Garden Composting
Garden composting is a vital ingredient for growing an organic vegetable garden. It is especially good for high yielding, low maintenance gardens like the ecological garden plan developed by professional environmental scientist and gardener Jonathon White.
Jonathon says “To run a rich, high yielding vegetable garden you need to have some sort of soil conditioning plan, and the best thing for your soil is a generous layer of good compost on the surface a few times per year.”
With the proper set-up composting for your garden can be easily incorporated into your daily routine. The benefits gained by composting are well worth the small effort it takes to carry out.
By composting you are accomplishing two things:
Reducing the amount of garbage you throw away.
Producing essential nutrients that will feed your vegetables.
How to get started
The first thing you will need is a compost bin. These are in essence a simple container with ventilation that you will layer your scrap materials in. Ideally you will have two, one for compost in the making and one for completed compost.
If you are handy you can make your own compost bin. Here are some links to garden composting bin plans.
Rotating Barrel Compost Bin Plans
But if you’re not interested in building a compost bin you can purchase one from your local garden shop or online.
The Soil Machine Pro available at CompostBins.com is a good choice for the novice composter. The tumbler action makes it easy to aerate your compost without using a pitchfork. It has a large capacity that holds up to 7 cubic feet of compost and it’s made from 100% recycled plastic.
“We love this compost barrel. It's fairly unobtrusive sitting beside of our patio, and it's very convenient to use. Now we can turn what we were throwing away, into good compost for our gardens”....Fran from York, PA
The second thing you will need is a small container in your kitchen to collect scraps. 
You simply empty it out into your compost bin periodically. Any type of pail will work but to avoid smells, make sure it has a tight fitting lid and you empty it often. There are containers made especially for kitchen scraps. This stainless steel Kitchen Crock holds several days worth of scraps and is dishwasher safe. A unique feature is that it is equipped with a charcoal filter to help prevent unwanted odors.
Tips on Composting
Basically there are two types of compost materials, hot and cold. When making compost never have large clumps of a single type of material. It’s best to alternate the hot and cold layers.
Hot materials include fresh grass clippings, manures, weeds, and kitchen scraps. Never use meat or dairy products in your compost.
Cold materials include leaves, shredded newspaper, sawdust, and dried grass clippings.
To learn more about garden composting and ecological garden plans
visit the Food4Wealth website.
Easy Growing Organic Vegetables
