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This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
Composting is a free source of organic fertilizer essential to properly take care of your garden. For many, composting is a daunting task because they think it is messy, pricey and time-consuming, but in my experience not one of these myths are not true.
Myth #1: Composting is difficult.
Composting can be difficult if you do not know what you are doing. Once you get the hang of it there isn’t much to it and messing up is pretty hard. Composting is simply the process of breaking down plant materials to form humus, (as opposed to hummus, which you eat). Homemade compost is the best fertilizer your plants ever had. There are different types of composting: hot composting, cold composting and vermicomposting.
I am most familiar with vermicomposting as that is the kind done at my community garden. Vermicomposting is very similar to hot composting in that you must mix wet and dry waste in a bin and turn it every now and then to create heat and accelerate decomposition. The difference is that hot composting does not require worms. In cold composting grass clippings and leaves decompose and as you may have guessed it, this process takes more time. There are specific things that are appropriate for composting and certain things you should never compost.
Myth #2: Composting attracts flies and smells.
One of the reasons many people don’t want to compost is because they think it attracts flies and is smelly — after all it’s a pile of waste decomposing, right? Wrong. I have a small compost pail in my kitchen and it hasn’t once smelled bad when I have properly taken care of it. The same goes for the flies. I did once have an infestation of fruit flies but it was because I forgot about my pail for about a week in a half. My pail has a filter so it didn’t stink up the place but it did smell pretty bad when I went to drop it off at the community garden. Haven’t had any problems since but I try to consistently take out my pail full of food scraps every two or three days.
Myth #3: Composting requires a lot of space.
Composting can be accomplished by apartment dwellers. It’s just a matter of finding the right spot in your home. I was composting at home before I decided to take my food scraps to my community garden. I decided to stop composting at home for selfish reasons. If I contribute food scraps to the community garden compost I am able to use more compost for my plants.
Do you compost?
July 7th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Thanks for the good info, Yazmin. I have composted in the past… or should say my late husband did. I’d save the kitchen waste and he’d do the actual composting. Since I have rotator cuff problems, I can’t do the heavy lifting needed to “turn” the materials. However, I still save kitchen scraps which I keep in a plastic bag (from the store produce… “re-use”), then dump into the composter in the back yard. Sadly, my gardener’s wife put a bunch of sticker balls from the liquidambars across the street into the mix, and they don’t break down, so halted the process. However, I’ll try again, as I do know first hand the value of compost fertilizer.
July 7th, 2010 at 11:05 am
@EllieD Is it possible to remove the sticker balls and let the compost continue to decompose? I’ve also thrown stuff in there that shouldn’t go in and have quickly removed it when I figure it out. As long as it doesn’t have oil, I’ve also let a couple thinks slip by and they just haven’t decomposed and they don’t affect my compost – I’m talking about plastics.
July 7th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
@Yazmin ~ I’m afraid I’m neither able nor willing to try to dig all of them out of the compost pile, as there’s a lot of “stuff” in there. However, I’ll take a look again, now that the hotter weather seems to be on its way. Maybe things will have changed enough for me to get in there with a rake or shovel. I’ll let you know what, if anything, happens.
July 7th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
@EllieD You or your gardener could use a leaf vacuum that chips/shreds for dealing with the sticker balls. I used to live in a house that had a huge tree in the front yard that left piles and piles of sticker balls everywhere. I started using the leaf vacuum to pick them up and shred them and then just dumped all the shredded sticker balls into the compost pile. It made the richest, most fine textured compost I’ve ever seen!
July 7th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
@N. Davis ~ Sounds like a great idea! I don’t know whether Jose has one of those, but I’ll ask him next week. In the fall, when the liquidambars drop their leaves and those ankle-breakers, it’s hard to keep ahead of the mess. Since you say the shredded ones make the compost even better, I’ll see whether it can be worked out for the future. I’m afraid there’s not much that can be done to rectify the original damage. I appreciate the input from you and Yazmin.
July 7th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
I’m so lazy…I just dig holes in my backyard and dump my veggie/fruit waste into them, when it’s full I cover it up with dirt and forget about it! Somehow the worms always manage to find my food pits and I get lovely compost, plus I never have to worry about turning it!
July 8th, 2010 at 8:12 am
@katswan Your “dig a hole” method is even less work – and cheaper! Do you dig up the compost when it’s ready or do you bury the waste where you want fertilizer (eventually)?
July 8th, 2010 at 9:04 am
[...] you’ve ever contemplated composting at home you know that the plastic bins that hold household and yard waste are expensive, impossible [...]
July 8th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Actually, you’re entirely wrong about what vermicomposting is.
Vermi is latin for worms. Verimicomposting is done exclusively with worms (red wigglers, usually). It doesn’t taking mixing, etc. and heat doesn’t factor into it. The worms eat the materials. The compost is the worm poo. That’s it. You do have to keep the bin or pile damp, but that’s generally accomplished by adding new material on a regular basis.
Traditional composting is accomplished by the rotting materials creating heat, which speeds the decomp and kills plant and weed material making it safe to use in a garden.
July 9th, 2010 at 7:35 am
Regarding my “dig a hole” method of composting…
Yup, once I bury my scraps, that’s it! I let nature do her work. I do enjoy a bit of a wild look in my garden and it pleases me when I get rogue freebies from this method. Right now I have onions, leeks, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and an avocado and apricot tree growing!l Last year I harvested butternut and spaghetti squash along with tons of red, russet and sweet potatoes!
This method will not work for everyone…I have never had any problems with critters..until this year when I noticed a family of raccoons enjoying my leftovers. I don’t mind sharing and just cover up the mess in the morning but if you have your own animals you may want to avoid feeding the additional wildlife and use a traditional composter.