The Six Rules of Compost Gardening
The book's introduction lays out the fundamentals of Compost Gardening in six basic guidelines:
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1. Choose labor-saving sites.
Keep your garden and compost as close to one another as possible. Compost in your garden whenever you can, or at least nearby.
Here, trellised beans flourish in comforter compost, while late tomatoes sprawl from straw bale beds. By the end of the season, all will be compost -- without ever leaving the garden. →
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| 2. Work with what you have.
Compost what your yard produces first, and import materials only when they are convenient and of special value to your composting projects. Most households have plenty of leaves, grass clippings, and garden and kitchen waste for composting. If you don't have leaves, you can use paper or cardboard in their place.
←This leaf bin was designed to receive leaves raked or blown in from nearby swaths of lawn.
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3. Help decomposers do their jobs.
Compost happens thanks to the efforts of a vast population of organisms—from earthworms and sowbugs to microscopic fungi and bacteria—that live in, feed on, and otherwise process organic matter into nourishment for plants and soil. Creating optimal conditions for these essential composting critters is the key to compost-making success.
Captive earthworms are less likely to suffer from summer heat when their bin is partially buried in a shady spot.→
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| 4. Reuse and recycle.
Reuse items from your recycling bin in your composting projects. Store finished compost in (well-rinsed) detergent jugs. Turn cardboard boxes into bedding for your vermicompost bin. Place a thick layer of newspapers at the base of a curing compost pile to deter invasive tree roots. Look for novel opportunities to use Compost Gardening methods to shrink the waste stream generated by your household’s day to day activities.
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5. Remember that the magic is in the mix.
Each thing you put into a compost project – from carrot peelings to dead pepper plants – will host a slightly different group of microorganisms, and it is this diversity that makes compost greater than the sum of its parts.
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| 6. Customize composting to suit your garden’s needs.
Treat every plant you grow to some form of compost. Blanket beds, amend planting holes, or mix your best batches into homemade potting soil. Use rough compost as mulch, and sprinkle vermicompost into containers of flowers or houseplants. Match Compost Gardening methods with the situations you encounter most often in your gardens, and always put soil care first, plants second.
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