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Index : Miscellaneous Gardening Topics
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- 38. Desert Composting - Top
- Compost is the stuff gardens are made of, or so they should be. Compost is decayed organic matter, such as leaves, grass clippings, animal manure, sawdust, shredded twigs and branches, vegetables, fruits, and other plant parts. When mixed into the soil compost greatly improves the soil's ability to grow plants. Compost helps to loosed hard, compacted soil. It also increases the soil's ability to hold water and nutrients.
The best garden spots to use compost are for planting vegetables, herbs, flowers and certain types of ground cover and vining plants. In preparing the soil, generous amounts of compost can be mixed into the soil prior to planting. Compost also makes great mulch. It can be placed over bare soil around garden and landscape plants.
To make compost you'll need a form to hold in the decaying organic matter. You can use wire fencing, or chicken wire circled around four posts. Other frames for compost bins can be constructed from many other materials such as: concrete blocks, snow fence, and straw bales. Ready-to-use composters are sold at garden centers. They come in all shapes and sizes, usually made from plastic.
Whatever you use, the frame needs to be a minimum of 3 feet tall, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet deep. This allows for a pile large enough to generate the heat needed for decomposition. A proper balance of materials to add to your pile is also required.
Everything organic has a ratio of carbon and nitrogen. The best composting mix should have a greater amount of materials high in carbon, and a lesser amount of materials high in nitrogen. Materials high in carbon include: dry leaves and weeds, paper, wood, sawdust, straw, and bark. Materials high in nitrogen include: fresh leaves and weeds, animal manure, grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps, and hay.
To speed the composting process, reduce raw compost materials to small particle sizes. The soil micro-organisms that have to break the stuff down, work better on smaller sized particles. Chopping your garden waste with a shovel or machete, or running them through a shredding machine or lawn mower will speed their composting.
As you accumulate materials in your pile, keep them moist. The soil organisms that break the compost down require water to survive and thrive. A light sprinkling will not be sufficient. Water thoroughly and often, especially during hot weather. The compost should have the feel moist as a wrung-out sponge.
Air is another important ingredient in composting. To allow air to penetrate the pile, turn the pile with a pitch fork or shovel every week or so. Thoroughly remix the heap so that the outside is turned in and exposed to the heat which builds in the pile center.
When everything is "cooking" as it should, the center of the pile will heat up to 130 to 160 degrees or more in a matter of a few days. At these temperatures most plant disease organisms and weed seeds are killed. Temperature can be measured by using a soil thermometer. These are available at local garden centers. If the pile does not heat up, or stays hot only a few days before cooling, this could be a lack of moisture or insufficient nitrogen. Add and mix in manure, grass clippings, or a high nitrogen fertilizer.
The length of time it takes for your compost to be ready, depends on the mix of materials you use and the care you gave it. Composting may take as little as 4 weeks, or as long as 6 months to complete. When it's ready, the compost will be crumbly in texture, fairly dry, and have an earthy odor.
When composting is sucessfull, you'll feel the Midas touch. You've turned raw materials into the 'black gold' of gardening.
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Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on May 21, 2000
- Updated: May 21, 2000
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