Polk County Master Gardeners
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Black Gold
No, not the kind that comes from wells in Texas - the kind that does wonderful
things when you spread it on your garden. Compost is one of the easiest things
to make and the rewards are more than worth the effort. Time is the greatest
requirement, but even that can be shortened a bit. You will need: space, plant
material, fertilizer, and water. And, of course, time.
The space can by anywhere that is not in the middle of the front yard - compost
piles are not exactly things of beauty. I use wire fencing with 1” x 2”
openings, but any container that can be easily removed will work. If you use
fencing, it should be long enough to make a circle about five feet in diameter
with the ends hooked together so it will stay put when you toss in plant
material.
The plant material can be anything you have available: dead leaves in the
fall, grass clippings in the summer, weeds all year long, plants from the garden
that are past their prime. You can also keep a container in the kitchen and toss
in vegetable and fruit scraps, tea leaves, and coffee grounds. Just make sure
you don’t put in meat or anything with fat in it.
The fertilizer can be anything with nitrogen. Whatever you’re feeding the
yard will work, chicken litter from the neighbor’s hen house is fine, any sort
of manure will do. The last two can get a mite smelly, so if the compost pile is
near the house, you might want to skip those.
As you collect any of the plant materials, toss them in the compost heap.
When you have several inches of that, sprinkle it with a handful of fertilizer.
If you have a topsoil pile, you can toss a few shovels of dirt over the top of
the pile to keep looser things from blowing away.
Getting the plant material to decay into compost is not a problem - you
couldn’t keep it from happening. But if you keep the pile moist and turn it
every month or two, you’ll speed up the process considerably. To turn the pile,
just remove the container and set it up again beside the pile. Then use a
spading fork or a shovel to move the pile into the container in its new
location.
When you’re creating a new bed, spread a few inches of compost and work it
in. When you’re reworking your vegetable garden, spread of few inches of compost
over it and till it in. It gives you humus which will help to keep the soil
friable and it provides some fertilizer. When you’re planting a tree, dig the
hole several inches deeper and wider than the roots would require and fill up
that space with compost. It’s recycling at its best.
By Barbara M. Tobias
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