Understanding Compost
Important To Your Soil

Building and understanding compost will bring the life force to your garden. Growing organic vegetables allows you to have your nutrients more readily absorbable for improved health.

For instance spinach grown with chemical fertilizers have the iron and calcium bound so very little is absorbed and most the nutrients pass right through you. Organically grown spinach on the other hand has these nutrients in a form that is easily absorbed helping to reduce the need to take multiple vitamins.

Even though all vegetables and fruits react favorably to organic gardening, you will find certain plants react mysteriously when exposed to the freedom from chemical fertilizers. This is why understanding compost should be your top priority.

Build Quick and Easy Compost Piles

A compost pile is probably the easiest form of soil building for your first time composting experience. Think of building a compost pile like planning a meal with nitrogen (green materials) being the proteins carbon (brown {tree leaves} wood chips and the like) being the carbohydrates. As with a meal you need a good balance of around 50% green material and 50% brown material and the pile needs to be at least three feet tall in order to heat up properly.

Find an area at the end of your yard or garden where you can turn your pile (I will explain what I mean by that shortly). The area should be about three feet by six feet or slightly larger. A mattock and a pitchfork will make the job fairly easy. We will make hot compost with this method so you can have some for your garden in two or three weeks.

Compost is far more than a soil additive. It helps to retain moisture, allows air space so the roots can breath, and is rich in soil microbes that can break down minerals making them available to the roots, as well as attracting earthworms. In turn earthworms eat the soil and compost and break down even more minerals that can't be broken down by other means. Worm castings make excellent fertilizers in and of themselves.

After building a compost pile about three feet tall take a mattock and make short cuts about three inches in clear down through the pile until you have cut through the entire pile. Take a pitchfork and move the entire pile beside where the original stood making it three feet tall. Repeat this every two days for about two weeks; this is what turning the pile means. Add a little water occasionally if needed to keep the pile slightly moist. You have just produced hot compost ready to add to your garden.

Take your time exploring Grandpa's Wisdom and discover the many tricks to understanding compost and its importance.

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