Egroup

Does anybody else here engage in composting to create good mulch for your in-ground trees (can also be used in the winter to protect the roots of outdoor potted Bonsai)... I have found it to be a fascinating "hobby" in and of itself, not to mention being yet another way to reduce/reuse recycle waste from your kitchen. It is quite easy to do- just make a nice heap of leaves, add a thin layer of already composted material or just use regular store bought garden soil with ferts included (the nitrogen in say something like Miracle grow garden soil/ or organic soil...) then add a layer of "green" (kitchen waste- no meats or dairy that gets real nasty and attracts the beasties you do not want... grass clippings... garden residue...)... do this a few times until you have a nice sized pile (about 3-4 feet high... then mix with a shovel or something, wet it down and let it sit. the more frequent you "turn" your pile the faster is turns to real compost... but if you just let ti sit with no turning it will rot down in about a year with frequent turning you can get good, nicely rotted compost/mulch in just a month or two. Keep it pretty wet, but don't "drown" it. The pile will heat up in a few days and the composting begins pretty fast. you know it is done when you turn it and you cannot hardly tell the difference between the different type of composting matter, you just are left with a nice black/brown colored mass of rotting organic matter. I try to keep two piles going- one that is not being added to and just let to finish "curing" the other that I am actively adding to until I get happy with it, then I let it cure, spread the finished one and start a new one where I had the old one... you can make or buy fancy composting machine/ pens... I just made a pile on the ground and I am getting fine results. Separated them with a piece of ply wood to keep the old separate from the new... and away you go!

Nothing real complicated about it.. you generally want about twice as much brown (old/dead leaves, paper- white stuff like news paper, used paper towels... no glossy or colored or plastic stuff..- straw/ hay, corn stalks... nutshells, small amounts of pine straw (BROWN!) and wood ash is acceptable also!) as green (kitchen wastes-vegi and fruit matter, egg shells, old bread-, grass clippings, green garden waste stuff-clippings, fresh leaves..) but you just use what you got mostly.

Lemme know if you want to do it and have any questions. IF you get a nicely composted pile going and you just work it into the top layer of soil in your garden you will see an immediate improvement. the fresh compost is high in nutrients and microorganisms beneficial to all plants so I even tend to toss a bit on top of the soil of some of my bonsai as an alternative feeding method- ALL PLANTS LOVE IT!!! I was just thinking of it because I am working on starting the new pile today and I am almost ready to start spreading the one that has been "working". I Helped my mother (a MASTER gardener in her own right) do this for YEARS as a child, but just started my own over the winter and spread my first completed compost this spring, and my plants in my garden and my Bonsai really showed noticeable improved color and growth in just a week or so!!