Organic compost is the ultimate garden fertilizer. It contains all the nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium that your garden needs; moreover these nutrients are released slowly in the soil over a period of time. Organic compost is cost-free and a superior option to commercial fertilizers; it is also easily made from household and garden waste. Using compost improves soil structure, water retention, and aeration; it adds to soil fertility and a healthier plant root development. Overall, organic compost keeps the soil in a perpetual balanced state.

What to compost:

Almost anything can be used in the compost pile all year round. The list is long: tea leaves, coffee grounds, kitchen refuse, grass clippings, garden waste. The compost pile should have an equal measure of carbon-rich materials or browns and nitrogen-rich materials or greens. Brown materials constitute dry leaves, straw and wood chips, whereas greens are kitchen plus household waste and grass clippings. The ideal ratio is 25 parts brown to 1 part green. Too much carbon will cause the pile to decompose slowly, while too much nitrogen will give off an odor. However, composting is more an art than an exact science; it is left to individual choice and learnt only by the trial and error method. The rule of thumb is that everything will decompose quickly if it is shredded or chopped or crushed.

How to make organic compost :

Making compost is child's play. It can either be passive or a highly managed activity. You can either make a simple compost heap and add organic material and let it rot at its own pace and thus indulge in passive composting. This may yield finished compost in a year or more. Or you may use an interventional strategy where you actively participate and manage the pile, turning it often to get organic compost in as little time as 3-4 weeks. What you have to constantly monitor in both passive and active organic composting is the temperature of the compost pile. This is easily done by feeling the pile; if it is hot, the decomposition process is active. If cool, you have to speed up microbial activity by adding more nitrogenous material.

Organic composting is gaining ground as environmental concerns mount. Recycling household and garden refuse to arrive at an environmentally sound option like organic compost, a complete food for the garden, is a creative way of dealing with the problem of waste disposal and landfill overuse in cities and towns worldwide.

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