What is Organic Composting?

Making compost will help you reduce pollution and cut down that landfill! Your plants will grow healthier and look happier for it and it will save you money on fertilisers too. Our local council in Manchester has now given us brown bins for us to add leaves, grass and other compost matter into, which is then emptied every two weeks once it has reduced to less than half its size.
What is compost?

Garden guides often describe composting as natures way of recycling.

Composting is indeed a natural way of recycling, harnessing natural processes rather than machinery and man-made chemicals, but it takes people to do it.

Soil maintenance is at the heart of organic growing: dont feed the plants, feed the soil -- the plants will look after themselves. The extremely complex subject of soil maintenance can happily be summed up in one word: composting.

A smelly hole at the far end of the garden filled with putrefying kitchen wastes and flies buzzing round. Thats what compost isnt. No stinks, no flies, though kitchen waste is welcome.

Compost is not just decayed organic matter. Composting is applied microbiology at its most complex, involving the interactions of thousands upon thousands of different species of micro organisms in a highly complex ecosystem.

What can I compost?

If it can rot it will compost, but some items are best avoided. Some things, like grass mowings and soft young weeds, rot quickly. They work as activators or hotter rotters, getting the composting started, but on their own will decay to a smelly mess. Recycle your plant-based, kitchen and garden waste by making it into compost

Older and tougher plant material is slower to rot but gives body to the finished compost - and usually makes up the bulk of a compost heap. Woody items decay very slowly; they are best chopped or shredded first, where appropriate.

A container or brown bin is not an absolute necessity as you can make perfectly good compost in a free standing heap as long as it is large enough. You will see later why this may be a drawback. Assuming then that we need to make a container we are faced with many choices.

Why not make or buy a compost bin? Theyre usually cheap to buy, and are available in wood or recycled plastic (that might otherwise be in your local landfill site). If youre keen you could combine it with a wormery or use a shredder which increases the amount of compostable waste. Do not compost foods such as dairy produce, meat, bread etc as these attract flies and vermin.

How do I know when its done?

That depends. What was a pile of plant material will gradually, from the bottom up, turn into a pile of dark stuff that looks like brown dirt. Eventually, none of the items you put in there will be recognizable. If youre using it out in the garden, a few small recognizable bits wont hurt - theyll finish composting in the garden. If youre using it for houseplants or to start seeds, its better to wait until its well finished so you dont have microbes attacking the fine rootlets of new plants.

Dig it in to have a healthy, fertile garden and your fruit and vegetables can be organic. Dont assume the waste is harmless and bin it. Putting it in landfill costs money and it will produce methane (a global warming gas); also it may pollute the groundwater.

Compost waste often comprises about 20-30% of your total household waste and the impact on recycling is significant.

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

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Davinos Greeno works for the organic and ethical directory that lists 100s of Organic and Ethical Companies and we also have Organic Articles for you to read or publish.

A Garden For All Seasons

All great gardens have one thing in common. That is, they offer something during each of the four seasons. Through spring and summer the colorful flowers of perennials, annuals and flowering trees and shrubs are the focal point in the garden. Once the summer flowers begin to fade, the brilliant, colorful foliage of autumn brightens the garden. In the winter, it's the evergreens, berries and bark which provide the garden with color as the form and shape of the plants become more prominent.

Green is the dominant color in the garden in the spring as everything seems to be rapidly putting out new growth. The bulbs and perennials which do flower in the early spring do so against a backdrop of green foliage and brown earth. Bulbs are earliest blooming plants in the garden and are essential to the spring landscape. Some bulbs will even provide color until more perennials begin to bloom in May and June.

Early flowering perennials such as iris range in color from white to yellow to purple and in size from a few inches to 4 feet. For spring foliage, plant some hosta, they grow in a wide variety of greens, from blue-green to yellow-green and they're the perfect backdrop plant for the spring flowers.

Perennial borders peak in mid summer as a wide range of sun-loving flowers begin to bloom. Part of the mix include some leftovers from spring and, towards the end of summer, there are signs of the later blooming flowers as well. Annuals are also in full bloom mid-summer. Though most have finished flowering, fully leafed out shrubs can add a lushness to the garden.

A third wave of blooms begin brighten up the garden once again as the summer flowers begin to fade. The colors in the garden begin to change a bit in the fall with many perennials blooming in shades of yellow, orange and purple. Among these flowers are the annuals, which continue to flower until the first frost. Later in the season, the flowers, especially those of the sedum and black-eyed Susan, turn into brown and rust colored seed heads. They fit in perfectly with the colorful fall foliage of the surrounding trees. The foliage of the late season perennial is attractive on its own.

Once the blooms of the these flowers fade deciding whether to cut them back is up to the individual gardener. Some perennials will collapse to the ground anyways while others will remain standing though the winter with their showy seed heads creating off season interest in the garden.

Winter, the season in which many gardeners forget about the landscape, can offer color and visual interest through evergreen shrubs, bark, plant form and seed heads. For example, a clump of ornamental grass could be left standing through the winter. Redtwig dogwoods are great against the snow and birch trees have colorful, flaking bark. The winter landscape truly would be empty with the hardy evergreen trees and shrubs. Garden walls and fences become more prominent as the foliage which screens them in the summer disappears. Hedges, as well as walls, make a stronger statement in winter.

With some careful planning, it is possible to have a beautiful garden year round. Even in winter, when everything seems to be stark and barren. A few choice shrubs or trees can provide winter interest and a well thought out garden can flower from early spring until the first frost.

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

About R Birch:
R Birch is the publisher of www.gardenlistings.com . For information on all kinds of garden projects visit www.GardenListings.com/Resources.htm