Compost or composting
A good way of fertilizing your vegetable patch or ornamental garden is to make a compost in a part of the garden. Compost provides the humus necessary for microbe development and the fertilizers needed for the proper growth of your plants. 2 to 3 % of humus is lost every year, as it mineralizes in order to provide elements needed for plant growth. This loss must therefore be compensated by putting compost or it's equivalent into the soil. Note that compost will provide only 10% of it's weight in humus.
Composting generally lasts the six months of Spring and Summer. For a more profound treatment in the Autumn, you can incorporate it into the soil by spade or spread it on the surface of your patch or around the shrubs.
It is also an ecological way of recycling vegetable and certain kitchen waste.
You simply have to place the composter in a part of your garden, out of sight if possible, into which you put layers of waste.
Composting is not only for owners of gardens. It can also be done on a balcony, providing you have a suitable composter.
The elements of compost
You mustn't use only one element in your compost, as supplies of carbon and nitrogen must be balanced.
- grass clippings, which provide a lot of nitrogen (don't use too much)
- wood ash, which contains a little potassium
- sawdust and wood chips
- vegetable and fruit waste, only if they haven't been treated ( they usually have been – even potatoes are treated against sprouting)
- some cardboard boxes without print, such as egg boxes, corrogated paper and toilet-paper rolls. Don't use coloured paper, which contains poisonous metals. Black ink is normally made from carbon. Cardboard boxes provide carbon, which helps to balance the compost, as vegetable waste supplies nitrogen mostly
- newspaper, which should be shredded beforehand
- vegetable parings should be crushed. Breaking their fibres allows them to absorb water and micro-organisms easier, which facilitates fermentation
- animal manure from horses, pigs and cattle, but not manure from intensive farming because of the various products used (medicines, etc.)
- wheat or other types of straw
- certain textiles made from natural fibres
- leftover soil from flower pots or window boxes
- coffee dregs are rich in nitrogen and in trace elements, and coffee filtres are usually biodegradable
- grape marc
- teabags
- animal bedding
- eggshells
- pork rind, cheese crusts
- fish leftovers
- hazelnut, walnut, pistacchio shells....
- whole nettle plants before flowering
- conifer needles, which provide an acidic humus
- seaweed should be soaked in rainwater beforehand. It is rich in trace elements
- hair, nails, feathers.....the bigger elements should be crushed
- undammaged leaves
- wilted flowers or bunches of flowers
Avoid using sprouting weeds and get rid of the roots. Leftover meat, which attracts rats and may produce unpleasant smells, should also be avoided.
Did you know ?
- A tonne of organic waste makes about 500 kilos of compost.