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Grow Info  Grow mediums SoilSearch by tag : compost, fertilizer, soil, Healthy, Garden |
| Healthy Garden Soil |
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In the soft, warm bosom of a decaying compost heap, a transformation from life to death and back again is taking place. Life is leaving the living plants of yesterday, but in their death these leaves and stalks pass on their vitality to the coming generations of future seasons. Here in the dank, moldy pile the wheel of life is turning. The compost heap in your garden is an intensified version of this process of death and rebuilding which is going on almost everywhere in nature. In the course of running a garden, there is always an accumulation of organic waste of different sorts - leaves, grass clippings, weeds, twigs - and since time immemorial gardeners have been accumulating this material in piles, eventually to spread it back on the soil as rich, dark humus. The Purpose of Composting:Gardening and farming disrupt the natural pattern of the return of plant matter to the earth. Compost is the link between modern agriculture and nature's own method of building soil fertility. In addition to returning rotting vegetable material to the soil, there are two major reasons for making compost:
The high heat of composting rapidly "cooks" the smell out of manure and garden waste. This is a significant gain because gardeners are often reluctant to use those materials "fresh". The composting process also increases the nitrogen content of the pile. Microorganisms "burn off" much of the carbon, reducing the cubic bulk of the heap but correspondingly increasing its nitrogen portion. Organic matter is valuable to the soil only while it is decaying. Even finished compost is actually only partly decayed. It continues to break down in the soil, providing food for increasing populations of microorganisms upon which your plant health depends. Pound per pound (kg per kg) compost is the finest soil conditioner to be had. More info : How To Make Compost Related items |
Compost is more than a fertilizer or a healing agent for the soil's wounds. It is a symbol of continuing life. Nature herself made compost before man first walked the earth and before the first dinosaur lifted its head above the primeval swamp. Leaves falling to the forest floor and slowing moldering are composting. The dead grass of the meadow seared by winter's frost is being composted by the dampness of the earth beneath. Birds, insects and animals contribute their bodies to this vast and continuing soil rebuilding program of nature.| < Prev |
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