Compost has been beaten up into this big hoopla with dos and don'ts and methods and products and rights and wrongs. It is all a load of rot. Literally.
Compost has become sexy all of a sudden because people are beginning to realise that the food we eat is not always good for us, or our communities, or our planet so they are growing their own. Which is leading people to discover that growing food is not that difficult. You need only a few things: seeds, soil, sun and water.
Compost comes into all of this because compost is natures fertiliser. When leaves fall from trees, when fruit ripens and falls and when animals poo wherever they poo, nature composts all of this stuff into a mixture of substances that have an incredibly rich concentration of plant-soluble nutrients.
All of our new gardeners then realise that this is the magic stuff and want more of it. Then industry steps in and tries to fill that gap, with a lot of the 'nutrient' ending up in bank accounts belonging to compost merchants.
So here we have it: Compost 101
Compost: the natural degradation of organic matter by microscopic organisms.
Or:
Compost: Really small plants, animals and mushrooms eating your garden and kitchen scraps. Easy. See?
To make compost you need 4 things:
1)A place
2)Some organic matter
3)Some water
4)A rocking chair
Put all of the (2)organic matter in the (1)place and wet it with the (3)water. Then sit in the (4) rocking chair until you have compost.
That is it!
There are more complex methods, which will speed things up, but that is the basic method. We will look at those another time.
Enjoy your gardens folks. And don't stress! After all, plants kinda already know what to do.
Compost has become sexy all of a sudden because people are beginning to realise that the food we eat is not always good for us, or our communities, or our planet so they are growing their own. Which is leading people to discover that growing food is not that difficult. You need only a few things: seeds, soil, sun and water.
Compost comes into all of this because compost is natures fertiliser. When leaves fall from trees, when fruit ripens and falls and when animals poo wherever they poo, nature composts all of this stuff into a mixture of substances that have an incredibly rich concentration of plant-soluble nutrients.
All of our new gardeners then realise that this is the magic stuff and want more of it. Then industry steps in and tries to fill that gap, with a lot of the 'nutrient' ending up in bank accounts belonging to compost merchants.
So here we have it: Compost 101
Compost: the natural degradation of organic matter by microscopic organisms.
Or:
Compost: Really small plants, animals and mushrooms eating your garden and kitchen scraps. Easy. See?
To make compost you need 4 things:
1)A place
2)Some organic matter
3)Some water
4)A rocking chair
Put all of the (2)organic matter in the (1)place and wet it with the (3)water. Then sit in the (4) rocking chair until you have compost.
That is it!
There are more complex methods, which will speed things up, but that is the basic method. We will look at those another time.
Enjoy your gardens folks. And don't stress! After all, plants kinda already know what to do.
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