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A beginner's view on gardening and composting
Many of us have been there before -- wanting to start a garden, but having no clue where to begin. I am no stranger to this concept. Last summer, my roommate and I decided we wanted to start a garden. Last year's produce was pretty exceptional for only being our first go at it.
We live in the country and, as we soon discovered, so do a lot of critters. Critters that LOVE to chomp down on leafy vegetables and terrorize our garden. We had to come up with a quick fix before our "rabbit food" became ... well, rabbit food.
Our answer came in the form of a craze among those who frequent Pinterest -- pallets. Well, pallets AND chicken wire. Setting up sturdy posts -- using pieces of the pallets -- and connecting the top of each post with another pallet piece, a skeleton of a fence was made. This was mainly done out of necessity -- we only had a small amount of pallets and it wouldn't be feasible to make a full fence with how big the area was for the garden.
The chicken wire was then used to wrap around the posts, thus finishing our makeshift fence. It's not the prettiest thing to look at, but it has definitely helped keep the countryside vermin at bay.
Last year, we had a great harvest of squash and zucchini along with a few tomatoes here and there. This year, our garden has definitely taken on a life of its own. It's to the point where we aren't quite sure what we are growing, but we know it IS growing. We are fairly positive our squash has returned, along with our zucchini, and our compost bin is growing something that is sure to be a surprise. I also transplanted several tomato plants from pots into our garden last month and they are taking off with the help of our nutrient-rich compost we've maintained over the past year.
One thing we learned from last year's harvest is the importance of mulch. Keeping weeds out of your garden, conserving moisture, and making sure the soil stays fertile and healthy can be a challenge. Mulch helps accomplish all of this. It's truly a Godsend. The weeds have been very minimal since we laid down the mulch and the plants seem to be growing at breakneck speed. Mulch comes in many varieties including: grass clippings, leaves, hay, straw, shredded bark, whole bark nuggets, woodchips, rubber mulch, plastic mulch, and rock and gravel. We use woodchips and I can speak to how wonderful they are.
Another key component to good gardening is a good compost, especially when you are attempting to have a successful organic garden. An organic garden doesn't utilize synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, but observes nature's processes. To replicate the natural order of this process, understanding soil composition is very important. This is where nutrient-rich compost plays its part.
When making a compost pile, you'll need two different kinds of materials -- green materials and brown materials. Green materials are comprised of nitrogen rich items suchs as: melon rinds, carrot peelings, apple cores, banana peels, tea bags, etc.
If you're cutting up vegetables for a meal and have any remnants of them left over (rinds, peels, skins), this makes great green material for your compost. Grass clippings are great too, but since fresh clippings tend to clump up, it is best if you let them lay out in the sun to dry before adding them to the pile. Coffee grounds are also high in nitrogen. Luckily, we are coffee drinkers at our house so our compost benefits greatly from this. These are just a few examples of a vast array of green materials you could potentially use.
Brown materials are comprised of carbon rich items such as: dried leaves, straw, wood chips, old newspaper (you can recycle this very paper for your compost!), tissue, eggshells, wood ashes, etc. It is important to note that if you do use paper (newspaper, tissue, paper towels), it should be shredded first. Cardboard may be used as well, but should be broken into smaller pieces first.
The key to composting is layering. You want to have quite a bit more brown material than you do green material. A good rule of thumb is to use 1/3 green materials to 2/3 brown materials. Start off with a few inches of either twigs or straw -- this will help drain off excess water and aerate your compost. Then you begin to layer your brown and green materials, alternating between the two.
Make sure you keep your compost moist, but don't over saturate it either. You can even let rain do the work if you know you're going to have a few rainy days. If your compost bin is outside and it has been raining non-stop, you will want to cover it to prevent it from being overly watered. Lastly, you will need to turn your compost pile every few weeks with a shovel. This helps oxygen get into the compost and is necessary for the process. After a few months, you can begin using the compost soil in your garden.
My favorite part of composting is the effect it has on our environment. By composting, you cut back on landfill waste and repurpose a lot of things you would have simply thrown away. At my house, we recycle. Our amount of garbage each week is minimal due to recycling plastic, paper, cardboard, aluminium, and kitchen waste. Composting will help you be more green!
There are many necessary techniques and aspects to gardening, but I think the most important one is just to have fun. Gardening is a great stress reliever and motivator all in one. For me, gardening helps motivate me to eat healthier and it's quite nice to be able to go out into my backyard and pick some fresh vegetables or fruit for a meal. And, with the price of produce these days, you really can't beat being self-sufficient through gardening.
Whether it's a small windowsill herb garden or an enormous vegetable and fruit garden in your yard, take advantage of your natural resources and get growing!
All Of The Above is a column by Lifestyles Editor Sarah Haney. A wide range of topics are covered in the column and primarily deal with lifestyles or society subject matters.