Your can turn your garden into fertile ground with the addition of compost. And what better place to create it than in your own backyard?
- Compost adds nutrients and helpful microbes to the soil. Put your compost wherever you think you will use it. Many compost bins are available as kits in local garden centers or home improvement stores.
- First of all, you don't even need a bin to compost. You can just create a pile of recycled kitchen and yard scraps in a corner of your property. Just use a pitchfork or shovel to turn it now and again, and don't let it get too big.
- Try compostable garbage bags. It's a new thing and, as Martha Stewart would say, they're a good thing. Keep organic waste out of landfills and make it work in your yard by stowing it in one of these bags that will one day itself feed your yard.
- A clay honey pot, small in size, will work in smaller gardens.
- A wire container is a great place to allow organic material to decompose into black gold. There's kits available for these open-air containers.
- Tumblers allow you to give that compost a regular turn to aerate it and hold down the moisture.
- Bottomless bins rest on the ground and allow moisture to weep out.
- Recycle pallets into a bin. The spaces between the boards allow air to move over the material.
- You'll know when your compost is ready when it looks, feels and smells like soil.
GLT's Grow is your source for sage gardening advice and down-to-earth tips. Host Patrick Murphy and co-host Laura Kennedy are ready to take on all your gardening questions, so submit yours today.
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