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Composting and Recycling

© Bill Richardson

Composting and Recycling

Often, we waste useful composting materials that we could use to help our gardens by recycling.

As organisms grow in our gardens, they then rot down and make earth to grow again. Help nature along by providing compost as the means to speeding up the process. Compost in any form is a wonderful way to enrich your garden beds and soil, so that your next season of plants will thrive and feed on the goodness you have added.

What is compost?

All compost consists of is rotting, organic materials, whether it is kitchen refuse like your vegetable peelings, garden prunings, old newspapers, even soil or just about anything that will break down.

Compost will certainly give your plants a greater chance of growing well because of the nutrients that are added. More nitrogen will be put into the soil and worms will be encouraged to stay around and aerate the soil. Some nutrients like potassium, phosphorus and others, which are inorganic are provided in acids made by microorganisms.

What not to use in compost.

Be careful not to put items like:

• some manures in, like human, cat or dog as they need very high temperatures to break down and they could spread disease if not handled carefully.
• You can add human urine.
• Thick newspaper can be a problem as it hardens and becomes impervious to water. Shred it up finely first.
• Plastics and bones are not ideal to use. Some plastics won't ever break down and bones can take quite a while.
• Discarded weeds are all right as long as they don't contain weed seeds that might germinate again and cause problems.
• Don't put diseased leaves in that have rust or rose leaves with black spot. It is best to dispose of these.
• Be careful if adding anything with herbicides or pesticides as they may kill off the good microorganisms.
• Don't use meat, as it will attract mice, rats and flies.
• Also, thick layers of grass or leaves tend to stick together in clumps, so mix them with other materials before adding them.

What can you add to compost?

Vegetable scraps, shredded up paper, old carpet or underlay, weeds, soil, hair of any kind, old clothes (shredded or cut up) are some of the things you can use. Chamomile, yarrow or comfrey will help speed up the compost breakdown, if you add some of these plants. Other things you can add are eggshell wood ashes from the fire or barbecue.

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