With spring in full swing, gardeners everywhere are often inclined to apply soil nutrients in the form of commercial fertilizer products in hopes of getting better performance from their plants.
Annuals, perennials, ornamentals, vegetables and even trees will respond to the addition of these elements in proper amounts to further nourish home landscapes and gardens. There is, however, another option to achieve horticulture heaven.
Long before commercial fertilizers were available, farmers and gardeners used composts to supply their vegetable gardens with valuable plant nutrients. Many newly cleared fields and garden patches were rich in organic material from naturally composted plants.
There are an almost infinite number of formulas for the home gardener to make compost. One simple way is by layering organic materials like kitchen table scraps, manure, topsoil, organic fertilizers, even water and air with existing yard waste.
As the compost material decomposes, essential nutrients become available in forms useful to the plant.
Vegetables can perform very well when using homemade compost. The organically rich material holds water and slowly releases nutrients essential to peak plant performance.
Ideally, the compost pile should be about ten-by-ten feet wide and three-to-five feet high to begin with. To get one started, make a layer of leaves, straw or grass clippings one foot deep and wet it down well.
Next, spread a layer of livestock manure four-to-six inches deep over the layer of lawn clippings. Then, spread up to five pounds of ground phosphate or one quart of raw bone meal and one pound of ground limestone on top of the manure.
Repeat this layering process until the pile is three-to-five feet high. To speed up the process, use five pounds of a complete organic fertilizer instead of phosphate and bone meal. Also, a layer of topsoil is commonly added to the blend.
In two or three days, the compost heap should begin to heat up. Keep it moist, but not drenched, and do not disturb or turn it. After three or four weeks, stir the mixture thoroughly.
When the compost is completely broken down into a homogeneous mixture, and no decayed leaves or other material is identifiable, it is ready to use in the garden. This process can take anywhere from two months to a year, depending on the materials used, moisture, weather, and the skill of the composter.
Use compost in much the same way as manure was used in times past. Broadcast it over the entire garden three weeks or more before planting.
A small amount of compost may be mixed into the soil along each furrow when setting out the transplants or seeds. As a rule of thumb, apply compost at a rate of twenty-five pounds per one hundred square feet of the garden.
Many kinds of natural materials can be used successfully in the compost pile. Some of the most popular materials include leaves, pine straw, grass clippings, shrub clippings, fish scraps and table scraps, all of which are found in panhandle Florida.
Fruit skins and vegetable fibers provide significant amounts of potassium. Other things you normally throw away, such as tea and coffee grounds and egg shells provide valuable nitrogen to the compost pile.
Successful composting provides relatively inexpensive sources of nutrition for your vegetable garden and flower beds, it improves the water holding capacity of soil, and it can create a change in perspective about what is really “garbage” or “refuse” and what can be recycled.
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