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Synthetic fertilizer is made from petroleum and it poses a triple threat to the environment. When oil is extracted, processed, and transported, it produces greenhouse gases. Synthetic fertilizer also is unstable and will release additional gasses as it breaks down. Finally, synthetic fertilizer washes away when it rains, contaminating rivers, lakes, and bays with nutrients that can cause algal blooms.

Instead of using synthetic fertilizer, you can improve the health of your garden with home made compost. There are plenty of ways to make earth friendly fertilizer by composting your food scraps, and doing so also cuts down on the amount of gas that the garbage truck burns. Instead of throwing valuable nutrients into the landfill, change your habits and save a few bucks too!

Compost can be made in several different ways. You can use a compost pile, compost trenches, a composter, or a worm bin. Each of these methods produces humus that can be used around the yard. Humus is well balanced soil that contains an ideal mix of nutrients, retains water better than depleted topsoil, and has a rich, healthy color. Humus is also gentle on young plants, because it’s easy for their roots to burrow through.

A compost pile is one of the oldest ways to make compost. Simply stack together branches, twigs, grass clippings, and kitchen scraps in a clearing in your yard. Every couple weeks, take a spade or pitchfork and stir the contents together. Fresh ingredients can be stacked on top of the pile, and finished compost will settle to the bottom.

Compost trenches offer similar results with lower maintenance. When you have a big pile of kitchen scraps, simply dig a deep hole in the ground and bury the organic waste. A 4-6 foot deep hole is about the right depth. Shallow trenches are also useful, but they can attract unwanted animals like possums, skunks, and rodents. Shallow trenches are also a bad idea in certain areas because they stink.

Enclosed composters give a great deal of control over compost and they offer protection from the weather as well as small animals. Compost bins are available in various styles. Tumbling models will aerate the compost for you, while stationary models require turning in the same way that compost piles do. Composting bins can accelerate the decomposition process because they offer insulation and they compress compost ingredients into a small space where the heat that bacteria produce will build up. Finally, when the compost is finished, enclosed composters make it easy to transport humus by rolling or pushing the bin to the spot where it’s needed.

Vermicomposting bins are a unique variation on compost bins. They use small animals such as worms or grubs to break compost down into soil. As the animals eat scraps, they will digest them into soil and use the energy to breed.

No matter which method you choose to produce compost, this natural fertilizer is a great alternative to chemical fertilizer. By composting organic waste, you can make your slice of the world a healthier, more natural place to live!

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Does your yard have terrible soil? If even mesquite trees and tumbleweeds struggle to survive, it’s still possible to save the ground and restore life to the most barren patch of dust. Instead of bringing in bags and bags of topsoil from somewhere else (where they were probably needed!), have you considered composting?

A compost pile or compost bin does 2 good things at once. Composting helps reduce the amount of garbage that you send to a landfill, and it produces nutrient rich soil that can be used to improve the health, water retention, and elasticity of your yard.

Compost is made from organic material and contains many of the elements that plants need in just the right balance. It also contains millions of good bacteria – the very bacteria that spread out into the surrounding earth and restart the cycle of life. Compost holds water very well, which can come in handy if your yard floods easily or has a runoff problem that depletes the soil. Compost is also light and fluffy, which means that it can be used to fill cracks in the ground and it will loosen up compacted soil.

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Does your town collect leaves in the fall and Christmas trees in January? Often, this garbage is taken to a central location and shredded for use in landscaping all around town. Throughout the year, tree trimmings and grass clippings are often added to municipal compost heaps. Many cities offer this mulch and compost made from this mulch for a fee. Depending on how much money your town spends to support the program, these community composting centers can offer high grade compost or questionable compost contaminated with unhealthy scraps.

There’s no need to go to the town compost pile. Instead, turn to your back yard and take control over the compost that you use. Home composters are available that can handle any amount of kitchen scraps or yard waste. There are large and small composters available in just about any shape or color. For the fastest results, there are even tumbling composters and worm composters.

Composting with worms is very rewarding, because worms do all of the work of aerating and turning a compost pile for you. Instead of using a pitchfork to turn partially decayed compost, you can sit back and relax, knowing that your worms are happily at work. Worms work at all hours of the day, and they will quickly reproduce until their numbers match the available food supply. This biological feedback loop ensures that worm bins break down food scraps quickly and without wasting any effort.

Worm composters are self contained, and they don’t require any expensive supplies. In fact, they take “worthless” trash and convert it into high quality fertilizer, which can add up to some big savings. Home composting reduces the volume of trash that you throw away, and some garbage companies charge based on volume. Vermicomposting also saves money because it reduces the cost of landscaping and creates a soil amendment that’s perfect for filling cracks or depressions in the yard.

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Photo courtesy of www.ecoyardfarming.com at Flickr.com.

Healthy soil is full of worm castings. That’s the polite euphemism for worm poop – it sounds better than worm droppings or worm crap. No matter what you call this fertilizer, worm castings are a great natural way to boost the nutrient capacity of soil. Unlike cow patties or other excrement, worm castings are odor free. They’ve been reprocessed by a worms stomach multiple times, which means they’ve reached a stable, neutral state. Worms have done all the hard work of breaking down nutrients into their base components – these are simple building blocks that plants can work with easily.

Worm castings also contain several million helpful bacterium per gram. These helpful bacteria come from inside the stomach of worms. Just like the human body uses symbiotic organisms to digest food, worms also rely on the help of microscopic helpers. These bacteria remain active in vermicastings, and they will help make nutrients available to plants. Many soil bacteria help plants by converting nitrogen compounds into natural fertilizer underground. The enzymes produced by these bacteria also help break up soil debris, such as dead roots, wood chips, and clumps of earth that roots would otherwise have to waste time growing around. Worm castings have 10 to 20 times the microbial activity of topsoil where worms aren’t present.

Also, healthy soil bacteria allow plants to get more nutrients from the soil. When a plant drops a leaf onto the ground, it can take a long time for the nutrients in that leaf to break down into the soil. Soil bacteria accelerate this natural process by increasing the speed of nutrient cycling. Instead of waiting several years for the carbon, potassium, and nitrogen, plants are able to use and re-use the nutrients at a faster rate. This allows plants to grow at a much faster rate than they would otherwise.

As plants grow, they go through cycles of respiration and chemical synthesis. Each step of this process requires energy as the plants produce chemicals that they need, and that energy is not available for other life processes. A tree or flower that has to work hard to extract nutrients from the soil is more vulnerable to insect damage or disease. Active soil bacteria help make plants healthier by closing the loop and assisting in the synthesis of many amino acids, micro nutrients, and chemical precursors. They work like a surgical nurse in the hospital, passing tools along as they’re needed.

Worm castings are also great for soil structure because they retain moisture very well. Worm castings can hold 9 times their weight in moisture. This water capacity is similar to peat moss, mulch, and coconut fiber. That’s important because dry soil can harm plants by sucking the moisture out of their roots. If your soil is too dry, try mixing in some vermi compost. Since worm castings retain moisture, they can help your plants survive even in drought like conditions. When used as a soil amendment, worm castings reduce the danger of cracked foundations, erosion, and subsidence.

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