Kitchen scraps just the thing to help your garden grow

Composting not only eliminates unnecessary garbage collection, but will help to improve your garden soil so plants will be strong and healthy.

If you don’t have a compost bin or heap, just dig a hole in the garden, fill it with kitchen scraps, sprinkle a cup of dolomite over it, lightly water, and cover again with soil.

After a couple of weeks or so earthworms will have the soil workable, giving you a high-quality humus.

Underground composting also works well when establishing new garden areas. Just mark each spot as you dispose of your scraps so you don’t dig there again.

Once the designated area has been entirely composted, you can establish your new garden.

To compost larger quantities you will need to build a compost heap.

Clear a patch of ground in an out-of-the way area of the garden – remove grass and level if necessary. Compost should always be built on level soil and never on concrete.

Scatter a few bricks placed edge down within the cleared area to allow air to circulate into the heap.

Put down your first layer of materials – grass clippings, garden waste, kitchen scraps and so on in the middle of the cleared area. Next, dust over a layer of fowl or cow manure and dolomite or organic blood and bone to a depth of one centimetre and then sprinkle with water.

Repeat this procedure until your pile is built. Turn the pile over with a fork each week to speed up decomposition.

A compost pile about one metre high should break down into humus after two months in summer, but longer in winter.

Add your compost to garden soil in spring and autumn at the rate of one kilogram per square metre.

Alternatively, add a 5cm covering of compost over garden beds. It can also be used for container plants, raising seedlings and mulching around growing plants.

Mature compost can also be applied as a liquid tea. If you give it some thought, it makes a lot of sense to give your plants a liquid boost, particularly during dry weather when plants are starved for both food and water!

Since most nutrients in compost dissolve quickly and readily in water, they can be quickly distributed to needy plant roots.

To make compost tea, add about a 10cm layer of compost to a bucket of water. Allow it to stand for 48 hours, stirring occasionally, then strain through coarsely-woven cloth, such as burlap.

Apply the undiluted tea to the soil over the plant roots, or spray or sprinkle over plant foliage. Repeat every two weeks for flowers and vegetables and monthly for shrubs.

Compost tea is especially good for leafy vegetables such as silver beet, spinach, cabbage and lettuce.

Composting is easy and simple to do, and will improve the health of your garden.

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