Want to make your kitchen scraps into compost? Or you know the concept of composting, but haven’t tried yet and consider it a very tricky venture?
Let’s discover the craft of composting at home and learn how to transform food scraps into nutrient-full compost. Reduce waste level, save your money and make delight for your garden by using our guide and start to compost.
With just a little bit of effort, you not only reduce your trash, but you will be able to create a perfect fertilizer for your garden as well. Many gardeners call it the‘black gold’; a compost that can help to keep this planet green, while having a positive impact on your community’s contribution to landfill waste. This article will provide guidance on how to turn your own kitchen scraps and garden grove waste into ‘black gold’ and its management.
The Basics of Composting
Composting is a method of decomposing the organic substances including kitchen scraps, garden wastes into the nutrient- rich soil called compost. Compost is lauded as ‘green gold’ by gardeners and there are various health benefits to soil by using compost.
How to start to compost food scraps
The first component to composting is the compost bin or roll off dumpster rentals. Large retail stores and e-stores offer composter pots made from plastic, wood, or other metals that are available in different shapes and designs, from basic to high-end. Your pallet or upcycled material can be used to create a compost bin or you can order a prepared one right to your home.
The first thing you have to do is to ponder about the right size for you. Size of compost bins or roll off dumpster rentals for most households with an outdoor area is three feet high, three feet wide, and three feet deep. This area must be big enough to allow the contents within the bin to have a lot of surface area and enough space. This in turn improves the circulation of air which helps in the regulation of the temperature in the bin to about 120 to 150° F which is ideal for a proper breaking down of waste.
After you have your bin or roll off dumpster rental, arrange for level, well-drained soil space along with a partial shaded area. If the bin gets overexposed, its contents will dry out, and that’s terrible, not only because it will facilitate the survival of the microorganisms which decompose the waste, but it will also help the sun to destroy them. Conversely, moisture in the bin without an escape route will become waterlogged, leading to the death of the beneficial microorganisms and therefore probably creating conditions that bad odors will take place.
Choose a location and method
It is often the size of your yard that puts a question mark when it comes to the choosing between using a composting bin or the yard compost pile.
It depends what the size of your backyard is. The small or medium size yards can opt for the static plastic composting bins, dumpster rentals and tumbling composting bins.
If you have a large space getting a garden compost pile or bay is an option for you as you a bay is for a variety of composting stages.
Pick a spot of your yard in the penumbra because the material shouldn’t dry out completely when there is not the full sunlight.
Know what to compost
In the first spectrum of the bin or the pile you need to have two types: green and brown.
Green materials involve the use of old brushed tea, coffee grounds, mainly used in cooking, crust shells of eggs, grass cuttings, old flowers, and many weeds, fruit and vegetable wastes.
Brown waste are things like straws, documents and newspapers (dry, but not from chemically treated wood).
Know What Need to Be Avoided
Not mixing the sick plants, animal dropping (excluding chicken wastes), vegetable oil, colored paper (with seeds), treated wood and large branches in your composter or dumpster.
Some gardeners argue that meat and bones must be avoided as long as you have a smaller composting system.
Read More: Top 5 Ways To Improve Your Garden
Layer the material
At whatever level you are, whether you employ a composting bin or create your garden compost pile, it is vital that you understand the composting strategy.
Evoke a foundation of twigs, mulch, or old potting wastes that are bought to encourage air circulation and provide drainage.
Provide shallows of the green and brown like garden clippings and kitchen scraps, then add leaves and soak paper.
Add water after each layer to keep the humidity medium, and not too wet. Complete setting up the bin by placing the layer of soil or finished compost to reduce undesirable smells.
Recollect that the faster the item degrades the smaller it is, accordingly. When layering by rule, it is essential to have twice brown layers and just one green.
Flip or move earthworms around the compost once a week or two using a fork. For the second option, try sticking garden stakes or pipes through the mass of leaves so oxygen can enter the heap from the sides.
Compost will be better protected from heat and moisture loss by the cover placed on top, and this will help the decomposition process.
Spread your black gold
The compost is ready for use when it is a dark rich brown color and breaks into crumbles when you touch it. It would be from several months to the size of the bin or a pile.
Compost is an excellent organic fertilizer which contains many necessary nutrients. It helps to prevent water loss from the ground. It also serves as a fertilizer reducing the amount of feeding you are required to apply thus your plants become more disease resistant.
How long does it take garbage to decompose
The time it takes to decompose the garbage is different depending on the materials being used in the garbage formation. Here’s a rough estimate of how long it takes for some common items to decompose
- Paper towel: 2-4 weeks
- Banana peel: 2-5 weeks
- Newspaper: 6 weeks
- Orange peel: 6 months to 2 years.
- Cardboard: 2 to 3 months
- Cotton cloth: from 6 months to 5 years.
- Plastic bags: 10 to 20 years
- Plastic bottles: 450 years in order not to fully decompose completely.
- Aluminum cans: 80 – 200 years interval.
These periods can change significantly depending on whether such factors as humidity, temperature, and whether (even if) wastes are buried or exposed. Recycling and proper waste management are very much necessary in order to reduce or eliminate the negative role which is played by the manufacturing environment.
Conclusion
Composting is such a straightforward yet a highly effective practice that anyone can engage in to be part of the solution to environmental problems and to improve their gardens. Through preserving kitchen scraps including garden waste into rich compost, we not only reduce the filling of the landfill but also give our soil more nutrients and facilitate healthier plant growth. But with the help of this article, anyone can begin this worthwhile composting adventure and discover that even the unwanted ‘garbage’ might turn into valuable black gold.
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