Compost Care
Even though your composting bin or barrel is a natural form of mulch and fertilizer for your organic garden, there will be things that one will need to order for the composting materials to mature to rich, fertile humus. Aside from adding ingredients to the bin or barrel, you will need regular maintenance to ensure its success.
Several things, such as heat, foul odors, and moisture levels, are a few things you will always need to look for. If you discover some of these things going on, you will need to “turn†the ingredients in your composting bin or container so that the decomposing process will work correctly. Most organic gardeners recommend turning the materials two to three times per week. It also helps add more chopped leaves, twigs, and grass clippings to the bin to help cut down on the smells that will come from the bin.
Also, another essential thing that you should mention is that you do not want to fill your bin or barrel. The top or final layer of ingredients added to the compost bin or barrel should be brown ingredients or leaves, straw or hay, small twigs, and grass clippings.
Leave room to turn the ingredients or materials when necessary
If you are new to composting, you will learn some tricks by trial and error. For example, you must add moisture to the compost material to be moist enough to decompose.
One can add too much water; if you do this by accident, try turning the materials to get all the moisture soaked up. You can also add more brown ingredients, such as grass clippings, chopped leaves, etc., to the compost bin if there is still moisture that has not soaked into the other materials. Keeping the temperature at the optimum of 105 and 140 degrees is another trick to success with this process. When you notice that the heat begins to cool down, you can add some helpers, such as earthworms.
These are lovely little diggers that will help the materials to mature.
Finally, before using your finished humus, it is recommended that you sift it through a screen to remove any of the larger pieces that may not be fully decomposed.
