3 Easy DIY Compost Ideas

Every gardener knows how valuable compost is in the garden. Many have found that not all compost is created equal. There are a few rules you need to remember in order to create the best compost possible. You need airflow and you need moisture. You need carbon and nitrogen sources, at about a 25:1 ratio, for your micro organisms to consume. Turning the pile gets everything more uniform. There is the lazy way too, just pile it up and leave it alone. That's the longest and most wasteful way but it works.

The first way to compost is to build a heap. You add your kitchen scraps and other nitrogen materials and then add some carbon based materials. You want the pile to stay moist but not be too packed where anaerobic conditions are causing foul odors and disease. It takes time, and believe me it is not as easy as it sounds. I am still working on it for about 2 1/2 years now. I am beginning to see the light but it takes time and vigilance to prepare a healthy and nutritious compost to feed your garden well. The pile will take a long time if you don't have all the ingredients to build a large enough pile. Small piles don't heat up as well as a larger pile does. If you get too large you create anaerobic conditions. Another long time to learn lesson. When the pile has been hot, around 140 degrees Fahrenheit, for a week or so you can turn it. You will be placing what is now the outer layer into the center of the new heap. Make sure everything is staying moist, bacteria need it to stay active. After a few weeks of turning and heating you can let the compost rest for a month and turn it one last time and it should be ready to use in about three months.

The second DIY compost idea is the pallet bin. You take three pallets and tie them together to form 3 sides of a box. You then add another 2 with the fronts missing off both bins. and a third or fourth if you really want to get fancy. This method is a little slower but it still produces high quality compost. The ingredients are the same in the same order, it the cooking that varies on this one. You can layer in your nitrogen and carbon ingredients or just toss it all in there. The more you can break up the ingredients into smaller pieces the better. Then, you turn the pile as you start a new one. |Transfer the contents of the first bin to the second and start the new one. You can continue this as many times as you'd like, however it's not necessary to make all the bins as large as the first two or three. The pile shrinks as it is consumed by the microbes.

The third idea for composting is the tumbler. You put all of your scraps out into the tumbler and let it rot, turning every so often. The downfall on this system is that it is a small chamber, doesn't have anywhere to store next batch of compost while current one is finishing up, and they are expensive. I guess those statements are just my opinion and not everyone agrees but that is how I feel about them. All the other parts are the same, keep the pile moist and balanced.

Those are my three easy DIY compost ideas. There are plenty more out there and they almost all work. The quality lies in the small details. Pay attention to your work and create something great since you will be consuming the product of your labor in the form of nutritious veggies and fruits. Make sure not to rush the process. Don't overdo any one ingredient, keep everything as balanced as possible and the results will speak for themselves.

Find Your Best Gardening Method

It is not so easy to just grow a garden and end all trips to the grocery store. I have been studying many ways to get food to my table. It is difficult to find the "best way" to garden but there are a few ideas that are helpful.The main thing I've found to get things to grow is water. Once your seeds begin to sprout, and don't get eaten by bugs, you must make sure that they have enough nutrition to continue strong growth. Then you must continue to add enough water and nutrition to make sure that your garden can flourish. It sounds really simple but it is a little more complex than one may first think.

There are some folks who seem to have some sort of natural talent for gardening. I am not one of them. It seems like every problem I solve in the garden allows 2 or 3 new ones to surface. All the gardening gurus have a solution and they are so sure of it, except when I try it, there is no success. I know that gardening should not break the bank and it should happen with only a small amount of maintenance, right? I am at the point now where I need to try something new, again.

My plants grow but they don't have the vigor and glow that I am striving for. My tomatoes don't produce an abundance of ripe, juicy and sweet fruits I expected. My strawberries are constantly eaten by pests. Many of my brassicas never make it past the surface before being annihilated by bugs. Then there's the rabbits and squirrels. It is a never ending battle. No wonder it is so easy for the chemical companies to keep selling their products. It is way easier to spray some magic formula on my garden to make the bugs go away and the other vermin and get my plants to grow huge than it is to feed the soil properly to get it healthy and running at optimum.

There are as many soil recipes as gardeners, it seems. I am still not sure if I should add lime or not. Is peat moss really endangered? How can I get my soil to grow tomatoes without needing to keep adding fertilizer throughout the growing cycle? Is there a balanced compost for all plants and all applications? Where does bat guano come from?

There are answers on the internet for all of these questions but there are too many answers. There are too many different situations to consider when first starting and then maintaining a garden. Your best gardening method should be different than mine. You live in a different place than I do. Your micro climates are different around your own yard. The way you choose to be your best gardening method needs to include a way to measure your success and track your improvements.

Starting an Organic Garden

In my research I have found so many different perspectives on how to create a garden that will grow food for you. They all include a plant, some where to grow the plant and a way to feed the plant. I have decided that the easiest way for me to accomplish this is not so easy. While it is true that if you put a seed into some dirt and give it some water it will grow it doesn't always mean that you will grow something edible!

The Vegetable Gardener's Bible is a book about gardening vegetables. It is a good place to start. I suggest following exactly the steps he suggests for almost certain success. It is not a good idea to deviate from the plan until you have tried something that is known to have worked for someone else. Another good book I borrowed from the library, that goes a little more in depth about gardening is called, 

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series).

I like the explanations that Steve Solomon gives about how the garden works in,  

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series), more than I like the general growing techniques that Ed Smith outlines in, The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. I often refer to the Ed Smith book because I bought it before I ever heard of Steve Solomon. I am going to add more of Steve's books to my collection in the future. He has a website where you can read some of his other books free online. Just google Steve Solomon and you'll find what I'm talking about.

It's Been Awhile

Still gardening out here in Lakeside. I've been lucky to learn about how hard it is to grow my own food. I've also learned that pests are everywhere. When I first started my gardens I had very high expectations. I quickly learned that it takes time and a whole lot of know how to grow the garden you desire. My expectations have been changing but I have not yet learned enough to be able to grow my own food and grow a good cover crop.

I tried to put mulch, shredded eucalyptus leaves and branches, on my garden and planted in the dirt under it. Most of my seedlings were destroyed before they reached an inch tall. I had created a nice habitat for bugs and was feeding them some delicious fresh micro greens. I didn't know what the problem was until recently. I had followed advice from a book that was not written for someone trying to grow here in southern California. I have switched to a method where I feed worms in a trench style bin and plant small 4' X 4' garden beds butted up against the trench. I only planted next to the trench 2 days ago, so there is not too much to report yet. I hope that the bugs will stay in the trench and my garden will grow nicely when the worms carry vital nutrients into the garden beds.

I am excited to see what is going to happen. I still have two more 4' X 4' beds to dig before I go on to the next set of beds. The next set is going to be equipped with a worm tower type of structure. It is merely a 5 gallon bucket with 1/2" holes drilled all around the sides and bottom. I bury the bucket 3/4 or more in the middle of the garden and feed the worms there. They are free to come and go as they please. They carry undigested food out into the surrounding soil and then put their castings there to feed the garden.

Since I have been adding more water more plants have been sprouting up. I don't know that this is the best thing that could happen but I at least have more food to put in the worm bins. I have put some worm castings mixed with some organic fertilizers and amendments on top of some of the garden beds. I hope it is not too strong for planting in. I do also hope that this will help my seedlings start off strong and maintain until the worms are steadily feeding the garden.