Photo Credit: Norma Rans

When starting that garden for your new Hernando or Citrus County, Florida home, the best place to start is with composting. Composting can save on waste and provide a nutritious additive to your soil.

Pick a nice sunny spot away from the house to start your compost bin. You can build a pallet fence around the area so that your yard still looks nice and maintained. Make sure that your pile gets plenty of air, this helps in building up the heat to make your pile decompose quicker. Covering your compost bin also helps to break down your pile, by keeping some of the heat that your pile has generated contained. Lids will also aid in keeping the pile free from debris.

Start your bin by adding several inches of green materials, things like vegetable trimmings, weeds and grass clippings. Then add several inches of brown materials, like dry leaves and wood brush. Alternate layers of each types of material until your pile reaches 4-5 cubic feet. The brown material will add carbon to your compost, while the green material will add nitrogen. Nitrogen will help the pile heat up quickly. The hotter your pile gets, the faster it will break down into compost. The ideal temperature is between 110 and 140 degrees. Throw a scoop of garden soil in there too, this will aid in breaking down the compost. You can safely add any plant based materials to your compost bin. Add things like crushed egg shells, tea leaves, coffee grounds, leaves (although too many oak leaves can make the pile acidic) and vegetable peelings. Never add meat or dairy products to the heap, they will not decompose properly.

Now that your pile is ready, you can either dig the compost into the soil around your plants or you can try top dressing them. When you top dress your plants with compost, the compost will act as a mulch and will help keep moisture in the soil. This technique would be especially good during the winter months here in sunny Florida.

Other related articles you may be interested in

Growing Medicine in your yard in Hernando and Citrus County, Florida
How to Build a Pallet Fence
Adding Flowers to your New Hernando or Citrus County, Florida Home

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 9:01 am and is filed under General, Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.