Soil Plus Compost Equals Lush Healthy Plants

You find that your plants are giving you fits in your landscape because it seems like a parade of weeds, insects or diseases have invaded and taken over. The problem is probably not due to insects or diseases but the poor soil that the plants are in. This poor soil is the major cause of invading insects and/or plant diseases.
With the poor soil comes weak and unhealthy plants that are more likely to get insect or disease problems. By improving the soil with compost, either before or after planting, will create a big difference. Anytime is a great time to add compost.
Compost is made of rich organic matter, which is crucial to growing healthy and fruitful plants. It is the result of a natural process of decay and recycling of materials such as leaves and twigs. In every corner of the world, in every meadow, forest and wetland composting is taking place. By copying this process, our plants will reap the benefits also.
The major benefit of compost is that it binds water and nutrients in reserve, freeing them when plants need it the most. It holds double its weight in water, hence cutting back the need to water and increasing a plants capacity for our dry months.
Utilizing compost is an inexpensive way to better the soil. Compost cuts the need to fertilize since it's rich in plant nutrients and slowly discharges them over time. And by not having to replace plants every year and the costs connected with plants that die because of poor soils.
Humic acid is a plant-growth stimulant found in compost. Vegetable crops tests show that humic acid, even in low concentrations, produces healthy, lush plants.
Creating compost is an easy task. With all of the grass clippings, twigs and leaves from the yard, fall is a good time to make a compost pile. There are several ways to make compost. Even if you buy a compost bin or build one from wood pallets, here are several tips to help you get going.
1. A compost pile should be approximately 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide. This measurement is ideal for getting the pile to heat up.
2. All items going into the compost pile should be wet. When the yard waste is dry when added, it will reduce the decomposition process.
3. Layers of the yard waste should be applied, that is, a layer of grass clippings then a layer of leaves and so on.
4. To turn a compost pile is not a absolute necessary task unless you are in a hurry. By turning the compost pile it will accelerate the decomposition process.
5. The finished product compost can be applied to a new or an established garden or landscape. If you are still planning your project, be sure to add plenty of compost onto your soil before you plant. The compost, over time, will integrate itself with your existing soil. Therefore, no need to till or dig up the place you are improving.
It doesn't make any difference if your soil is sandy, clay, or rock; adding compost will improve it.
To top dress an established landscape, you can add a layer of compost on top of the existing soil. If you have established plants, add 1 - 2 inches of compost all around the plant. The plants will still get the benefits of the humic acid and other important plant nutrients abundantly found in compost.
The plants and landscape will reward you with a lush, healthy growth. Additionally, it will step-up your plants' natural resistance to insects and diseases. This method is nothing but back to basics.

by James Ellison

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Organic Gardening Compost - The Type Of Compost That You Will Need - by Chris Dailey

Compost is basically organic matter that has broken down any sufficient manner that the mineral and nutrients with in the compost can be readily absorbed by the plants that you are attempting to grow in your organic garden. Organic gardeners from all over the world have used similar practices in order to stimulate the growth of their plants by naturally enriching the soil. Here are a few tips on how to create and use the best organic gardening compost for your garden. Composting is a very complicated process in and of itself, but for everyone that tries to do it the first time, it will be a very easy process. What is difficult is the process that we cannot see underneath the tarp or in the bin. Tiny bacteria and an assortment of mites and, if we are using worms, red worms will work together to create compost for you. Doing this can be summarized in a few words. Taking your remaining organic waste and placing it in a container or under a tarp will start the process. You have a few other items to mix in, such a grass clipping from your weekly mowing or it can be newspaper and a touch of saw dust from a project that you may be doing on the weekend like fixing your home. If you work at a place such as a saw mill that creates an abundance of material each and every day, you can use that as part of you bedding in a sparing way. Or if you are a restaurant owner, or know someone in the business, even a coffee shop, you will have enough free organic material to make this work in no time. Overall, you just add a pile of waste together and the magic begins. There is much more to the process, but to make it simple at first is a good way to draw you into or sell you on the idea that it will not take much of your time and that it will help you and the environment. Each person, by doing their share, and not using materials that can cause environmental harm, are helping fix our world. Now, here is a bit more on the composting process. As a rule of thumb, what ever soil you may be trying to grow your organic garden in, it can never get enough compost because soil can only be improved by the addition of organic matter. Compost is basically organic matter that has broken down any sufficient manner that the mineral and nutrients with in the compost can be readily absorbed by the plants that you are attempting to grow in your organic garden. Here are a few tips on how to create and use the best organic gardening compost for your garden. Organic gardening compost can be purchased locally or you can create your own kind of compost by using the left over food that you have on a daily basis. By purchasing a composter bin or simply creating an area where your scraps can be thrown, this material will decompose over time and can be used as fertilizer for your organic garden. Typically, an ideal blend for any kind of organic compost would be equal amounts of soft and green material such as maneuver and leaves that are readily available at most households. Additionally, hard and brown material such as dead leaves or chopped up twigs can be used to help balance your organic gardening compost mixture. A simple things such as taking the clippings from your lawn and the pruning sprung your tree can add to your compost pile quite quickly. The ideal size of a compost pile could be anywhere from three to 4 feet high unless of course you are using and organic compost bin. The key is to make sure there is significant air for aeration of the compost. Using a large stick or a pitchfork to continually aerate were pile will help the organic composting process along quite nicely. Other people have used PVC pipes to help aerate larger compost piles with great success. A nice bonus to creating your own compost pile is that the high temperatures that will occur will help sterilize many of the diseases brought by spores or other pests that may be lurking in the compost itself. To accelerate the decomposition process of your compost pile, you can add some of it to the garden soil. Basically, the more scraps from your home, the more trimmings from your surroundings that you add, and the more aeration that the pile receives, all of this will help accelerate the decomposition process. Other possible additions could be peat moss, seedless weeds, and even fruit and vegetable peels from your household. All of this will help create a magnificent organic gardening compost pile in no time at all.

About the Author:Chris Dailey is the owner of Composting For Profit and Super Organic Gardening Secrets. You can download additional free valuable info on organic gardening compost as well as the first 5 chapters of his ebook on composting for free. Visit Composting For Profit today

The Compost Pile

At first it was only about the garden. I only built a compost pile so that I could have some natural fertilizer. But as time passed by I found myself more absorbed in the creation of compost then in the growing of vegetables.
Watching the raw materials that I added to my compost pile as they broke down into "black gold" was more fun than I could have ever imagined! And the results after adding this black gold to the rows of my plants was nothing short of miraculous! And the fact that I was recyling items that I would have only thrown in the garbage anyway made the process all the more sweeter.

So I hope you enjoy this information on the "art" of composting as much as I have had compiling it.