well.
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- A compost pile that is working well will reduce the contents
by half in approximately two months. It's a great way to make
yard and kitchen waste "disappear" while making your garden
look great in the summer!
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- Compost Containers
- Many municipalities across Canada sell inexpensive compost
containers to residents to encourage a reduction in household
garbage. These are usually black or dark green plastic containers
with a lid to keep out animals and rain, small air holes in
the sides to aid decomposition and a removable bottom panel
with small holes to let in the worms and keep out the bigger
critters. The dark colour of the plastic can significantly
increase the temperature of inside the container. Even in
the dead of winter, decomposition will still occur in the
warm core of the compost. If you can't obtain one of these
compost containers through your municipality they are also
available at most hardware or garden stores.
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- If do-it-yourself sounds more appealing it is possible to
build an effective and inexpensive version. All you need is
chicken wire and five pieces of wood. Use four pieces of wood
to form the sides and the fifth for the base of the compost.
If possible, drill several small holes in the base to allow
earthworm movement. Cover the top with chicken wire which
has a fairly tight mesh to prohibit the entry of rodents.
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- Winter Composting
- All the wonderful excesses of the holidays lingers on in
the last few decorations we can't bear to take down, the rich
scent of pine permeating the house, that expanded waistline…
The New Year is the time to start afresh, to resolve to spend
more time with your kids, eat right and maybe just maybe get
more exercise but have you thought of making some New Year's
resolutions for your house?
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- Most people become keenly aware of the vast amounts of garbage
they produce when their cans fill to overflowing during the
holidays. (In fact, the typical household will double their
normal curb side donation between Christmas and the New Year.)
Consider that the average person produces six kilograms of
garbage everyday-that's' 2190 kilograms per person every year.
That's equivalent to your garbage man lifting up a car (or
more depending on the size of your household) from your curb
every year! In the winter 18% of that is yard and/or kitchen
vegetative waste and in the summer that figure jumps to an
average of 70% because of additional grass and garden clippings.
Much of that "garbage" needn't be added to our growing and
toxic landfills but could make a great gift to your garden.
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- Composting not only diverts yard and kitchen waste from
dumps it produces a nutrient-rich addition to the garden and
creates a welcoming environment for earthworms and other beneficial
organisms that will improve the long-term health of your soil.
This summer you can have the biggest tomatoes on the block
without buying any fertiliser by starting your compost today!
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