6 Simple Steps To Composting

gardeningabc (53)in #gardening • 7 years ago

6 simple steps to composting

The following tips are based on an article published in NZ Gardener by Jim Mathews.

His practical composting tips were wedged between advice on growing columbines and coneflowers. “The heap should be handy to house and garden, but secluded. The site must be flat, but not in full shade and, if possible, handy to a water supply. Excavate a six-inch (15cm) pit, 4ft wide (122cm) and 6ft (183cm) long, and work up the earth in the bottom of the pit. Now the actual building of the compost heap begins:

Fill the hollow with grass clippings and/or any kind of household refuse, not only vegetable scraps. You can use every possible kind of waste food, cooked or otherwise.

Cover with two inches of farmyard manure, preferably horse or cow, and sprinkle with lime.

Appy a two-inch (5cm) sandwich of loamy soil in which wood ashes have been freely mixed.

Apply another six-inch (15cm) thickness of household waste, plus seaweed where procurable. Sprinkle with sulphate of ammonia.

Another two-inch (5cm) thickness of soil sprinkled fairly heavily with lime.
Another two-inch (5cm) thickness of household and vegetable wastes but sprinkle this lot with dried blood .”

“Repeat the sandwiching process,” he advised, “until the heap reaches the desired height: 4ft 6in is usually found most convenient. Finish off with a four-inch covering of earth, and then aerate the heap by driving a crowbar into it as deepily as possible in fi ve or six different directions. Finally, cover the top with sacking or old iron. Turn after three weeks, and again three weeks later, and again a month after that.” Incidentally, according to the same book, “an occasional sprinkling of cane sugar over various layers greatly improves composted matter as a rooting medium”. Something to try if you’re planning on taking lots of cuttings come spring.