Compost

It's natures best fertilizer for your plants and lawn. Making compost is cheap and easy to do. It also has many benefits including stimulates root growth, improves aeration and increases the soils ability to hold water. Microorganisms feed on the compost which creates Nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Most gardeners understand that a rich dark soil is the best for growing vegetables and growing flowers.

It can be made by simply adding grass clippings, leaves or almost any organic kitchen scrap and applying it to a composter or just simply adding it to the soil. Simply adding it to the soil will take longer to decompose. When adding scraps to a compost bin or to the garden, a ratio of 25 parts brown to 1 part green is recommended to speed up the decomposition process. Browns or "carbon-rich" materials include leaves and wood chips. Greens or "nitrogen-rich" materials include grass clippings and kitchen scraps. Chopping or shredding materials before adding them to your garden or flower bed help to decompose them quicker. Manure and seaweed can also be added to your bin or garden.

When the process is finished it is a dark brown and still may contain a few small pieces of material. Make sure not to add too much to the garden as it is mainly used as a soil conditioner.

At 155 degrees F compost will decompose about twice as fast as it would at 130 degrees F. This is why most gardener's use compost bins. They are usually made of black plastic to increase the temperature. Moisture in the bin also increases temperature.