How To Compost

National Compost Day

The day you’ve been waiting for all year is here. Well, maybe not exactly, but 29 May is an exciting day nonetheless – It’s National Compost Day! Get your gardening gloves on, fill your thermos with organic coffee or tea, and step into the sunlight.

National Compost Day is a day to raise awareness of how we can make the world a bit better by using the materials that we have available. Organic waste gets repurposed, which is great both for your garden and wallet. You also get to say goodbye to nasty fertilizers and chemicals and stick with a natural way instead. The bumblebees will be zooming around your flowerbeds in pure joy.

What Is Composting

Compost consists of decomposed organic matter put in a composting pile. In different terms, you take food waste from the kitchen and put it in a composting bin in your backyard, poke it a little every once in a while, wait patiently for it to decompose, and just like that, you have a nutrition-rich fertilizer to use in your garden.

The benefits of using compost are plenty. You don’t have to keep smelly food waste in your kitchen bins anymore, the leaves in the garden don’t have to be bagged up for garbage day, and your old newspapers get a second life as food for your flowers. That’s great news! The number of things you can add to your compost will surprise you. Coffee grinds? Yup! Eggshells? Yup! The clippings after you’ve trimmed your pet? Yuck! We mean, yup! Almost any food can be used, with the exception of processed food, meat, and fish. Fruit and vegetables are excellent.

How Do You Maintain the Compost

Okay, you’ve scavenged your fridge for expired food, saved all the eggshells, and added it all to the pile. Now what? Just leave it there to do its job. Once a month or so, go out with a shovel and give it a good twirl. In the seasons with less heat and sunshine, you might want to go out more often. Also, get that vitamin D while you’re at it. The pile should be slightly moist. If the pile is so dry that it no longer feels like a wrung-out sponge, add some more water.

Once the mixture is ready to use, it will have an earthy, mulchy smell. Sprinkle it and mix it wherever you like, and you will have a flourishing garden with growing flowers and plants in no time.