COMPOST AND THE BACKYARD GARDENER

It's time to put that backyard garden to sleep and formulate a plan for next year's planting. To prepare your garden for Mother Nature's fluffy white comforter, you must first remove all the dead and dying debris from this year's bountiful harvest.  What do you do with all that dead and dying stuff?  If you're smart, you compost it. 

When clearing away the spent foliage, check for diseased plants.  Place these in plastic bags, preferably black plastic because they get hotter inside.  The heat is needed to kill the organisms that caused the problem in the first place.  Fasten these tightly.  They are able to be composted safely because the core temperature of your pile should reach 120 degrees F, but as a beginning composter, you may want to toss them in the trash for your own peace of mind.  Everything else goes in your pile.  Your pile is your compost heap, bin or container.

Shredding is helpful to speed the composting, but it is not vital to the pile.  If you already own a shredder, use it.  If you don't own one, run your lawn mower over piles of leaves to aid in decomposition.

There are many kinds of compost bins on the market.  However, the best one for you may be the one you build yourself.  You can spend a lot of money on this or you can build one for almost nothing except the cost of your labor. 

The easiest method for the smaller garden is the black plastic bag method described above for the diseased plants.  One gardener uses this method to dispose of his fall leaf collection.  He fills the bags, hauls them to the side of house, opens them up and adds water, a bit of nitrogen and a scoop of lime to assist in breaking down the leaves.  Adding a shovel full of soil gives the compost something to adhere to making it easier to use in the spring. 

Once the bags are in place, Mother Nature does the rest.  The sun comes out and bakes the concoction.  He not only has compost next year, but he also has the benefit of extra insulation during the winter months.

Another equally inexpensive method is the recycled pallet method.  Most businesses that receive products on pallets throw them away eventually.  When you see them piled up outside the local garden center or feed store, stop and ask them.  They usually are quite happy to give them away and not have to pay the trash man.

You can get by with four, but five would be nicer, and six even better.  You'll also need eight heavy duty stakes.  If you get a sixth pallet, you can take it apart and use the boards for the stakes by cutting points on one end to ease the introduction into the soil.

Now that you have your stakes made, place the fifth pallet on the ground of your site.  This one is not actually necessary but can be helpful in aerating the bottom of your pile.  Pound the stakes into the ground, two on each side at points where you will be able to pick up a pallet and slide it down over the stakes to form a side wall to your pile.  Keep your corners as tight as you can or your material will fall out.

When you have the first three sides in place, you can begin to fill your pile. Most composters begin with a layer of leaves.  Some leaves may be hazardous to your garden.  If you aren't sure, check with your local extension office.  Black walnut leaves contain juglone a natural growth inhibitor.  They can be used in a compost pile, but you have to be sure to wait a month before using the compost. 

Never compost poison ivy or other plants that can cause skin irritations.  The oil will remain in the soil, still potent.  Don't burn the ivy, either as the oil becomes airborne.

Alternate layers of dryer material such as leaves or straw with a green layer, such as fresh plants or grass clippings.  You can add rotting veggies and fruit anytime.  Keep extra straw and grass clippings near your pile to cover up fresh additions.  You don't want to encourage flies.

It is not necessary to use chemicals to break down your pile if you turn it often.  You may want to add lime, wood ashes or phosphates, but good compost can be made without these additions. 

The addition of egg shells will provide more lime, but if you use bare hands in the soil, you should crush them or put the shells through a shredder.  Even your blender can be used for these small jobs. 

Ruby, a gardener from Ohio, stores egg shells in a closed coffee can under her sink.  She puts her grandchildren to work outside letting them smash them with croquet mallets.  They use a lot of energy and get exercise and she gets free labor. 

The layers are just to get you started.  Turn your pile about once or twice a month, depending on how much time and energy you want to put into this.  Turn at least once a month  unless that white comforter of Mother Nature's is too deep and treacherous for you to reach your pile.  In that case leave it till the spring thaw.

Avoid putting meat scraps or other cooked foods in your pile.  A humongous catfish may be great for your garden but it could invite unwelcome visitors such as rats to your back yard.  Also avoid putting crab grass in your pile.  It also contains a substance that stunts the growth of other plants.

When selecting a site for your pile, consider your neighbors.  A properly cared for pile will not smell, but your neighbor may not want to have your pile across the fence from where she entertains her lady's club.

In the late spring, when you can work in your garden, you may want to try an inexpensive "in the garden" compost method using some leaves.  You probably still have a few blowing around.  Visit some grocery stores.  Talk to the produce workers to see what they do with veggie scraps.  If you can, get them to save the scraps for your garden.  Sometimes they save them for farmers to feed to their rabbits.

Double dig your garden.  This means to dig a trench about a foot deep.  Put this soil aside for your last row.  Now you have a one foot deep trench with probably hard packed dead soil below, that no self respecting root would even want to grow through if they possibly could.  Stick your garden fork or spade in as far as you can straight down and wiggle it a little to loosen the soil.

Sprinkle some lime in the trench first.  Then put in a thin layer of leaves, then a layer of cabbage and lettuce leaves if you have them.  Grass clippings will do, if the grocer wouldn't part with his garbage.  He's probably using it in his own garden. 

Don't forgot the grounds from your morning pot of coffee.  Coffee grounds work well to repel nematodes that can destroy your carrot and other root crops.

Use the sharp point of your shovel to cut the leaves a little.  All you good gardeners out there, keep your tools sharpened.  Cutting the leaves a little aids in the breakdown by providing more work surfaces for those good little microbes.  Now fill the trench with the soil you will remove from the next trench.

If you are in an area that doesn't get much spring rain, you may want to add a little moisture and cover it with a black plastic tarp for two to three weeks.  You will find that you can plant your seeds sooner with the soil warmed earlier.  Your plants will grow bigger and faster and give you much better yields.

Good "bugs" as well as "bad" bugs live in your soil.  Compost encourages the "good" bugs that actually work for you.  Some of these bugs are bacteria that aid in bonding soil particles together.  Earthworms not only provide tunnels to aerate your soil, but they also process material and give you fertilizer.  Some nematodes are "good" nematodes who leave your root crops alone and eat other bacteria and fungi so they don't over run your garden.  Pillbugs, those tiny armadillo shaped bugs that curl into a ball or "pill" when you touch them are really hard at work increasing the water-holding capacity of your garden soil. 

There are faster compost methods, but they cost a lot more than the average backyard gardener wants to spend.  If you're not going to need that compost right away, you can afford to wait and still get quality compost and an abundant harvest for next to nothing.