Make Yard Waste Work for You

Maintaining a beautiful yard comes with its own challenges. After all the cutting, mowing and pruning you are left with a vast amount of waste that you must now gather, bag and put out to be picked up and taken to the landfill. There's really no need to go through all that bagging and preparing for the landfill. Those grass clippings and shrub prunings can actually be used to help your lawn and plants live a long healthy life. It's time to put your yard waste to work for you, and save you some money. We will use this post to show you just how you can get this done. Composting Every yard goes into cleaning/maintenance mode at one point or another. For the most part all the waste heads to the same location - the landfill. Sometimes one wonders what will happen when the landfill runs out of space. What will we do then? The thought of creating another landfill to start the process all over again actually magnifies the situation a bit more. We can't go on creating landfills to accommodate our waste so we must find a solution to help preserve our land space. The answer lies in the backyard activity of composting. This is a very effective and harmless way to reduce the volume of organic waste that is generated from your yard cleaning activities, and actually return it to the soil as precious nutrients for your plants. The landfill will actually thank you for this, and so will your pocket, your lawn and your plants. From Waste to plant Food to Beauty Yard waste that has gone through the process of composting becomes one of the best foods you could ever feed to your plants. As solid waste it seems fit for the dump, but as humus it actually contributes to the health and beauty of your yard space. Your kitchen waste will also make a great addition to your compost. Start off by identifying a nice sunny to semi-sunny area in your backyard where you will be making your compost pile. It should not be a waterway. Gather the waste materials from your yard as well as those from your kitchen. There should be nothing in the lot that will rot and create stench or any other form of nuisance. That includes anything from the meat, fish, poultry or dairy families. Layer your materials, starting with your branches and twigs as they will provide drainage and aeration for your compost. Alternate your layers using wet then dry layers and add manure which will activate your pile. Once you are through compiling your compost it's time to cover it so it can retain heat and moisture which will play a vital role in the entire decomposition process. The Science of Your Compost Pile Earthworms and other microorganisms will help in the decomposition process. The presence of moisture, heat, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon will all work together to break down your pile and produce rich organic fertilizer for your plants. Your plant material and egg shells plus others are rich in carbon while your manure, green leaves, green vegetables and food scraps are rich in protein/nitrogen. This will yield a healthy balance between both elements to produce healthy compost. Nitrogen-based items will stink so cover them with carbon based ones to take care of that issue. You can keep this going and produce your own rich human, plant and animal friendly fertilizer with nothing but the waste from your yard and the house.