Improving Your Soil: Building Up Compost

Many gardeners and farmers know that improving your soil is the ticket to having healthy and strong plants and crops that grow quickly. Veterans of this green world also know that one of the keys to building strong and fertile soil lies in finding the best compost for the job. Compost is mostly made of organic waste materials and biomass that can be utilized by growing plants once they become assimilated into the soil. Because compost is so valuable as a fertilizing agent and soil enricher, many farmers and gardeners have begun to create compost piles, by layering many organic biomasses together. One of the best ways to create a compost pile is to alternate between readily decomposable materials. First use nitrogen heavy wastes like crop clippings, kitchen wastes, weeds, and manures. Then mix in carbon heavy materials such as straw and leaves. The microbes in the soil will feed on all of these things to break them down into more stable compounds that are readily accessible by your plants. The microbes in the soil require lots of oxygen and water, so it is important to keep that pile well-hydrated, but not to the point that you are drowning out everything. You should also keep in mind that the microbes will create heat as they metabolize compost, so you should never build the compost pile too high, or the heat will prevent oxygen from entering and kill off the microbes. To stimulate aeration, make sure that you use some rigid material in your compost pile to allow air to flow freely within it.

Jeff Hill is a professional Soil Scientist who has utilized compost piles to enrich soil.