From: Articleranks Team <noreply@articleranks.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 3:27 AM
Subject: Composting And Its Art [article from Articleranks]
To: "richrob77@gmail.com" <richrob77@gmail.com>
Composting And Its Art
Even a composting neophyte can create top-notch compost with the right recipe. Half art and half science is composting, just as cooking is. Awareness of these basic factors will help you getting started.
Just as high quality ingredients are demanded by a chef, the best ingredients are also important for successful composting. Tea bags, coffee filters, grass clippings, leaves, plant stalks, hedge trimmings, old potting soil, twigs, and vegetable scraps are considered as good materials for composting. Grease, diseased plants, weeds with seed heads, invasive weeds, pet feces, dead animals, bread and grains, meat or fish parts, dairy products, cooking oil, or oily foods are considered as bad materials for composting.
You need the following materials to prepare compost: water, air, a small quantity of nitrogen, organic materials, and microorganisms. What you're trying to decompose are organic materials. Microorganisms are tiny forms of plant and animal life, which break down organic material. A small amount of garden soil or manure supplies adequate microorganisms. Offering an encouraging environment for the microorganisms to produce your compost are the air, nitrogen, and water. At hardware stores or nurseries, you can buy a small amount of nitrogen fertilizer and with this you can add enough nitrogen to the compost. Air is the one ingredient which you can't have too much of. Microbes can be killed if there's too much nitrogen while insufficient air in the pile is the result of too much water.
The materials will decompose faster if the microorganisms have more surface area to feed off. Your organic materials can be chopped with a machete or shred the materials using a shredder or lawnmower to break them down faster.
The compost pile will then be your oven. Because of the activity of microorganisms, heat is created and this heat is caught by compost piles. For fast composting, the minimum size is a 3x3x3 foot. But piles wider or taller than 5 feet don't permit enough air to reach the microorganisms at the center.
The microorganisms of your compost pile work hard when the materials are as moist as a wrung-out sponge and also has many air passages. To maintain high temperatures and control the odor, the pile should be turned or mixed up every now and then to add more air and the air in the pile is usually consumed faster than the moisture. To turn the materials, use a rake, pitchfork, or other garden tool.
About the author: Shirley Merritt is an expert in cabin living and decorating. Looking for simple cabin beds for the guest bedrooms or a stately Aspen log bedroom suite for the master? These heirloom-quality log cabin furniture comes in many shapes, sizes and styles from simple clean peeled logs to rustic logs full of burls, gnarls and beetle tracks, to match any cabin d©cor.
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Signed Richard J Roberts.
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