 Nature's
Way
with Alan Hayes
Wasting Away
All of us are looking for simple ways to help the environment by reducing unnecessary waste. This can be done easily within the home by converting kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds etc into compost. It will not only eliminate unnecessary garbage collection, but will also help to improve your garden soil so that plants will be strong and healthy and provide an excellent mulch to keep soils moist.
Composting is the biological reduction of organic wastes to a rich humus that has a slightly sweet, earthy aroma.
If you don't have a compost bin or heap, simply dig a hole in the garden, fill it with kitchen scraps, sprinkle a cup of dolomite (available from most garden suppliers) over it, lightly water and cover again with soil. After a couple of weeks or so earthworms will have the soil workable, giving you a high-quality humus.
Underground composting also works well when establishing new garden areas. Just mark each spot as you dispose of your scraps so that you don't dig there again. Once the designated area has been entirely composted, you can then establish your new garden.
To compost larger quantities of refuge, you will need to build a compost heap. Clear a patch of ground in an out-of-the way area of your garden. Remove the grass and level the ground if there is too much of a slope. (Compost heaps should always be built on level soil and never on concrete). Scatter a few bricks placed edge down within the cleared area to allow air to circulate into the composting material.
Put down your first layer of material - grass clippings, garden wastes, kitchen scraps and so on in the middle. Next dust over a layer of fowl or cow manure, dolomite or blood and bone to a depth of one centimetre, then sprinkle with water. Keep repeating this procedure until your pile is built. Once the pile is finished, leave for about a week, then turn the pile over every few days with a fork to speed up decomposition.
A compost pile about one metre in height should be broken down into humus after two months in summer, but longer in winter. Add the compost to garden soil in spring and autumn at the rate of one kilogram per square metre, or a five centimetre covering over the garden bed. It can also be used for container plants, raising seedlings and mulching around growing plants.
For those of you who end up with a seemingly endless number of tin cans to dispose of, instead of putting them out with the garbage, compost them instead! Simply crush each can to break the 'tinning' and place them in a shallow hole, then cover with a 15 to 20 centimetre layer of soil. Keep building up alternate layers of soil and crushed cans until you have a pile approximately 30 to 45 centimetres above ground level. Finish off with a good thick layer of mulch over the whole of the mound.
Approximately twelve months later the tin cans will have completely decomposed, leaving a friable compost.
Composting is easy and simple to do, and improves the health of our gardens and saves on unnecessary watering.
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