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Composting
Your Yard Waste Makes Sense and Cents
What
is Compost?
Compost
is the organic material left over when microorganisms break
down your yard waste. Compost has great value as a soil amendment
(enrichment) and can be mixed with potting or other soil to
make all your plants grow better.
Why
Should We Bother?
Each
year, Sitka pays to ship thousands
of pounds of lawn clippings to a landfill in the Pacific Northwest. By simply allowing
the material to decompose in Sitka, we will save thousands
of dollars and produce a valuable product you and many other
Sitka's can use. Compost
adds food for many organisms and an enormous diversity of organisms
to your garden when you use it to amend your soil.
Is
It Difficult?
A
yard waste compost site can be as simple as a pile in the corner
of the yard that you turn occasionally with a pitchfork.
An
Overview of How to Compost
Yard
wastes, such as grass clippings, leaves, garden debris, and
small twigs, can be composted in your backyard.
Buying
or making a compost bin, helps keep the process tidy and it
may accelerate the composting process, but a simple pile in
a corner of the backyard is also effective.
As
a general rule, you will want to adhere to at least a 2:`1 ratio
of browns to greens in your pile. This is not a strict rule,
but will help your composting process to move at a faster rate
and without any offensive odors.
You
may also want to turn your compost pile every few weeks. This
will bring air to the bottom of the pile and help move the composting
process along.
What makes good compost?
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YES
Greens
(Nitrogen):
Grass clippings
Garden scraps
Floral clippings
Browns
(Carbon):
Twigs
Deciduous leaves
Straw
Sawdust
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NO
Diseased
plants
Tenacious weeds:
Morning glory
Dandelions
Thorny
plants:
Roses
Blackberries
Waxy
Coated Plants:
Ivy
Rhododendrons
Evergreen needles
Laurel
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Want
to Learn More?
If
you wish to learn more about composting or how to accelerate
the composting process, please see the following resources:
Let
it Rot! The Gardener's Guide to Composting by Stu Campbell (1995)
http://www.solidwaste.org/compost.htm
For
places to buy composting systems/bins:
http://www.gardensalive.com/prog_display.asp?
PROG_NBR=3&sid= 19162&EID=GA187
http://www.gardeners.com/department.asp?
CMP=IL8892&DeptPGID=16596&lstCategory
=16633&SC=CNB80019
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