Flower Garden Lovers

Making the Soil Better for the Flower Garden Part 2

Below we continue with part two of our article on composting.

The other basic method of adding organic material to the soil in the form of compost starts with some sort of bin, be it above ground or set into the ground as a pit. One ingenious method I read about lately was to dig a hole in your garden about two to three feet wide and about one foot deep. Into this add your organic material, topping it off occasionally as the hole fills with dirt and lime to keep down the odor and flies in the summer. You may find you do need to add some sort of cover if the flies or animals become pests. When the hole is filled, it is ready to plant some seeds in. I would insure that the last few inches be soil you have topped the hole with before adding the seeds. If using this method, remember to dig some holes before winter to have enough places to add your vegetable peelings and organic materials to throughout the winter. You could really enrich your garden area a little at a time with this idea.

Lately, there have been many books and articles in magazines giving exact directions for creating a compost pile in a bin. So many inches of green matter, so many inches of brown matter and a couple inches of soil in between. But the biggest thing to remember are to add only vegetable or plant matter and soil. No meat scraps or fat or chemicals, etc. That is, unless you do want to attract all the stray dogs, cats and varmints in the neighborhood.

Once you have started adding plant material and soil to your pile the biggest things to remember are to keep it damp and keep it fluffy so oxygen can get into all the material to decompose it and turn it into that wonderful substance known as compost. You may need to turn the pile with a fork. For this reason it is usually good to have two bins right beside one another. Even better is three. You start with one pile and when it is full you turn it, starting at the top, into the next bin. Then after that pile heats up and has started cooling down again, you turn it into the last bin. The first bin in the meantime is the one you have been adding more plant material to. Finally in the last bin after the pile has heated up and then cooled off again, you will have compost ready for the garden. Just repeat the process. Now you know why three bins are better than two because you can keep the process on going.

Adding soil occasionally to your plant material adds the bacteria that do the decomposing. The decomposition process is what causes the pile to heat up. There are thermometers available that you can stick into the heart of a pile and see how hot it is but that is not really necessary. Just plan on turning your pile about every two to three weeks in the summertime. It will be longer in the winter but you can usually tell when the pile cools off in the winter.

© 2005, Sandra Dinkins-Wilson

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© 2005, Sandra Dinkins-Wilson. Find more articles for Flower Garden Lovers at our informative website, http://flowergardenlovers.com.
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