Lawn Care

It’s well known that composting is a great way to create a potent mulch for your lawn or garden. But some say the confusing rules is what holds them back. Like do add kitchen scraps just not tomatoes. Cow patties are okay but the contents of your cat’s litter box are not. Grass clippings are fine but only in moderation.

If such do’s and don’ts are the reason you’ve shied away from adding a backyard compost why don’t we see if we can help you get past that.

Composting Defined: A process that uses micro-organisms to convert decaying vegetation and manure into a humus-like material commonly referred to as compost.

This really is an excellent little yard waste recycling system. In fact let me share three reasons to compost.

Composting this kind of organic waste gives you a cheap way to improve the quality of soil in your garden immensely. Plus it is a practical way to dispose of household waste saving landfill space. Also by composting you reduce the need for commercial fertilizers which are chemically based and do little to improve your dirt.

Nearly anything plant based like spent flowers, to grass clippings, to kitchen scraps such as banana peels and orange rinds can be composted. Anything like this contributes nitrogen to the pile. Some find it helpful to think green.

Woody materials like leaves in the fall to sawdust even wood chips can also be composted. That’s the carbon component. With this you want to think brown.

A mix of both carbon and nitrogen, or brown and green, is required to speed up the natural breakdown of the component parts into a crumbly soil amenity. And if you’re short on nitrogen you can always get some cheap lawn fertilizer on sale and use that. Paying attention to the amount of nitrogen in the bag. I’ve also used ammonia too.

Now that you know what to use, on the other hand avoid adding things like:

Meat, bones, grease, dairy products. Also fatty foods like cheese should not be dumped into your pile. These slow down decomposition and tend to attract rodents and pests. They can also be the source of unsavory odors.

Adding dog and cat droppings risks spreading disease. Ugh.

Some diseased plants and weeds full of seeds are not suitable for the backyard composter either. Because the seeds and disease organisms may not completely break down unless you have a very hot compost. So you could just be spreading the seeds into the garden when you distribute the compost produced.

Same goes for tomatoes and morning glories. Do heed the morning glory warning. Or you’ll regret all the volunteers that come up year after year – for years.

Locating the pile isn’t a big deal. Try to keep it convenient for you yet close to the garden if you can. You want the sun to hit it some to help heat up the pile. And being somewhat sheltered from the wind is good too.

Anyway this is a good start toward creating your own soil enrichment program. Anyone will a bit of time can set up a compost pile and in no time start to reap the benefits. If you’ll but remember to mix the brown and green you’ll soon have crumbly black gold to spread on your lawn, flower beds and garden.

You could say feature writer Dewey J Capasso is into zero turn lawn mowers. He has written detailed ZTR mower reviews and explored the latest and greatest riding lawn mowers going. Visit MowerMania.com to find out what you need to know to make your yard an emerald jewel that will turn your neighbors green with envy.