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Who needs compost?
Farmers and avid gardeners often use compost to help enrich the soil in which they grow their plants and crops in. Recycling organic materials leaves the compost full of nutrients which helps plants and crops thrive, and even grow faster and better than regular soil.
What do you use it for?
Compost is used to enrich soils that grow crops and plants primarily. However, there are many other uses that you may not have thought about before such as:
- It can be used to effectively grow potted plants. Mix it with regular soil and let your plant thrive!
- Make compost tea to water your plants with. It makes it easier for your plants to absorb, therefore making the process much faster
- Feed your plants compost to extend their bloom time
- Use it to help bulbs in the springtime to give them a boost after winter dormancy
- Dressing garden beds to improve appearance and nutrients from the compost.
- Keeping some trash out of the landfill by recycling organic materials into your compost!
When do I use it?
Compost can be used all year round, but using it at particular times of the year can help accelerate growth. In addition, it prevents weeds from forming in your garden. For instance, if you’re laying a new lawn, laying compost on your lawn before planting will drastically improve the tilth of your soil and provide the nutrients your seeds need to thrive.
Where can you find it?
If you’ve got an unused area in your garden, you can easily make your own compost. However, if you don’t have the time, you can buy great quality compost from Earnest Earth!
Why do you use it?
There are many reasons as to why you might use compost, here are a few examples:
Save money
Using compost is completely free, as it’s made from leftover organic materials that you may have used in the kitchen such as peelings and stalks. You won’t need to spend any money on chemical fertilizers because the compost will be already in your garden. Compost also retains water so you won’t have to water your garden as often, and the nutrients aren’t washed away, instead they are absorbed by your plants!
Protect resources
As mentioned, you won’t have to water your garden as often, therefore saving water consumption. Not only that, but recycling organic materials like paper, lawn clippings and food scraps for your compost stops them from going to a landfill.
Great for the environment
Using compost is great for the environment! Not only will you produce less waste that ends up in landfills, but you’ll be saving the fuel it takes to collect and deliver your waste to landfills. Because compost is so enriched, it depletes the need for chemical fertilizers that seriously harm the environment (and your health), therefore being an environmentally friendly process.
Improve your soil
Compost is a natural fertilizer that slowly releases nutrients into the ground and does no harm to your plants or crops. It also retains water much better than soil, meaning the ground is less likely to dry out between watering, and your plants will thrive. Compost provides organic matter that improves plant growth and provides more impressive yields when growing fruit and vegetables.
How can you make compost?
Compost is fairly easy to make, and you can either choose to buy a composter or create your own pile somewhere in your garden. If this is the case, you should start on a bare piece of land, and add a few inches of twigs and leaves as a base. When adding to your compost heap, be sure to alternate between moist and dry matter. For example, using leftover foods such as tea bags and peelings will be your moist matter, and the next time you’d use something dry such as leaves from the garden.
Every few weeks, turn the compost with a pitchfork and you’ll begin to notice beautifully enriched compost forming. Remember to cover it to help retain heat and moisture, as these are two key factors that help your compost thrive. You’ll need to water occasionally, or you might choose to let rainwater do the job for you.
