Composting

Composting can be used for all your planting needs in your backyard garden, whether you have a full garden, or a container garden. Since compost is created from organic matter, it is an excellent source of nutrients for your plants. It also is less dense and holds moisture better then typical garden soil, improving the soil structure. Many backyard landscapers like to mulch using composted materials as it helps prevent plant diseases.

Composting in your backyard

You can help your backyard garden, and the environment, by relying on organic compost, instead of chemical fertilizers. The eventual cured product looks, feels and smells like the earth, but the nutrients it provides your plants will do wonders for their growth, health, and appearance.

Eventually, any organic matter will decompose. However, providing a compost recipe of four ingredients will insure a faster curing process. Bacteria, fungi, and worms need four key ingredients to speed up the process of natural decay: carbon, nitrogen, water and oxygen. Finding the right diet for your compost heap, is the key to successful backyard composting.

Compost can be used for all your planting needs. Compost is an excellent source of organic matter to add to your garden or potted plants. It helps improve soil structure which contributes to good aeration and moisture-holding capacity.

Getting Started with Composting

  1. Compost Bins
    The first step in compost gardening is to determine what type and size of bin you will need and how you will obtain it. Will you build a compost bin, or will you purchase a compost system? What are compost tumblers, and how can they help your composting?
  2. Organic Compost
    Determine from the start whether you wish to go completely organic in your composting, this includes whether you wish to use an environmentally friendly compost bin like our deluxe pyramid composter. We suggest you do! Included in this article are several "recipes" for creating an organic compost.
  3. Compost Making
    Understand the process behind compost making. Understanding what happens during the curing of the organic material, and what it needs to convert into compost will improve your compost pile. We also provide an assortment of tips for making your compost pile successful.
  4. Composting with Worms
    An overview of vermicomposting. Tips on how to create the perfect compost worm nutritional diet.
  5. Stealth Composting
    Composting indoors, or hiding your compost material is possible!
  6. Homemade Compost Problems
    All backyard landscapers will eventually run into problems with their compost piles. Use this guide as a quick method to help you identify and resolve the problem.

Purchasing Composting Bins and Supplies

Backyard Landscaping's garden shop can provide you all of the tools needed to create the perfect compost pile. While it's true you can simply build a compost bin, for many visitors to our site, this is not feasible, and they require a more aesthetic appearance to their composting, or wish to compost faster then a homemade compost bin will allow. The following items will assist you:

  1. Compost Accessories
    Whether you're looking for an aerator tool for your compost bin, compost cover, compost sifter, rodent screen, or searching for a compost starter.
  2. Compost Pails
    A kitchen compost pail makes it easy to collect food scraps. Choose from our selection of decorative and odor-free compost pails. Purchase compost filters for your existing compost pail.
  3. Compost Systems
    A large variety of compost bins and compost tumblers.
  4. Worm Bins
    By a worm chalet or the red wrigglers themselves.

Composting can be as easy or as involved as you need - it depends on how much organic waste you have, how quickly you need results, and the amount of effort you can invest.

Some sample compost systems from our Garden Shop

 

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